How to Remove Search Movies Hijacker

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

Search Movies is a malicious application. It’s a cyber threat, part of the hijacker family. The name is pretty explanatory. The tool promises to ease your searches, and display better results. Well, that seems like a fantastic feature. And, it is! Only, Search Movies doesn’t provide it. It may claim to offer it, but it falls short on delivery. Fact of the matter is, the program feeds you lies. And, hopes you fall for them. Don’t. Look past the sugary layer of deceptive marketing. And, you’ll see the tool for what it is. A malicious, menacing cyber threat that’s bad news. It uses slyness and subtlety to slither into your system. Then, proceeds to wreak utter havoc. The more time it spends on your system, the bigger the damage it makes. Protect your system from the infection’s corruption. As soon as you become aware of its presence, act against it. Do your best to find its exact hiding place. Then, as soon as you do, delete it. It’s the best course of action, you can take. It ensures the safety of your system. And, earns the gratitude of your future self.

How did I get infected with?

Hijackers are masterful in the art of deception. They’re so skilled that they not only succeed in sneaking in. But, manage to do so, undetected. Yes, they slither their way in, unnoticed. And, that’s despite having to seek your permission on their admission. The Search Movies tool is no exception. It gets you to approve it in, while keeping you clueless. How? Well, it resorts to the old but gold methods of invasion. The tool hides behind corrupted links or sites. Or, hitches a ride with freeware, and spam email attachments. It can even pose as a system or program update. Like, Adobe Flash Player, or Java. The infection is rather crafty. But, regardless of its sneakiness, it can’t succeed without your help. Yes, you’re the last ingredient it needs. The application needs your carelessness. It needs you to throw caution to the wind, rush, and give into naivety. It needs you to leave your fate to chance, and skip doing due diligence. Don’t oblige! Don’t ease the infection’s covert infiltration! Don’t rely on luck! Always take the time to be vigilant. And, remember that even a little extra attention goes a long way. Caution helps to keep an infection-free PC. The lack thereof does the opposite. Make the right choice.

Why is this dangerous?

Hijackers are quite the meddlesome tools. Once they gain entry to your system, they proceed to intrude on your every action. No matter what you do, they find ways to interfere. The application, behind Search Movies, is no exception. After it invades, it spreads its clutches throughout. And, it doesn’t take long before you notice the effects of its stay. Every time, you try to surf the web, you’ll get flooded with disruptions. The infection redirects you to a plethora of suspicious-looking sites. It floods your screen with advertisements. Pop-up, in-text, banner. Every type of ad there is, you see on your screen. And, that’s not all. You also suffer from continuous system crashes. Your PC slows down to a crawl. It’s a mess. And, on top of everything else, your privacy is in danger. Oh, yes. The hijacker doesn’t only mess with your system’s well-being. It also takes aim at your private information. It tries to steal your sensitive data. And, given enough time, will succeed in doing so. Then, once it gets a hold of it, it proceeds to expose it. To whom? Well, to the unknown third parties that published it. In other words, cyber criminals with malicious agendas. Strangers, you shouldn’t trust with your personal and financial details. Keep your privacy private. Find and delete the threat ASAP.

How to Remove Search Movies virus

The Search Movies 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 Movies 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 Search Movies related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Search Movies startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

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

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Search Movies 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 Movies

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 Movies, 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 Movies 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 Movies 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.