My homepage is hijacked by www.holasearch.com. Is it a virus? Each time when I type a web site in the address bar, Holasearch appears automatically. Also I set Google as my homepage usually, now it turns to be Holasearch.com Redirect without my permission. Is there any way I can get rid of this hijacker permanently?
If your browser starts continuously rerouting Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines to Holasearch.com or your homepage is changed to Holasearch.com somehow, your computer must be infected by a dangerous redirect virus. This virus attacks browsers including Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explore and Safari. It usually changes you homepage and your default search as well as some other settings of your browser to lead your computer working in a dangerous network environment. After it is downloaded, you will notice that each time you enter a valid URL in the browser address bar, instead of showing you the website you want, you will be redirected to Holasearch.com without your permission. Furthermore, it can carry out many harmful actions on the computer to disturb PC users.
Most of time you may get this virus from unsafe freeware, shareware or advertising-supported programs such as various browser add-ons or toolbars. When it is installed, it can change various browser settings, such as your proxy server usage and your designated homepage without your permission. Hackers create this virus in order to use the artificial traffic to boost affiliate payments. The website provides fake search results that include advertisements and other methods of driving affiliate-based money right back to Holasearch.com. It doesn’t have any real search engine features. All it can bring to you are constant ads and possible other malware and adware that compromise your computer further. Any delay in removing the virus completely will increase more risk of system failure. If your PC is infected by Holasearch.com redirect, it is suggested to manually remove it so that the virus can be totally gone from your PC and it won’t come back to bother your PC again.
When the hijacker is inside your computer, your security software may be blocked immediately and your homepage will be changed without your permission. In addition, it degrades overall web browser stability and performance as it wastes too much computer resources. The most irritating feature of this redirect virus is that it will keep redirecting you to various harmful websites against your will. If you try to search something from Google, Bing or other search page as your preferred, you will be redirected to Holasearch.com page. Thus, this issue should be fixed as soon as possible.
1. It can redirect you to malicious websites with numerous pop up ads to interrupt and stop you from doing anything on your computer;
2. It can turn your computer to run slowly and pose sudden death;
3. It can introduce more unwanted viruses and ransomware to do further harms;
4. It can help cyber criminals track your online activities and capture significant personal data to cause you a loss of value.
5. It can change your default DNS configuration and block you accessing your favorite sites.
6. It forcibly customizes the default homepage, search engine and bookmarks of your computer.
Holasearch.com hacks your browser to redirect your web search results and changes the homepage and browser settings. To completely uninstall it from an infected system, manual removal is the first choice. Because sometimes antivirus software cannot pick up the exact computer threat timely or remove it permanently. Users can follow the manual guide here to have this virus removed instantly.
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. Remove all add-ons and extensions
Google Chrome: Wrench Icon > Tools > Extensions
Mozilla Firefox: Tools > Add-ons (Ctrl+Shift+A)
Internet Explorer: Tools > Manage Add-ons
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%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\[random]
%AppData%\Local\[random]
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings “ProxyEnable” = “1″
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop “NoChangingWallPaper” = ’1?
Holasearch.com redirect is hard to be uninstalled. Even you have uninstalled all the toolbars and add-ons related to this threat, it still redirects you to other websites and hijacks your homepage. Besides, the homepage of your browser may also have been changed without any permission. And the worse is you will not be able to reset it back too. Like other redirect viruses, it may constantly use your internet connection to send your private information to remote servers, as well as receive ads and pop-ups from third party servers, which causes much slower internet connection speed and overall connection instability. In addition, whenever your computer is connected to Internet, you will be bombarded with hundreds of pop-up advertisements. As mentioned above, we can know Holasearch.com (http://holasearch.com) provides nothing but a bogus search engine to users, it is suggested users never use Hola Search engine in place of other legitimate search engines. Meanwhile, users should get rid of Holasearch.com Redirect as quickly as possible.
Published by & last updated on March 31, 2013 7:08 am
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