Remove Kotcatk.com/ksz Virus

Can’t Remove Kotcatk.com/ksz hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Kotcatk.com/ksz Removal instructions!

Do you feel like drowning in a sea of online advertisements? Every time you as much as touch your browser, the Kotcatk.com/ksz URL appears and then you get redirected to some shady website? You must be sick and tired of seeing the Kotcatk.com/ksz address everywhere. You are not the only one. And yes, you have a reason to worry. The numerous advertisements and browser redirections are symptoms of infection. Your computer harbors a nasty browser hijacker. The parasite has entered your computer unnoticed and is now ruining your browsing experience. It uses a pay-per-click scheme to generate revenue. Basically, when you click on an ad provided by the hijacker, its owners get paid. They get even more money for every sponsored website you get redirected to. It seems like a legit advertising business, but it is not. This parasite has no intention of protecting you. It has no verifying mechanism, no parenting control, no anti-virus system. Nothing! It uses your browser as an advertising device and leaves you to suffer the consequences. If you think that your situation is bad now, just wait. The hijacker will worsen it rapidly. As time passes, the nasty parasite gets more and more aggressive. You will notice that websites that used to be ad-free are heavy on adverts. Your browser will get redirected more often. Even your online videos will get paused for commercial breaks. On top of that, your Internet Connection speed would seem slower than usual. This intensive marketing, however, has a price. You pay with your privacy. The Kotcatk.com/ksz hijacker is actually spying on you. It monitors your browsing related data and sells the collected information to third-parties. Keeping this intruder on board is not worth the risk. Spare yourself many future headaches. Remove the Kotcatk.com/ksz hijacker ASAP!

How did I get infected with?

The Kotcatk.com/ksz hijacker is usually distributed through software bundles, corrupted links, spam email attachments, and torrents. To get on your system, however, the hijacker ought to ask for your (the user’s) permission. This parasite is not a full-fledged virus, but a malicious application. If you don’t approve its installation, it cannot enter your PC. And so, the parasite asks for your permission in the sneakiest way possible. Your caution, however, can prevent these techniques from succeeding. All you should do is to be always vigilant. Avoid using torrents. Download your software from reputable sources only. When you start an installation process, opt for the Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. You will be surprised to find how often software developers attach extra programs to the payload files of their apps. If you rush through the installation process of such a bundle, you will end up with more apps than you anticipated. Under the Advanced installation, you will be given the opportunity to deselect all unwanted programs. Deselect all questionable apps. Make sure you install trustworthy programs. Read the Terms and Conditions/End User License Agreement (EULA). If you spot anything out of the ordinary, abort the installation immediately.

Why is this dangerous?

The Kotcatk.com/ksz hijacker is extremely intrusive. It prevents you from using your computer normally. The furtive tool bombards you with adverts. It redirects your browser to shady web pages and to top it all off, it pauses your online videos. The content it promotes is not pleasant either. Adult only pages, online gaming websites, questionable-looking shopping platforms. The nasty parasite may also redirect you to pages that download software on your device. All these pages are not verified. They are more likely to be bogus than legitimate. Numerous crooks are using the Kotcatk.com/ksz hijacker to redirect web traffic to scam websites. These people are targeting your wallet. They will do anything to get your money. They will even try to further infect your computer. With the Kotcatk.com/ksz hijacker on board, that won’t be a hard task. All they should do is to redirect you to an infected web page. Prevent this scenario from unfolding. Remove the hijacker immediately. We have prepared a manual removal guide below this article. You can also use a trustworthy anti-malware app. You have options. The sooner you clean your machine, the better!

How to Remove Kotcatk.com/ksz virus

The Kotcatk.com/ksz 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Kotcatk.com/ksz startup location

STEP 3: Delete Kotcatk.com/ksz traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Kotcatk.com/ksz 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Kotcatk.com/ksz 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz

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 Kotcatk.com/ksz, 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz 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 Kotcatk.com/ksz 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.