Remove Search.galacticagames.com Redirect

Can’t Remove Search.galacticagames.com hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Search.galacticagames.com Removal instructions!

The appearance of the Search.galacticagames.com website is bad news. It means only one thing. Your device is no longer infection-free. You have the Search.galacticagames.com hijacker on board. This parasite is created to generate traffic to specific websites. It also displays numerous advertisements and is the cause for your computer’s sluggishness. The hijacker is a real computer program. It runs on your CPU and uses a lot of RAM. The longer this app remains on board, the slower your computer will become. You have no reason to keep it. The hijacker can never be beneficial to you. On the contrary, it exposes your security at risk. As we already mentioned, the malicious tool is going to redirect you to numerous shady websites. This redirection is a part of a pay-per-click scheme. Basically, for every ad you click on, the owners of the hijacker will be paid. Hence, the malicious app will drown in a sea of ads. Websites that used to ad-free will be covered in ad banners and in-text ads. Pop-up windows will force you to watch videos. You will hate every second of it. Luckily, we can help. If you act promptly, you can remove the Search.galacticagames.com hijacker with ease. Follow our guide or use a trustworthy anti-virus program. You have options. The sooner you remove this intruder, the better!

How did I get infected with?

The Search.galacticagames.com hijacker is a program. To operate, as all such apps, it needs the user’s permission and assistance. And you provided these. Yes, you did it. You installed the malicious app. Yet, you should not be harsh on yourself. You were cleverly deceived. The hijacker uses a few techniques to travel the web. It might have arrived as a bundled program to some freeware or shareware you downloaded off the Internet. This method is known as bundling. It is quite common nowadays. This time you were lucky. The Search.galacticagames.com hijacker can be removed completely. Yet, other, more dangerous, viruses are also using the bundling technique to reach their victims. Therefore, when installing a program, be extremely careful. Don’t rush. Opt for an advanced installation wizard and read the terms and conditions. All these steps are a bit time-consuming. Yet, one can never be too careful. A little caution today can spare you tons of problems in the future. Other malware distribution methods include spam emails, fake software updates, and corrupted links. Your caution can prevent these methods from succeeding. Always do your due diligence.

Why is this dangerous?

The Search.galacticagames.com hijacker is not as dangerous as Trojan horses, for example. Yet, this parasite should not be neglected. It acts as an open door for many online threats. The hijacker has no verifying mechanism. It doesn’t distinguish between legit websites and shady ones. Neither will it check who the advertiser is. Hackers often get an advantage of such apps. They use hijackers to spread malicious content. If you click on a corrupted ad, you will be redirected to an infected website. There, a drive-by download will be executed. These types of downloads a completely automatic. They start without the user’s interaction and have no visualization. Hence, they are often used for virus and malware distribution. One click is all it takes for a virus to be downloaded on your computer. There is no way to tell which ads are corrupted and which are not. You can try to avoid the commercials. Yet, practice shows that this task is impossible. The hijacker will trick you into clicking on ads unintentionally. At the most unexpected times, it will open pop-up windows right under the cursor of your mouse. It is not worth the risk. Remove the Search.galacticagames.com hijacker before it is too late.

How to Remove Search.galacticagames.com virus

The Search.galacticagames.com 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 Search.galacticagames.com 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 Search.galacticagames.com infection, you need to purchase its full version.

STEP 1: Track down Search.galacticagames.com related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Search.galacticagames.com startup location

STEP 3: Delete Search.galacticagames.com traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Search.galacticagames.com 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 Search.galacticagames.com 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 Search.galacticagames.com 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 Search.galacticagames.com traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Search.galacticagames.com 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 Search.galacticagames.com

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 Search.galacticagames.com, 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 Search.galacticagames.com 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 Search.galacticagames.com 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.