Remove Initial Page 123 Virus

Can’t Remove Initial Page 123 Virus? This page includes detailed Initial Page 123 Removal instructions!

The Initial Page 123 Virus (Initialpage123.com) is obnoxious. It’s an irritating browser hijacker that completely takes over your online experience. For those of you unfamiliar with hijackers, they are a particularly nasty type of virus. The sooner you manage to uninstall this pest, the better. Initial Page 123 pretty much follows the classic hijacker pattern. It gets activated immediately after successful installation. How can you tell your computer has fallen victim to this parasite? For one thing, your default search engine and homepage get altered. They are now replaced with the hijacker’s malicious domain. Of course, your permission was in no way involved. Crooks don’t develop infections to enhance your online activities. However, wasn’t that the exact thing Initial Page 123 originally promised? This program has a rather legitimate-looking website. As you could imagine, all the information you will read there is highly questionable. Initial Page 123 promises to “provide the ultimate online search experience”. What hackers save you is the tiny detail Initial Page 123 is actually a virus. It was created to serve crooks’ purposes. By modifying your browser settings, the hijacker brings to you sponsored, tailored web links. The parasite forces itself on you every single time you attempt to surf the Web. In addition, it adds a brand new extension to your browsers. You may come across some additional toolbars as well. You see, Initial Page 123 causes a great mess on your device. It takes control over your browsers and makes it impossible for you to find what you search for. Apart from the that, the virus could start generating pop-ups as well. We’re talking sponsored, potentially fake and corrupted pop-up ads. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the commercials come in all shapes imaginable. They are extremely stubborn and invasive. Due to the parasite’s presence on board, your browsers may also start crashing and freezing. You entire PC speed is significantly slowed down and your Internet connection may become unstable too. As a result, consider your online experience destroyed. And that’s not all. The hijacker is even capable of stealing browsing-related information. That includes your IP addresses, browsing history, search queries, usernames and passwords, email addresses, etc. Can you see how dangerous that trick is? This program sends your sensitive data straight into the hands of greedy cyber criminals. It goes without saying they won’t think twice before they sell your details for marketing purposes.

How did I get infected with?

The hijacker does have an official website. There is no download button on this page, though. That means the infection has used some stealthy and secretive way to get installed. The most popular technique at the moment is called freeware bundling. It is just as effective as it sounds. To protect your machine from intruders, you have to pay attention to what you install. Stay away from unverified freeware and shareware bundles. Go for legitimate websites only and never rush the installation. It is strongly recommended that you opt for the Custom or Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. Take your time during the process. That might be the only way to spot and, eventually, deselect a malicious infection. Bear in mind how creative hackers could be when it comes to spreading malware online. Avoid third-party pop-ups and spam emails too. Those are relatively old and unoriginal infiltration methods but they are still efficient. Hence, you must always watch out for potentially viruses when surfing the Web. Make sure you prevent malware infiltration and outwit hackers.

Why is this dangerous?

The Initial Page 123 Virus will not bring to you accurate search results. As mentioned already, it only displays some unreliable, unsafe web links. That is part of hackers’ pesky attempts to gain profit online. Not only does clicking the parasite’s links expose you to malware. It also helps cyber crooks make money. The question is, why support their malicious, illegitimate business? Instead of keeping the hijacker on your machine, take action now. This nuisance makes various unauthorized changes in your browser settings. It constantly redirects you. It might also flood your PC screen with its sponsored and deceptive pop-up ads. To prevent further damage, tackle the parasite ASAP. There’s nothing to lose by removing Initial Page 123. On the other hand, there’s quite a lot to gain. Please follow our detailed manual removal guide. You will find it down below.

How to Remove Initial Page 123 virus

The Initial Page 123 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 Initial Page 123 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 Initial Page 123 infection, you need to purchase its full version.

STEP 1: Track down Initial Page 123 in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Initial Page 123 startup location

STEP 3: Delete Initial Page 123 traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Initial Page 123 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 Initial Page 123 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 Initial Page 123 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 Initial Page 123 traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Initial Page 123 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 Initial Page 123

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 Initial Page 123, 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 Initial Page 123 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 Initial Page 123 Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your system 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.