I use Google Chrome & Avast internet security. I have a Dell, Windows 7 laptop that is just over a year old. The avast has been working quite well. However, over the past couple of days my internet browsing has been interrupted quite frequently by numerous types of pop up ads!! And then I noticed that my homepage was changed to Airzip.inspsearch.com which should be Google before. What is this? Is it a virus? How do I get rid of this redirect thing?
Airzip.inspsearch.com is classified as a browser hijacker that usually comes into a compromised computer after users download some video player, PDF creator or music. It enters computers bundled with such freeware and then adds its malicious contents to your browser without any permission. When it starts to attack your computer, it can cause an immense problem to the functioning of a computer system by altering the browser settings and changing browser settings without any consent. To more specific, it alters your homepage and default search engine to Airzip.inspsearch.com, making users to use it instead of their previous search provider. Also by forcing PC users to visit its page again and again, the website owner can achieve his final goal easily which is to create bigger traffic and get profit from that. This kind of threat is closely associated with the previous WebsSearches.com redirect, both of them have the same deceitful appearance.
This page seems to be a regular page that provides a convenient way for net users to search information they want, however, if you make a search on it, you will see that it actually tries to promote certain websites and it is a spam search engine in reality. Most of the websites in your search results will be commercial and they just want to promote their products. Using this phony search can make your computer vulnerable to be attacked because it can control your keyword search and then depending on what you are searching for, it shows commercials advertisements and finally slows down your computer. Airzip.inspsearch.com redirect can alter the search page of your browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome and redirect the user to its own page. In addition, it can make your browsing rather hard since annoying pop-up windows and unwanted toolbar appear every time you open the browser. It is suggested users to take immediate measure to get rid of Airzip.inspsearch.com redirect once found.
Note: This website may display various advertisements to lure users to click on it. It may inform users that they are missing plugin to play video or telling that you are the winner of the day in your area and you need to fill out certain “sponsor offers” in order to claim you “free gift” or something like that. However, don’t click on any of the advertisements shown on Airzip.inspsearch.com, or you will open a backdoor to let other viruses invade your computer to ruin your system.
1. You keep getting random pop-ups opening in new browser tabs.
2. When clicking on Google search links you get taken to sites that have nothing to do with the subject you searched for.
3. Anti-virus and firewall software won’t start.
4. Internet stops working.
5. Unknown software has been installed without your authorization.
6. You can’t access reputable sites unless you type the URL into the navigation bar
Airzip.inspsearch.com hijacks 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. Now most browser hijackers are quite similar to spyware and adware threats and therefore cannot be removed with the help of popular antivirus products. Users can follow the manual guide here to get rid of this browser hijacker completely.
1. Clear all the cookies of your affected browsers.
Since this 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 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”
To remove all cookies click on the “Remove All Cookies” button
2. End the malicious process from Task Manager.
Once Airzip.inspsearch.com redirect is installed, computer user may notice that CPU usage randomly jumps to 100 percent. At any time Windows always has many running processes. A process is an individual task that the computer runs. In general, the more processes, the more work the computer has to do and the slower it will run. If your system’s CPU spike is constant and remain at a constant 90-95%, 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 to quickly bring up Task Manager Window:
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 related to Airzip.inspsearch.com hijacker manually.
%AppData%Local[random].exe
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main StartPage
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Airzip.inspsearch.com is a sophisticated browser redirecting malware that can be bundled with various music players, video recorders and download managers. It can cause annoying redirection to disturb users. The people responsible for this redirect virus are good at using browser hijackers in order to force computer users to use this low quality search engine repeatedly. Thus, they can use the artificial traffic to boost affiliate payments and promote online content. Under no circumstance should you keep this fake search page as your default search provider because it is capable of tracking of computer users’ online activity and causing web browser to display unwanted advertisements and pop-up windows. To avoid computer getting ruined, people should immediately remove Airzip.inspsearch.com redirect once it is found.
Note: If you are not a computer expert and have no idea how to perform the removal, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further help.
Published by on January 6, 2014 1:05 pm, last updated on January 6, 2014 1:05 pm
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