How to Remove Search.searchfaa2.com Hijacker

Can’t Remove Search.searchfaa2.com hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Search.searchfaa2.com Removal instructions!

A hijacker infiltrated your system. It did so undetected, and you had no clue of its existence. That is, until the cyber threat chose to reveal itself. How? Well, by bombarding you with redirects to the Search.searchfaa2.com page. Consider the website its big, bright warning sign. It’s its way of announcing its presence. You best heed its announcement, and act on it. To do nothing, and discard it, is a horrendous mistake. One, with terrible consequences. At first, the hijacker begins its interference with the site, alone. It throws the page on you, at every turn. Then, it starts to redirect you to other, just as unreliable pages. It starts to flood your screen with in-text, banner, and pop-up ads. And, that takes its toll on your system. The ever-flowing waterfall of ads, and redirects, has repercussions. They manifest not long after the intrusions begin. Your system starts to suffer frequent crashes. Your computer’s performance slows down to a crawl. It’s quite the mess. Do NOT put up with it. And, do NOT stand idly by, and allow your situation to worsen. That WILL happen, if you don’t deal with the threat ASAP. A hijacker has NO place on your PC. The more you extend its stay, the graver your issues become. So, do yourself a favor, and don’t allow the escalation to occur. Locate and delete the infection at once.

How did I get infected with?

Hijackers are sneaky. They use slyness and subtlety to invade. But they can’t do it, without some help from you. The infections need your carelessness to pull off their covert invasion. Let’s explain. No hijacker can access your PC without your permission. The tool has to seek your permission on its admission. If you grant it, it can continue with the invasion. But, if not, it cannot access your PC. So, these tools do their best to ask in a way that entails an affirmative reply. To avoid getting rejected, they turn to trickery. They still seek your consent on their entry. But they do it with immense slyness and finesse. The usual antics include the use of freeware, and fake updates. Also, spam email attachments, and corrupted links or sites. Hijackers are so sneaky that you need to apply extra attention, if you’re to spot them. And, most users don’t. When installing tools, updates, anything off the web, users give into distraction. They rush, and give into naivety. Instead of taking the time to be thorough, they skip the terms and conditions altogether. And, say YES to everything in blind faith. That’s a horrendous mistake. Don’t make it. Always be extra careful, and do your due diligence. Even a little extra vigilance can save you a ton of troubles. Don’t allow the hijacker to sneak in undetected, and corrupt your PC.

Why is this dangerous?

Search.searchfaa2.com appears at every turn. No matter what you do online, the website shows up. The hijacker doesn’t miss an opportunity to force it on you. If you so much as touch your browser, it pops up. Open a new tab? Search.searchfaa2.com is there. Type a search? Search.searchfaa2.com is among the suggested results. It even takes over your default search engine, and homepage. No, you didn’t approve the switch. But, it’s fact, nonetheless. That’s what you can expect from a hijacker. Incessant meddling. Not to mention, the security risk, you face when dealing with one. Oh, yes. Among everything else, it puts you through, it also threatens your privacy. The infection tries to steal your personal and financial details. And, then, expose the stolen information to the people that published it. It begins to spy on your online activities from the moment, it invades. And, given enough time, it WILL fulfill its agenda. So, the question is, will you give it that time? Or, would you rather, protect yourself and your PC? Do what’s best, and pick the latter. Find the hijacker’s hiding place. And, delete it on discovery. The sooner, the better.

How to Remove Search.searchfaa2.com virus

The Search.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.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.

STEP 1: Track down Search.searchfaa2.com related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Search.searchfaa2.com startup location

STEP 3: Delete Search.searchfaa2.com traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Search.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.com traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Search.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.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.searchfaa2.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.