Remove Cassiopesa Search Redirect

Can’t Remove Cassiopesa hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Cassiopesa Removal instructions!

If your home page has been replaced by the Cassiopesa Search, the news is bad. Your browser is infected. You have the Cassiopesa hijacker on board. This parasite is designed to generate ad revenue for its owners. To do so, it injects advertisements on every website you visit. But don’t expect an ad or two. No, the hijacker will drown you in a sea of commercials. Ad-banners and in-text ads will blink in all imaginable colors. Pop-up and pop-unders will appear at the most unexpected times. You will notice that your browser struggles to display any website correctly. Given enough time, the Cassiopesa hijacker will ruin your browsing experience. You will start to avoid your computer. No, we are not joking. The hijacker is extremely intrusive. It will start to redirect your browser to sponsored websites. Every time you click on a link, additional tabs will open in your browser. Even your online videos will get paused for ad breaks. You won’t be able to get any work done on time. Luckily, you don’t need to put up with this situation. The Cassiopesa hijacker is completely removable. You can do it either manually or automatically. You have options. The sooner you take action, the better.

How did I get infected with?

The Cassiopesa hijacker did not materialize by itself. You are not dealing with a deadly virus. The  hijacker is a simple PC application. As any other app, it needs your permission to be installed. Do you remember allowing this parasite on board? Of course, you don’t. Nevertheless, it was you the one who approved the installation of the hijacker. Don’t be harsh on yourself, though. You were cleverly deceived. The hijacker never asked you openly. This pest has used trickery to gain your permission. It travels hidden in software bundles, torrents, and spam emails. Other dangerous parasites also use these same techniques to reach their victims. Learn from your mistakes. From now on, download your software from reliable sources only. When you start the installation process of any program, opt for the Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. Only under the Advanced installation will you be able to see whether there are additional apps about to be installed. If such is the case, examine the extras carefully. These third-party apps are often malicious. Take your time to read the Terms and Conditions/EULA. You can also do some online research. If spot breaches, abort the installation immediately. The Internet is roamed by numerous dangerous viruses. They wait for you to make a mistake. Don’t let your guard down. Be vigilant and keep your anti-virus program up to date.

Why is this dangerous?

The Cassiopesa hijacker is a menace that must be removed upon detection. This malicious program enters your computer uninvited and wreaks havoc. It bombards you with advertisements and slows your computer down. The app can ruin your browsing experience in seconds. Yet, it can also rob you of your privacy. Every ad displayed by the hijacker was chosen for you. This is possible, of course. How? Simple enough. The hijacker monitors your browser related data and uses the collected information to select advertisements that will appeal to you. Thus, if you enter “sneakers” into some search engine, the hijacker will start to display adverts for sports shoes. Sounds good, right? The problem is, personally identifiable information and other sensitive data may also get recorded. And, unfortunately, this information won’t be used for marketing purposes only. The hijacker will sell every bit of information to third parties. Can you imagine what may happen if a hacker buys your usernames, passwords, credit card details, IP and email addresses? The consequences will be devastating. You may lose money or become a victim of identity theft. With the Cassiopesa hijacker on board, you cannot use your computer normally. It is quite hazardous to log into banking services and social media. Avoid such actions while your computer remains infected. Luckily, you don’t need to put up with this situation. Track the Cassiopesa hijacker down and delete it on the spot!

How to Remove Cassiopesa virus

The Cassiopesa 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 Cassiopesa 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 Cassiopesa related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Cassiopesa startup location

STEP 3: Delete Cassiopesa traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Cassiopesa 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 Cassiopesa 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 Cassiopesa 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 Cassiopesa traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Cassiopesa 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 Cassiopesa

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 Cassiopesa, 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 Cassiopesa 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 Cassiopesa 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.