Remove Dozen Search from Chrome/Firefox

Suddenly Dozen Search took over your homepage and you cannot remove it.

Dozen Search is a malicious tool, which falls under the browser hijacker family. The nasty hijacker slithers its way into your system by fooling you into approving its installation and then proceeds to mess everything up. The first indication of its presence will be the dozensearch.com site popping up. If you suddenly come across the page, you’re in trouble. It’s a clear sign there’s an infection, residing somewhere on your computer, and you should brace yourself for issues. And, plenty of them. Hijackers are notoriously invasive and harmful. After they settle on your PC, they begin to wreak havoc and throw problems your way all day, every day. Their meddling starts off with the endless redirects to dozensearch.com. You’ll find yourself facing the pesky page each time you browse the web. And, not just that. You’ll also see the site has taken over your preferred homepage and search engine and without your knowledge or permission. Unfortunately, that won’t be the only intrusion or unauthorized reshuffle, which the malicious tool will force upon you. Hijackers, like the one using dozensearch.com as a shield to hide behind, are free to install as many malicious applications as they so choose. Imagine the repercussions of getting your system flooded with malware. They’ll hardly be pleasant. But when it comes to the Dozen Search application, these unpleasantries won’t be your biggest issue. Apart from everything else, the nasty tool will put you through, it will also jeopardize your privacy. Oh, yes. The hijacker places your private information at a grave risk. The question is, are you going to let it? And, here’s a hint: don’t. Do yourself a favor, and find and delete the hijacker before it has a chance to mess everything up. Your future self will certainly thank you for it.

How did I get infected with?

Remember how we stated that Dozen Search fooled you into permitting its install? Well, it may seem implausible, but it’s true nonetheless. You gave the green light to the malicious tool and held the door open for it as it paraded right by you without you even realizing t at the time. But how? How did it manage to dupe you and sneak in undetected? Well, it’ rather straightforward. It turned to slyness and subtlety. You need to understand that hijackers are immensely skilled when it comes to deception and trickery. They’re quite masterful when it comes to finding a way into your computer, and the Dozen Search tool is no exception. Its usual antics includes the use of the old but gold means of infiltration. In other words, the application hides behind corrupted links or sites, hitches a ride with spam email attachments or freeware, or pretends to be a bogus update. For example, you may believe you’re updating your Adobe Flash Player or Java, but you’d be wrong. In reality, you’ll be installing a dangerous infection. To avoid seeing dozensearch.com incessantly, and dealing with the consequences of having a hijacker on your PC, be more vigilant! Don’t throw caution to the wind and don’t rush. Don’t underestimate the importance of doing your due diligence, and always reading the terms and conditions. Remember: Infections prey on carelessness. So, don’t grant it.

Why is this dangerous?

After Dozen Search slithers into your system, it begins to force the dozensearch.com page on you incessantly. The website replaces your default homepage and search engine and appears on your screen each time you try to surf the web. But the obnoxious redirects won’t be the only intrusion, which you’ll be forced to endure. They’ll be accompanied by a never-ending stream of pop-up advertisements. You might imagine how quickly your browsing experience will turn into an utter nightmare. Every time you try to go online, you’ll be bombarded with pop-up ads, redirects, and various sponsored links. And, as was already mentioned, neither of the invasive ads nor the vexatious redirects or ever-present sponsored links are to be trusted. To click on them is to set yourself up for a bad time. So, don’t. Save yourself the trouble, and ignore everything the Dozen Search program displays. It won’t be long before these disruptions of your browsing lead to more grievances. For example, they’ll slow down your computer’s performance to a crawl, and cause frequent system crashes. But as annoying as these issues are, they’ll seem like a walk in the park compared to the major problems, which the hijacker will inevitably place upon you. And, the worst one of them was already mentioned – the security risk. Dozen Search is programmed to spy on you from the second it enters your system. The application keeps track of your online activities and catalogs your every move until it determines it has gathered enough data. When that moment arrives, it proceeds to send the collected information to the third parties that support it. That means unknown individuals will have access to your personal and financial details. Do you think that will end well for you? Hardly. Don’t gamble with your privacy! Protect it from falling into the hands of strangers! Do what’s best for you and your system, and as soon as dozensearch.com pops up, accept there is a hijacker, lurking somewhere on your PC. Then, find its hiding lace, and delete it promptly. It’s the best course of action you can take.

How to Remove Dozen Search virus

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to remove the Dozen Search 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.

The Dozen Search adware is specifically designed to make money. It generates web traffic, collects sales leads for other dubious sites, and will display advertisements and sponsored links within your web browser.

STEP 1: Kill Dozen Search from running in your memory

STEP 2: Clean Dozen Search from Chrome Firefox or Internet Explorer

STEP 3: Permanently Remove Dozen Search leftovers from the System

STEP 1 : Kill Dozen Search from running in your memory

• Open your task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys simultaneously
• Carefully review all running processes and stop any suspicious one.
• Before you kill the process, type the name on a text document for later reference and to be able to delete it.

WARNING! Stopping the wrong file or deleting the wrong registry key may damage your system irreversibly.
If you are feeling not technical enough you may use Spyhunter professional Doezen Search Removal Tool. However, only the Scanner is free, in order to remove the Virus automatically  you need to purchase full version.
>>Download SpyHunter – a professional Dozen Search scanner and remover.

• Locate any suspicious processes associated with the infection.
• Right click on the process
• Open File Location
• End Process
• Delete the directories with the suspicious files.
• Have in mind that the process can be hiding and very difficult to detect

STEP 2: 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

STEP 3: Locate Dozen Search Virus startup location

• 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:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun “%AppData%\[random].exe”

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run “%AppData%\[random].exe”

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\[random] “%AppData%\\[random].exe”

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\[random] “%AppData%\\[random].exe”

• and delete the display Name: [RANDOM]

• Then open your explorer and navigate to:

Navigate to your %appdata% folder and delete the executable.

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:

If you are uncertain about the IPs below “Localhost” contact us in out google+ profile and we will try to help you.

You can alternatively use your msconfig windows program to double check the execution point of the virus. Please, have in mind that the names in your machine might be different as they might be generated randomly, that’s why you should run any professional scanner to identify malicious files.

STEP 2 : Remove Dozen Search homepage from Chrome, Firefox and IE

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Dozen Search 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

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 doezensearch.com argument and then apply the changes.
• Repeat that with the shortcuts of your other browsers.

How to make sure the Dozen Search Virus does not ever come again?

To be certain that manual removal is successful, we recommend to use a free scanner of any professional antimalware program to identify possible registry leftovers or temporary files.