Hi, I’m looking for help to clean my computer. My computer was recently hijacked. I know for a fact because every time I surf online, I get various pop-up ads from Cr.tractionize.com. I run Norton on my computer but it doesn’t show anything about the virus. I search on Google and it says this hijacking malware should be removed manually. I am not a computer expert, is there any way I can get rid of it?
If you see Cr.tractionize.com pop-up ads on your web browsers no matter you use IE, Firefox or Chrome, then it is a clear sign that your computer has been infected by an adware or a browser hijacker threat. Technically speaking, adware/browser hijacker is not a virus, therefore even you use the most advance antivirus program, it can’t help to detect and delete this threat. Pop-up ads from this website are very annoying and inexperienced computer users may be easily cheated by this malware. Once it hijacks a system, it starts causing continuous ads, underlined words, banner ads and similar notifications every time you start browsing on the Internet. Instead of taking you to the website you want, you will be displayed a fake Java update page which keeps saying that your Java is outdated and it recommends you to update Java to the latest version in order to view the page. This is one of the scams used by cyber criminals in order to spread infections and promote their products. Just remember that under no circumstance should you click on those ads because any clicks on this page will increase the risk of your security, as it may lead to personal information reveal or even identify theft.
Pop-up ads from Cr.tractionize.com are usually very misleading. It can trick you into downloading potentially unwanted programs or other similar infections. In addition, this kind of threat can attack all web browsers installed including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and even Google Chrome by changing your default homepage and search provider without your permission. A browser hijacking malware seriously annoys users because it can disturb your surfing experience. It can come to your computer from many resources and mostly it comes bundled with malware applications, spam, freeware and shareware. So you have to be very careful when you are about to download things from the Internet. Don’t install other additional add-ons or programs which could change your browser settings and then take immediate action to get rid of Cr.tractionize.com hijacker from the computer.
Browser hijacker virus like Cr.tractionize.com pop-up may be installed if a computer user has ever visited illegal or malicious websites or downloaded freeware or shareware from untrustworthy sources. It can cause annoying redirection to disturb users. This problem happen when you use Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox, even Google Chrome to browse online. Being as a redirect virus, it keeps tracking of computer users’ online activity and causing web browser to display unwanted advertisements and pop-up windows. It poses huge risk for all the computer systems. If you have been forced to visit those unwanted websites against your authorization, particularly for this domain, you must immediately remove Cr.tractionize.com redirect as soon as possible in order to secure your computer.
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.
Cr.tractionize.com pop-up 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 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 Cr.tractionize.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 Cr.tractionize.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
Pop-up from Cr.tractionize.com can not be trusted at all because it may be associated with malicious browser hijacker threat. This threat is designed to promote commercial products and compromise users’ personal details. Hijackers linked to Cr.tractionize.com adware use the tracking cookie in a try to deliver ads and gather web users’ personal information in order to forward it to remote attackers. After corrupting the affected web browser, these infections can change your default homepage and search engine. All it can do on your computer is to constantly redirect Internet users to malicious advertisement websites that are used for generating money for scammers. Hence, don’t hesitate to remove it from the computer once you have found its existence.
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 May 8, 2014 4:31 am
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