Yesterday I downloaded a media player from the Internet but I uninstalled it s00n because I found it was not pretty good to use. Today I noticed that my default homepage was changed from Yahoo to Wow.utop.it. I am using Firefox and I have tried all kinds of way to change my browser settings, but it still redirects me to this WOW Search page. Is there any way I can get rid of it for good? Any help will be appreciated.
Wow.utop.it hijacker is a fake and malicious web page that appears itself to be a search engine to trick inexperienced users. The purpose of this redirect malware is to get you to click on an advertisement and use its bogus search engine so that you help the person who created this virus make money. When it is downloaded, it hijacks Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer and changes your homepage to Wow Search without your permission. It forces users to use its search engine so that the attacker can boost traffic and generate pop up ads to make money. So it is not surprised that various ads are listed below this bogus Wow Search. It lures users to clicking on it so it keeps giving false information like saying you are the winner and click the ads so you will get a free iPhone 5s, iPad ect. As long as you click on those advertisements, it brings other threats to your computer immediately which can slow down your PC and even crash down the system.
Most of time, Wow.utop.it pop-up is downloaded and installed automatically as long as users are not careful to remove checked boxes in custom installation. Although Wow search page seems to be harmless, it doesn’t have any real search engine features in reality. The links promoted by this search engine might redirect you to websites that can be compromised. It displays more advertisements than legitimate results. The hijacker malware just provides users annoyance and inconvenience. It is likely that every time you go to Google to search up something, it lags and then when you click a link, it redirects you to a different site or open a new tab automatically against your will. So you must realize that this is a useless search provider created for commercial, advertising or marketing purposes only. It has no benefit for your computer but brings harm to it. Remove it as quickly as you can.
1. Your homepage is changed to Wow.utop.it without your permission. No matter how hard you have tried, you are not allowed to change it back to the web page you prefer.
2. When you open your browser or navigate to various sites, it keeps creating pop-ups, links or other content that you don’t want at all.
3. It blocks your antivirus program from running properly and keeps leading you to phishing websites and other sites with questionable content.
4. It can redirect you to malicious websites with numerous pop up ads to interrupt and stop you from doing anything on your computer;
5. It can introduce more unwanted viruses and ransomware to do further harms.
6. It can change your default DNS configuration and block you accessing your favorite sites.
7. It forcibly customizes the default homepage, search engine and bookmarks of your computer.
Wow.utop.it 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 Wow.utop.it hijacker 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 Wow.utop.it pop up 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
Wow.utop.it is a fraudulent website, which poses as a genuine search engine called Wow Search. Now it has been classified as an adware or browser hijacker infection that primarily installs to a computer running the Microsoft Windows operating system and attaches to Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Internet Explorer as a browser add-on, browser helper object (BHO), and extension. Whenever users launch up the Internet browser, it will pop up automatically as the default homepage with its own search system. Many PC users are easy to be tricked by the fake search engine with its interface which seems quite reliable and similar to licensed ones. They leave Wow search on their computers and as times goes by, more and more problems are found on the computer like slow PC speed and unstoppable pop-up ads. Therefore, in order to keep computer work properly, you have to delete Wow.utop.it as soon as it is detected.
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 & last updated on March 25, 2014 12:02 pm
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