Please help!!! I think my computer is infected with a redirect virus and I don’t how to get rid of it. I have antivirus installed but it doesn’t recognize the virus. My homepage is changed to Search.coupons.com somehow and I cannot change it back to Google. Also each time I open IE browser, it opens a new tab automatically. It is annoying. How do I remove it without messing up my computer?
Search.coupons.com belongs to a browser hijacker that can be very annoying as it is able to block you from browsing the web pages which you are trying to surf on your Internet browser. It can take over all the browsers you have installed including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Once it achieves its goal, users are unable to surf Internet properly because this redirect virus can take over your browser and replace your homepage without your permission.
This hijacker often arrives bundled with freeware applications, such as shareware games or various video players. Once running, it starts continuously rerouting Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines to its domain where undesirable ads and sponsored links are displayed. The website gives you a Bing search box and provides many links about the coupons information. It lures users to click the link frequently so that criminals can use the artificial traffic to boost affiliate payments. Now the main reason of this kind of hijacker becomes one of the most damaging threats for users is that the redirect problem can not be fully removed with traditional Antivirus computer software, and you will need manual removal to get rid of Search.coupons.com completely and quickly.
When Search.coupons.com redirect 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 other irrelevant page. Thus, this issue should be fixed as soon as possible.
Considering Search.coupons.com hijacker can’t be fixed by any security tools, uses can use the manual guide below to fix this issue.
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 this dangerous redirect 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
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.exe
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\*.*
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System “DisableTaskMgr” = ’1′
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system “DisableTaskMgr” = ’1′
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Download “CheckExeSignatures” = ‘no’
Search.coupons.com redirect is an unwanted thing which is usually added to your system together with some other programs that you download from the Internet. Unwary users are not aware of additional applications reaching their systems because they didn’t deselect the unwanted programs during the last step of installation. It is known to attack Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer, and can function in most versions of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. This kind of redirect issue can result in all kinds of issue such as displaying advertisements or unusual warning messages whenever you go to Internet, slowing down your computer system and invite other viruses which can be used to steal private information or install rogue security programs. As mentioned above, you have to remove Search.coupons.com redirect quickly if you find your browser is already hijacked.
Note: If you are not a computer wiz and have no idea how to perform the removal, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further help.
Published by & last updated on November 6, 2013 4:59 am
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