Is your browser hijacked by a fake search engine? No matter what site you are about to open, it redirects you to Snapdo.inspsearch.com and displays unstoppable pop-up ads? If you are suffering from this annoying problem now, then your computer must have been infected by browser hijacking malware. It usually comes bundled with free software that you downloaded from the Internet. This bogus search can install unwanted snapdo toolbar and cause numerous problems on your machine so users are recommended to remove it manually as quickly as possible.
Snapdo.inspsearch.com is classified as browser hijacker that supports unwanted toolbar or add-on called snap.do and used for distributing potentially unwanted programs. It targets to attack the popular internet browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Once installed, it changes your default homepage and search provider to its own domain and forces your web browser to a particular web page constantly, in this way it helps hackers promote various goods and services and make huge revenue. You may ask how this program may get into your PC because most of users have installed antivirus program on their computer, thus it is supposed to protect the computer and block all the viruses. Unfortunately, even though you are using the most advanced security tools, adware or browser hijacker still finds its way to sneak into your computer and modifies your settings without your permission. Generally speaking, this hijacker may come along with free software designed by unproven publishers. It is good at hiding within other programs, so if you download such free programs from unofficial web pages, you’ll have your homepage changed to Snapdo.inspsearch.com immediately and the worse thing is you won’t be able to change it back no matter how many times you have tried.
Apparently it is very unpleasant if your browser is compromised by this obtrusive attacker. Even though the site Snapdo.inspsearch.com has a convincing appearance that provides you various features like searching for Images, Web, News and Shopping etc, you still need to stay away from it. This spam search is aimed to promote ads and create traffic so you can see different ads displayed below its search engine. This hijacker can take over your browser as soon as it is arrived, therefore you will notice that your startup page is Snapdo.inspsearch.com rather than your default search page any more. The page appears each time you want to look for something on the Web and it also throws you tons of pop-up ads window asking you to buy something or complete a survey. You should know the truth that Snapdo.inspsearch.com only provides a deceptive search engine and it will not provide you any reliable search results related to your queries but only cause a lot of troubles for you. The permanent way to stop its annoying activities is to rid it off
your machine as soon as possible.
It belongs to browser hijacker virus which can totally mess up your browser setting.
It changes your default DNS configuration and blocks you accessing your favorite sites.
It may install some malware in your computer to make bad influence without your consent.
It degenerates your computer performance gradually.
Browser hijacker infection like Snapdo.inspsearch.com may enter your system as an add-on for your browser or bundled-up with some free software. Most of time, it can be downloaded from a website you visited, something you clicked on, or a pop-up that you did not request to view. You may not even know when and how you download this browser hijacker which compromises your internet security until you find your computer is fully messed up. A hijack virus is a type of computer virus known for its ability to disrupt your Internet browsing. It can redirect your Internet searches to random sites, disallow you from visiting certain Web sites, and change your Internet home page. In addition, it is able to slow your computer, decrease your available memory, and flood your computer with popup advertisements. When you detect the presence of such malicious hijacker, a complete removal is needed without any hesitation.
If you open your browser window (includes IE, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome etc.) and notice immediately that your home page has been changed to a page you do not recognize, then your browser may have been hijacked by a virus. For this type of hijack virus, it can change your homepage to Snapdo.inspsearch.com without your permission. Other malicious activities can be shown on your computer after hijacked are listed below:
1. It can not only change your web pages, but also alter other settings to add toolbars, pop-up advertisements, and bookmarks that you did not create.
2. It can modify the homepage settings of your web browser, more commonly by reducing your internet security options. And the worse thing is it prevents you from changing them back.
3. New toolbars or Favorites are installed that give you icons and links to web pages that you don’t want.
4. It may block you from visiting certain website you’d like to visit and show an error page instead.
5. It will display constant pop-up ads, sometimes in such large amounts that you are not able to close neither the ads nor the browser.
Snapdo.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 they 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 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 Snapdo.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 Snapdo.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
As mentioned above, Snapdo.inspsearch.com is high-risk browser hijacker that should be removed without any hesitation. Annoying popup is not the only reason for removing this bogus search engine. Actually, clicking on any ads generated by this Snap.do Search is very dangerous for computer users. It will redirect you to shady web pages that contain various viruses or you may fall into some online frauds without awareness. 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. Even if in some cases it will advertise something you interest on its sites, you should never click on its pop-up window, and don’t indicate your credit card numbers and other sensitive details there because it may help hackers record your info and finally rob you off. Hence, you need to manually remove Snapdo.inspsearch.com hijacker once upon detection in order to get rid of all the annoyance and protect your PC.
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 October 14, 2014 10:47 am
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.