My laptop has been working well but since yesterday I started to get a lot of pop ups on my Firefox browser. My homepage was changed to a suspicious search engine and the url is Search.myhoroscopesxp.com. I am not sure if it is a legitimate site, but whenever I try to change the browser settings, it won’t allow me to get Google back as my default homepage. I have tons of dumb pop-up ads that ask to sign up for a membership or try to sell me some suspicious looking applications. How do I get rid of them?
Search.myhoroscopesxp.com is an insecure web search-providing website that can be set as your browser’s homepage after you install some freeware, shareware or ad-supported programs from unsafe website. It has recently been added to “browser hijacker” category and closely associated to SaferBrowser adware. The website convinces you that it is a reliable search engine but it does evil actions on a computer as soon as it is installed. It affects your browser like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari and other Internet browsers without an exception in order to modify your browser settings and delivers modified search results that are usually filled with deceptive links to web users. This application can replace your browser’s default page to Search.myhoroscopesxp.com and redirect you to many unknown websites all the time when you are online. In addition, you will find that annoying pop-up ads, and other unwanted activities that are usually initiated by this potentially unwanted programs:
It replaces your startup page, new tab, default search provider to Search.myhoroscopesxp.com against your will.
It modifies browser settings and then prevents you from changing them back in order to prevent you from using any other well-known and leading search engines like Google and Bing.
It installs unwanted programs as malicious browser add-ons, extensions, plugins, toolbars, etc.
It initiates constant redirects to various third-party web pages.
It generates many popups that promote questionable software or ask you to fill unreliable surveys.
It decreases default security level and slows down your Internet speed.
It may collect information about your search terms, mostly visited websites, data that you entered on each of sites without your knowledge.
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Search.myhoroscopesxp.com hijacker is an ad-supported search engine that affiliated with browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs (short for PUPs) or adware. Its goal is simple- to promote various commercial websites and increase traffic. This website is not trustworthy. It has no ability to provide you reliable search results. The results come from this page are usually highly unreliable and suspicious. There are hundreds or even thousands of spam search sites that seek to get inside computers and start being used as default search engines, such as Search.cantstopplaying.com and Search.montageobox.com. Once detect, you should get rid of it manually and quickly.
Browser hijacker infection like Search.myhoroscopesxp.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.
Search.myhoroscopesxp.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 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 Search.myhoroscopesxp.com 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 Search.myhoroscopesxp.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
Search.myhoroscopesxp.com hijacker is something unsafe and unwanted. It often comes along with other free software via modified software installers. Once access, you might end up a series of problems on your PC. Your homepage and default search engine are changed and you are redirected to unwanted sites that promote questionable software or ask you to fill unreliable surveys all the time. Those ads are trying to get your information so it keeps linking you to various third-party web pages. The hijacker also reduces your PC performance as it uses your computer resources to function at full speed. It can disconnect your Internet randomly because it has the ability to change your DNS settings. If you have already become a victim of this annoying browser hijacker, you’d better follow the removal instructions above to clean up your PC quickly.
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 February 24, 2016 8:16 am
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