Websearch.Ask.com is a typical browser hijacker that mainly attacks browsers such as Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. It aims to hijack your web browsers and perform malicious tasks to interrupt your browsing activities. This threat can redirect your browser to undesired website and provide unexpected search results. It tricks unwary users by redirecting the user to its own page, and adding Ask toolbar to the infected PC without any permission.
If a browser hijacker virus is installed, it can change your browser automatically, from that time you will notice that every time you search on Google or opening homepage redirects to Websearch.Ask.com. You may still be able to use it to search information that match with your interests but it could be harmful if you click ads or links provided by Websearch.Ask.com search. A redirect virus is able to corrupt your browsers and change your homepage, default search engine, registry keys as well as DNS settings. Most of time, this redirect virus is bundled with freeware programs that you download from the Internet. It is suggested users to get rid of Websearch.Ask.com redirect manually because this is a new threat that no antivirus can detect this virus so far.
Browser hijacker virus may be installed if a computer user has ever visited illegal or malicious websites or downloaded freeware or shareware from untrustworthy sources. It can cause annoying redirection to disturb users. This problem happen when you use Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox, even Google Chrome to browse online. Being as a redirect virus, it keeps tracking of computer users’ online activity and causing web browser to display unwanted advertisements and pop-up windows. It poses huge risk for all the computer systems. If you have been forced to visit those unwanted websites against your authorization, particularly for this domain, you must immediately remove Websearch.Ask.com redirect as soon as possible in order to secure your computer.
Considering Websearch.Ask.com redirect can’t be fixed by any security tools, uses can use the manual guide below to fix this issue without any risk.
1. Clear all the cookies of your affected browsers.
Since tricky hijacker virus has the ability to use cookies for tracing and tracking the internet activity of users, it is suggested users to delete all the cookies before a complete removal.
Google Chrome:
Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Options”.
Click the “Under the Bonnet” tab, locate the “Privacy” section and click the “Clear browsing data” button.
Select “Delete cookies and other site data” to delete all cookies from the list.
Internet Explorer:
Open Internet explorer window
Click the “Tools” button
Point to “safety” and then click “delete browsing history”
Tick the “cookies” box, then click “delete”
Mozilla Firefox:
Click on Tools, then Options, select Privacy
Click “Remove individual cookies”
In the Cookies panel, click on “Show Cookies”
To remove a single cookie click on the entry in the list and click on the “Remove Cookie button”
To remove all cookies click on the “Remove All Cookies button”
2. End the malicious process from Task Manager.
Once Websearch.Ask.com is installed, computer user may notice that CPU usage randomly jumps to 100 percent, slowing down the computer. If your system’s CPU spike is constant, users should check from Task Manager and see if there is a suspicious process occupying the system resources and then end it immediately.
(The name of the virus process can be random.)
Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc at the same time and it will open up task manager directly. Then change to “Processes” tab.
3. Show hidden files and folders.
Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.
4. Remove all the malicious files manually.
%AppData%Local[random].exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun “[RANDOM]”
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Websearch.Ask.com redirect attacks browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Once access the targeted computer, it will modify your browser or your system’s settings to redirect your browser to websites you don’t want at all, and attempt to prevent you from changing your settings back to stop Websearch.Ask.com redirection. Users who suffer from this redirect virus may also notice their computers are in a poor performance after being infected. Any delay in removing the virus completely will increase more risk of system failure because this redirect virus may refer to the ZeroAccess Rootkit which can be used to steal private information or install rogue security programs. Therefore, it is suggested to users to manually remove Websearch.Ask.com so that it can be totally gone from your PC and never come back to bother you again.
If you are not knowledgeable enough to be able to distinguish the location of this virus, or you are afraid of making mistake during the manual removal, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further help.
Published by on May 13, 2013 1:39 am, last updated on May 13, 2013 1:39 am
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