Every time I try to reset my home page Istart123.com keeps coming back as my default homepage. I need to get rid of it. I have tried to uninstall internet explorer and re-install IE to get rid of it but it didn’t work. I also tried to reset my browser setting, it still did the same thing. Is it a virus? Norton says my computer is clean. I am confused now. How do I remove this hijacker?
Technically speaking, Istart123.com redirect is not a virus, however if you found your homepage or default search engine taken over by this page without your permission, then it is likely a browser hijacker is already running in your computer. Usually a browser hijacker is designed to promote online products and increase artificial website traffic so it can change your default search engine provider, homepage and even track your web searches. Also it can add unwanted browser extensions, toolbars, browser plugins, and other unwanted things to your system, occupying system resource and making your computer work slowly. In most cases, users install this hijacker themselves from some malicious web pages. Of course it won’t claim itself as a “hijacker“, it will pretend as a useful extension and then arrive bundled with freeware applications, such as shareware games or various video players. It is extremely annoying that you cannot go to the website you want and Istart123.com loads up every time you boot up the system.
Istart123.com provides a search engine in the middle of the page and it gives you a few icons to let you quickly access Facebook, Twitter or other social website. Although it seems to be convenient for users to get online, it won’t act as similar as other legal search engines like Yahoo, Bing or Google. This search engine may not provide you relevant search results, it gives you sponsored websites and crazy ads instead. In addition, the hijacker modifies the browser settings of your Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome as well as Safari. so when you open any browsers on the computer, you will see crazy ads keep popping up. Those ads may give you misleading information like saying your computer is at risk or you are missing a plug-in, once you click on it, it is equal to open an entrance and let other threats access your PC. Therefore, in order to keep your computer safe, you must get rid of Istart123.com quickly.
1. It can redirect you to malicious websites with numerous pop up ads to interrupt and stop you from doing anything on your computer;
2. It can turn your computer to run slowly and pose sudden death;
3. It can introduce more unwanted viruses and ransomware to do further harms;
4. It can help cyber criminals track your online activities and capture significant personal data to cause you a loss of value.
5. It can change your default DNS configuration and block you accessing your favorite sites.
6. It forcibly customizes the default homepage, search engine and bookmarks of your computer.
Istart123.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 Istart123.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 Istart123.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
Most people may wonder how Istart123.com hijacker sneaks to their computer because they always behave well while surfing online. Actually in most cases the hijacker is downloaded by themselves but they never notice it. The hijacker is tricky and it may enter your system as an add-on for your browser or bundled-up with some free software. When you download and install these programs, it will give some pre-checked confirmation boxes saying that your homepage and search provider will be changed or some addition programs installed, if you didn’t notice and you will get Istart123.com redirect installed. 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. This annoying matter should be fixed immediately in order to keep your computer secure.
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 July 10, 2014 2:49 am, last updated on July 10, 2014 2:49 am
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