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Can’t Remove Push Why hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Push Why Removal instructions!
Push Why is the name of an aggressive browser hijacker. If your browser behaves oddly due to the appearance of “Ads Powered by Push Why,” brace yourself. You are in for trouble. The Push Why hijacker lurks in the shadows of your OS and causes irritation. This sneaky parasite follows programming to flood your browser with adverts. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge. There is no immune program. The hijacker alters their setting and throws you into a whirlwind of pop-ups and banners. This annoying parasite injects in-text and banner adverts on every website you load. Even web pages that used to be ad-free get heavy on coupons and discounts. Pop-ups and notifications appear every time you so much as touch your browser. Even your videos get paused for commercial breaks. That’s the nature of the hijacker. It uses every opportunity to interrupt you with an advert of some kind. This parasite might even replace your homepage with a sponsored website. And as if that’s not bad enough, but the sponsored content is often inappropriate and deceptive. Do not put up with this situation. The Push Why hijacker should not be underestimated. This parasite has no filters nor security mechanism. Its aggressive advertising strategy is not ethical at best. At worst, it promotes cyber threats. Do yourself a huge favor. Remove the sneaky hijacker before it gets a chance to lure you into an online trap!
How did I get infected with?
Torrents, fake updates, corrupted links, malicious bundles, spam messages. There are myriads of hijacker distribution methods. And Push Why uses all known tricks. Its mass distribution tactics are very effective. They, however, and not flawless. The hijacker infects your system only when you give into naivety. This menace tricks its victims into approving its installation. It hides in the fine print and lures you into installing it. Don’t toss caution to the wind. No anti-virus app can protect you if you give into naivety. Pay attention to the red flags. Your caution is powerful enough to prevent infections. Forget about the “Next-Next-Finish” installation strategy. Don’t skip steps. More often than not, the apps we download off the Web come bundled with bonus software. The extras are often parasites. You are very likely to install unwanted apps if you rush. If available, use the advanced/custom setup option. Under it, you would be able to deselect all suspicious and unwanted bonuses. Make sure you know what you install. Read the terms and conditions before you agree to them. If you cannot spare enough time to go through the whole document, scan it with an online analyzer. Even a little extra caution can spare an avalanche of problems. Opt out of the installation if you notice anything suspicious!
Why is this dangerous?
Push Why is a complete and utter menace. As soon as this hijacker sneaks into your system, corruption follows. The parasite alters your browser’s settings and throws you into a whirlwind of advertisements. Whether you watch a video or type a search query, the hijacker always finds a way to annoy you with countless adverts. It displays banners, opens pop-ups, and plays video commercials. The more time this parasite spends on your OS, the worse its interference gets. This intrusive hijacker constantly increases the number of its ads. Their great number, of course, causes various issues. The numerous ads burden your browser. They make your poor application prone to freezing and crashes. Your OS may also become sluggish and unresponsive. This torture, however, is not your biggest problem. The true corruption spreads in the shadows. Push Why threatens to help malware infect your system, as well as to jeopardize your privacy. This nasty invader is not safe. Numerous crooks use browser hijackers to spread corruption. These criminals flood your browser with deceptive ads. They show you what you want to see, but when you click, bad things happen. You risk ending up on phishing, phony, and scam websites. Do not test your luck. Remove the deceptive hijacker the first chance you get. Find where this menace lurks and delete it upon detection!
How to Remove Push Why virus
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The Push Why 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 Push Why 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 Push Why related processes in the computer memory
STEP 2: Locate Push Why startup location
STEP 3: Delete Push Why traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer
STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus
STEP 1: Track down Push Why 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 Push Why 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 Push Why 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 Push Why traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer
-
Open Google Chrome
- In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
- Remove the Push Why 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 Push Why
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 Push Why, 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 Push Why 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 Push Why 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.