How to Remove Thepopularlinks.com Redirect

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

You have a browser hijacker. It’s hiding somewhere in the corners of your system. After it managed to sneak in undetected, it’s now revealing its presence to you. How? Well, by forcing the Thepopularlinks.com website on you, non-stop. The page’s display is a clear indication of the infection’s existence. You can’t have one without the other. It’s quite the simple correlation. So, it’s safe to assume, you have a hijacker. The website is proof. Consider it, the hijacker’s way of cluing you into its presence. And, you best heed its announcement. The sooner you accept your PC is no longer infection-free, the sooner you can do something about it. If you wish to do yourself a favor, take immediate actions against the cyber threat. Once it announces itself, via Thepopularlinks.com, act! Do your best to find its exact lurking place. Then, delete it as soon as you discover it. The more time you waste debating whether to keep it, the worse your predicament gets. Hijackers begin to wreak havoc upon infiltration. The longer they remain, the bigger the mess they make. So, don’t delay. Locate and remove the hijacker menace ASAP. It’s the best thing you can do after seeing Thepopularlinks.com.

How did I get infected with?

Hijackers are quite deceitful when it comes to invasion. They use the old but gold methods to succeed in their infiltration. And, they WILL work. Make no mistake! If you’re not attentive enough, the hijacker succeeds with its sneaky agenda. The key word being “If.” Infections prey on your carelessness. They use your haste, naivety, and distraction against you. If you grant them, it’s that much easier for them to invade. So, don’t. Instead of relying on luck or chance, choose vigilance. Take the time to do your due diligence. Do your research, and know what you agree to allow into your system. Hijackers are no different. They need you to choose carelessness over caution. Don’t ease their infiltration. Next time, you install a tool, update, anything off the web, be extra thorough! Double-check everything. Look for the fine print. Even a little extra attention goes a long way. The most common means of invasion, hijackers use include the following. Oftentimes, they pose as a fake system or program update. Like, Adobe Flash Player or Java. They hitch a ride with freeware or spam email attachments. Or, hide behind corrupted links or sites. Remember! Caution is the way to go.

Why is this dangerous?

You better get used to seeing Thepopularlinks.com. After the hijacker invades, the site becomes your online shadow. The tool forces it on you at every turn. Open your browser? Thepopularlinks.com is there to greet you. Type in a search? You find Thepopularlinks.com among the suggested results. The page appears everywhere. It even takes the place of your default search engine and homepage. Did you want the switch to get implemented? No. Did you give consent to the reshuffle? No. And, that’s part of the “pleasure” of keeping a hijacker on your PC. The program is free to force a variety of changes on you. It doesn’t have to ask permission. It doesn’t have to clue you in. It springs the switch on you, and leaves you to discover it yourself. That’s not a good thing. Imagine if the tool decides to flood your PC with malware? It can do that. It can approve the installment of as many malicious programs as it chooses. You won’t like the consequences if it goes through with that supposed scenario. Ask yourself this. Are you okay to take the gamble? Are you willing to take the tremendous risks that follow the hijacker? Do you deem everything worth the hassle? What do you imagine you gain from such a tool? The reality is, you gain nothing but frustration, headaches, and unpleasantness. Why not spare yourself that? Delete the hijacker, using Thepopularlinks.com as a shield to lurk behind. That way, you avoid the nastiness that accompanies it. Above all, you avoid the security threat, it forces on you. Keep your privacy private. Protect your system’s well-being. Find and delete the hijacker at once.

How to Remove Thepopularlinks.com virus

The Thepopularlinks.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 Thepopularlinks.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 Thepopularlinks.com related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Thepopularlinks.com startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

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

• Open Google Chrome

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