Sunday, March 16, 2014

Remove Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com Redirect Virus

Whenever you start your browser, Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com pops up as your homepage? Default search engine is also modified to another one? If so, your computer must be infected by Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com redirect virus. But you needn’t to be anxious. This post offers effective way to get rid of this virus from your computer.

Description of the Virus

Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com redirect virus is a newly-created virus used by some hackers to hijack certain Internet functions, such as redirecting your homepage (start page) to the hijackers’ own start page, replacing your favorite search engines with its own, and redirecting search results to undesired websites. Hackers create this virus with the purpose of boosting website traffic and further making great profit. This virus often reach your computer as a result of installing some free or low-cost software downloaded from the Internet, like video player, game software, Adobe Flash Player and download manager. By modifying the settings of your browsers, this virus can keep redirecting your homepage to Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com and displaying a lot of ads and sponsored links in your search results. It always attempts to mislead you into purchasing some useless and even fake products, installing certain software or updating the applications installed on your computer. You should not click on the pop up ads or fake alerts, or you may be linked to some malicious websites. In order to display more ads based on your interests, this virus will also trace your browsing history, collect the data and sent that data to the remote hackers who will sell them to advertisers. It is very important that you remove Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com redirect virus from your computer as early as possible.

Tasks Performed by the Virus

It modifies registry entries and adds malicious files to the local hard disk C.
It changes browser settings, making the homepage and search engine changed.
It displays a number of ads and sponsored links in the search results.
It redirects browsers to unknown websites, which may cause additional infections.
It tracks web browser cookies and steals personal information and data.
It downloads a lot of ads, making browsers run slowly and even makes the browsers to crash down.

Guide to Remove Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com Redirect Virus

1. Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt+ Del. Search for the abnormal and unrecognized processes and stop them by using “End Process.”
2. Remove add-ons related to the virus from the affected browsers.
Internet Explorer
Click Tools and select Manage add-ons.
On the Toolbars and Extensions tab, select the malicious add-ons and remove them.
Mozilla Firefox
Click Tools and select Add-ons.
On the Extensions tab and Plugins tabs, find out and disable/remove the unwanted add-ons.
Google Chrome
Click Wrench or 3-bar icon, click Tools and go to Extensions.
On Extensions tab, select the suspicious add-ons and remove them.
3. Locate and delete the following files from your computer.
%WINDOWS%\system32\[random].exe
%System%\drivers\UAC[RANDOM CHARACTERS].dll
%Documents and Settings%\All Users\Application Data\[random]
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
4. Click on Start menu and go to Run. In the pop-up dialog box, type “regedit” and press Enter. Find and delete the registry entries as follow.
HKEY_CURRENT_ROOT\CLSID\[random characters]
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce “”
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\[RANDOM CHARACTERS] %AppData%\[RANDOM CHARACTERS]\[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[redirect virus name]
Smartwebsearch.mysearchsocial.com redirect virus is an annoying computer virus that should be removed as soon as possible. The guide above can help user manually remove this virus. However, manual removal is often a technical process and should only be performed by users who have experience with the registry and know how to correctly find out and delete files in Windows. If you have no sufficient computer knowledge and skill, it is highly recommended that you run an excellent removal tool to identify the files and registry entries related to the virus. If you don’t have a reliable removal tool, you can click the download button below to download a powerful one onto your computer.

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