How to Remove YahooProvidedSearch Adware

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If you come across the YahooProvidedSearch pop-ups, you’ve been infected. There is some nasty adware-type infection currently on your PC. This nuisance is the source of all your cyber struggles at the moment. Hence, take action and get rid of the parasite. There’s nothing to gain out of keeping this program on your device. On the other hand, there is quite a lot to lose. Do not underestimate the threat adware poses. The virus could eventually cause you some irreversible damage so be careful. As soon as this pest invades your computer, it starts making modifications. Unauthorized modifications, to be exact. Whether you’re willing to have your browsers altered or not is now irrelevant. All that matters is hackers’ questionable profit. Yes, their revenue is the very reason you’re stuck with the adware. Such programs boost web traffic to some specific websites and allow crooks to use the pay-per-click mechanism. Are you familiar with this technique? It provides cyber criminals quite a simple and effective way to make money. The thing is, though, you end up in danger. Some of the YahooProvidedSearch pop-ups are corrupted. Others may turn out to be safe. There is no telling which is which until you click the ad open. Is that a risk you’d be willing to take? Not only does clicking these commercials expose you to malware. It also turns you into a sponsor of hackers and helps them make money. Thanks to the infection, your browsers now generate an endless pile of sponsored ads. That will inevitably cause a real mess on your computer. At the least, you’ll have to waste your time avoiding the pop-ups. However, their constant presence also leads to a poor computer performance. Your overwhelmed browsers may start crashing or freezing out of the blue. Even your Internet connection might become unstable so it’s safe to say the virus is troublesome. To top it all, this program might steal some of your personal data. For instance, it monitors your browsing history, usernames, passwords, IP addresses, email addresses. There’s no guarantee it wouldn’t attempt to steal your bank account details as well. To protect your privacy, you have to get rid of the infection.

How did I get infected with?

There are a couple of notoriously popular methods. Perhaps the most commonly used one is called freeware or shareware bundling. It’s pretty self-explanatory as well as super efficient. No wonder hackers apply this technique to spread all sorts of viruses online. How do you prevent malware infiltration in the future? For starters, stay away from unverified websites and only download legitimate software. Secondly, opt for the Custom or Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. What many people fail to do is check out the bundle beforehand. As you can see, rushing provides you no information about the software you’re about to download. You might accidentally agree to install a rich variety of parasites if you skip steps. Also, take your time to go through the Terms and Conditions. Same thing goes for the EULA (End User License Agreement). Even though reading those is more time-consuming than clicking “I accept”, it will protect your safety. Do not underestimate hackers’ creativity when it comes to virus distribution. Watch out for spam email-attachments/messages and malicious torrents as well. Remember, caution always pays off.

Why is this dangerous?

The adware completely takes over your favorite browsers. It adds an extension to Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. As a result, all of them get injected with the YahooProvidedSearch pop-ups. Note that these commercials are trying to trick you into clicking them open. What may happen to your computer after you click isn’t hackers’ problem. Thus, why would you expose yourself to malware by trusting the ads? There isn’t a single reason to be tolerating this nuisance. Adware infections might also generate some fake software updates or they could redirect you. Keep in mind that the virus may serve as a back door to more parasites as well. It even spies on your sensitive details which could involve you in some financial scam or even identity theft. Take care of your privacy and tackle the adware on the spot. You will find our detailed manual removal guide down below.

How to Remove YahooProvidedSearch virus

The YahooProvidedSearch 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 YahooProvidedSearch 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 YahooProvidedSearch in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate YahooProvidedSearch startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

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

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the YahooProvidedSearch 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 YahooProvidedSearch

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 YahooProvidedSearch, 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 YahooProvidedSearch 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 YahooProvidedSearch Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your system 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.