How to Remove Dregol Hijacker

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

The Dregol hijacker is an intrusive ad-generating parasite. It follows instructions to turn you into an easy target. This intruder opens your browser to surveillance and targeted ads. It monitors your browsing-related data and uses the collected information against you. In theory, if you enter “sneakers” into a search engine, you will get presented with ads for sports shoes. Don’t get excited. The reality is much different! You only get flooded with countless unreliable adverts. The Dregol hijacker injects ads on every website you open. It redirects your web traffic to sponsored pages. It even dares to pause your online videos for long commercial breaks. It does a lot to promote, but it does nothing to protect you. The hijacker has no security mechanism. It does not verify the ads. Neither does it check the advertisers behind them. Thus, it’s no surprise that the crooks take advantage of this utility. They use the hijacker and its resources to prepare irresistible online offers and to push them on you. Yet, when you click, bad things happen. Do not risk it! The Dregol hijacker is not worth it. This pest cannot benefit your web browsing. Delete it the first chance you get. The sooner you clean your computer, the better!

How did I get infected with?

The Dregol hijacker is not an ingenious virus. It cannot hack your computer. To enter your OS, it relies on your cooperation. It needs your approval. Without your “yes” it cannot proceed. This means only one thing – you installed the hijacker. You did it! Not intentionally, of course. The parasite is a master trickster! It knows how to lure you into unwanted actions. The Dregol hijacker hides in software bundles, fake updates, and torrents. The good old spam emails are also a possible alternative. The thing is, all these methods rely on your negligence. Be vigilant instead! Do not make the crooks’ job easier. Download your software from reputable sources only. When you start an installation process, pay attention to the fine print. If available, always select the Advanced/Custom installation option. Many software developers attach extra apps to the payload files of their software. These extras, however, are not to be trusted. More often than not, they are intrusive parasites like the Dregol hijacker. Therefore, deselect them. You don’t need them anyway. If you truly wanted such apps, you would have downloaded them by yourself. This is your computer. You decide what to be installed on it! Don’t let others make this decision for you!

Why is this dangerous?

The Dregol hijacker is a pain in the neck that is hard to be tolerated. And it shouldn’t. The more time you grant it on board, the worse your situation becomes. The parasite tends to get more aggressive with time. If you don’t take measures, it’s bound to get out of control. You don’t want this scenario to unfold. The hijacker drowns its victims in advertisements. Your poor web browser will not be able to keep up with the aggressive advertising campaigns. It will become slow and unstable. Your Internet connection, too, will seem slower than ever. You will hate the experience. But don’t worry about that. If you must worry, worry about the things that happen behind your back. The hijacker threatens to steal sensitive information about you. This intruder spies on you, after all. Oh yes. It monitors your browsing-related data and waits for you to make a mistake. The parasite is very likely to redirect you to phishing websites that lure their visitors into revealing financial and personal information. The Dregol hijacker has no place on your OS. Act against it! Remove it for good!

How to Remove Dregol virus

The Dregol 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 Dregol 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 Dregol related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Dregol startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

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

• Open Google Chrome

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

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 Dregol, 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 Dregol 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 Dregol 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.