Play N Start New Tab Hijacker Removal

Can’t Remove Play N Start hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Play N Start Removal instructions!

You’ve experienced a sudden change in your browser? Are you constantly being bombarded with annoying ad content that keeps appearing no matter how many times you click on the ‘close’ button? We hate to be bringer of bad news, but it seems that your browser has been hijacked. Play N Start New Tab is caused by malware from the browser hijacker category. If you’ve fallen victim to it, you may notice that your homepage, as well as search engine and new tab pages have been replaced with custom ones. This, of course, happens without the knowledge or consent of the user. Hijackers can easily obtain your browsing habits and history, in order to generate advertisements that you are most likely to click on. This is the perfect way for hackers to profit by using the PPC (Pay-Per-Click) method.

How did I get infected with?

The most common way of getting your computer infected with this browser hijacker is by free software bundles, spam emails and attachments and advertisements that lead to infected sites. What users can do, in order to avoid future malware infection, is to not click on any suspicious ads or pop-ups, especially if they have curious titles like ‘Follow this simple trick to lose weight fast’ or are offering you exclusive deals that are too good to be true. Spam emails are not to be opened as well. If you receive letters from unknown senders – do not click on them! Email distribution is one of the most common way for viruses to penetrate your computer system. The same thing applies for email attachments and executable files.

Why is this dangerous?

While the pop-ups and ads generated by the Play N Start New Tab redirect are not dangerous by themselves, they can still do harm if the user clicks on them. More often than not, they reroute the unsuspecting victims to sketchy websites that can infect their computer with other malicious software, which could potentially result in personal data theft. Sure, browser hijackers are not considered to be as dangerous as other viruses, but mistakes happen. You could be one click away from a future ransomware or Trojan Horse infection! That’s why if your browser has been hijacked, you should proceed with the removal of this malware as soon as possible, before something worse happens and you get your private information compromised. This article can help you with this task! Just follow our instructions below and remove this malware from your computer once and for all.

How to Remove Play N Start virus

The Play N Start infection is specifically designed to make money to its creators one way or another. The specialists from various antivirus companies like Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Norton, Avast, ESET, etc. advise that there is no harmless virus.

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to remove the Play N Start infection. Please, follow the procedures in the exact order. Please, consider to print this guide or have another computer at your disposal. You will NOT need any USB sticks or CDs.

STEP 1: Track down Play N Start related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Play N Start startup location

STEP 3: Delete Play N Start traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Play N Start related processes in the computer memory

• Open your Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys simultaneously
• Carefully review all processes and stop the suspicious ones.

• Write down the file location for later reference.

Step 2: Locate Play N Start startup location

Reveal Hidden Files

• Open any folder
• Click on “Organize” button
  
• Choose “Folder and Search Options”
• Select the “View” tab
• Select “Show hidden files and folders” option
• Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”
• Click “Apply” and “OK” button

Clean Play N Start virus from the windows registry

• Once the operating system loads press simultaneously the Windows Logo Button and the R key.

• A dialog box should open. Type “Regedit”

• WARNING! be very careful when editing the Microsoft Windows Registry as this may render the system broken.

Depending on your OS (x86 or x64) navigate to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

• and delete the display Name: [RANDOM]

• Then open your explorer and navigate to: %appdata% folder and delete the malicious executable.

Clean your HOSTS file to avoid unwanted browser redirection

Navigate to %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/host

If you are hacked, there will be foreign IPs addresses connected to you at the bottom. Take a look below:

STEP 3 : Clean Play N Start traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Play N Start by clicking on the little recycle bin
• Reset Google Chrome by Deleting the current user to make sure nothing is left behind

• Open Mozilla Firefox

• Press simultaneously Ctrl+Shift+A
• Disable the unwanted Extension
• Go to Help
• Then Troubleshoot information
• Click on Reset Firefox

• Open Internet Explorer

• On the Upper Right Corner Click on the Gear Icon
• Click on Internet options
• go to Toolbars and Extensions and disable the unknown extensions
• Select the Advanced tab and click on Reset

• Restart Internet Explorer

Step 4: Undo the damage done by Play N Start

This particular Virus may alter your DNS settings.

Attention! this can break your internet connection. Before you change your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS for Play N Start, be sure to write down the current server addresses on a piece of paper.

To fix the damage done by the virus you need to do the following.

• Click the Windows Start button to open the Start Menu, type control panel in the search box and select Control Panel in the results displayed above.
• go to Network and Internet
• then Network and Sharing Center
• then Change Adapter Settings
• Right-click on your active internet connection and click properties. Under the Networking tab, find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Left click on it and then click on properties. Both options should be automatic! By default it should be set to “Obtain an IP address automatically” and the second one to “Obtain DNS server address automatically!” If they are not just change them, however if you are part of a domain network you should contact your Domain Administrator to set these settings, otherwise the internet connection will break!!!

You must clean all your browser shortcuts as well. To do that you need to

• Right click on the shortcut of your favorite browser and then select properties.

• in the target field remove Play N Start argument and then apply the changes.
• Repeat that with the shortcuts of your other browsers.
• Check your scheduled tasks to make sure the virus will not download itself again.

How to Permanently Remove Play N Start Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your whole system or network and let all doors wide open for many other infections. To make sure manual removal is successful, we recommend to use a free scanner of any professional antimalware program to identify possible registry leftovers or temporary files.