How to Remove Hihikal Virus

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

You’ve got your homepage replaced by the Hihikal.ru website, is that correct? Don’t worry. You are not the only one. We have good and bad news for you. The bad news is, your computer is infected. The good news is, it’s just a browser hijacker. Browser hijackers are relatively easy to be removed. Yet, those parasites should not be ignored. Given enough time, the Hihikal hijacker will raise hell on your PC. You will get redirected constantly. The worst part is, you will be led to shady websites. Pop-up windows will appear at the most unexpected times. Your computer will also become slow and unresponsive. You will see coupons and discounts on every website you open. Don’t forget that you are dealing with an infection. Nothing good comes from these parasites. Only troubles. The ads you see may appear useful, yet, you can’t know what lies behind them. Hackers often use browser hijackers to spread malicious content. If you click on a corrupted ad, you may download a virus directly on your device. Luckily, if you act promptly, you can prevent such issues. Follow our guide and remove the Hihikal hijacker manually. Of course, you can use a trustworthy anti-virus program for an automated solution. The sooner you get rid of this pest, the better!

How did I get infected with?

The Hihikal hijacker did not appear as if by magic. You weren’t hacked either. The crooks have found a much easier way to distribute their malicious tools. All they need to do is to attach the hijacker as an extra to some freeware. Everything else is up to you. When you start the installation of such a bundle, you will be asked which installation method you prefer: the standard wizard or the custom option. If you select the standard method, all extras will be installed without any further ado. When installing a program, always opt for an advanced setup. This method may be presented as a suitable option for IT experts only. Yet, there is nothing complicated in this process. Crooks don’t want you to use it because under the custom setup you will be given a choice. The choice to deselect all additional apps that arrived in the bundle. Do it. Abort their installation. You don’t need so many tools. Besides, if you consider the situation, you will realize that you would have downloaded them by yourself if you truly needed such tools. Other malware distribution techniques are torrents, fake software updates, and corrupted links. All these methods rely on your carelessness. Be vigilant instead. A Little caution can spare you tons of troubles in the future.

Why is this dangerous?

You can’t just tune Hihikal out. It’s too loud to be ignored. It will open numerous pop-up windows. You will get yourself drowned in a sea of ads. Every website you visit will be heavy on commercials. Ad-blocking apps are useless against the hijacker. Your web browser will struggle to display any content correctly. Those issues are minor compared to what is happening behind you back. The Hihikal hijacker is an actual program. It creates a virtual layer that blocks content from unwanted sources and replaces it with own. This means that you will be able to see only what the malicious utility allows you to see. It is turning you into an easy target. The hijacker is also corrupting the search results you are seeing. No matter the search engine, Hihikal will inject entries among the search results. Those, usually, are advertisements. Yet, they are not marked as such. Dodgy websites pay hefty sums for their links to be shown on the top of the results.

How to Remove Hihikal virus

The Hihikal 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 Hihikal 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.

WARNING! Stopping the wrong file or deleting the wrong registry key may damage your system irreversibly.
If you are feeling not technical enough just use Spyhunter Professional Malware Removal Tool to deal with the problem!
>>Download SpyHunter – a Professional Remover.

Please, keep in mind that SpyHunter’s scanner tool is free. To remove the Hihikal infection, you need to purchase its full version.

STEP 1: Track down Hihikal related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Hihikal startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

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

• Open Google Chrome

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

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 Hihikal, 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 Hihikal 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 Hihikal 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.