My browser keeps getting hijacked by Personal-browser.com. I have heard it is some sort of virus but malwarebytes doesn’t pick it up. It changed my default homepage and search engine. Also there were many pop-ups on the side of the browser. I am using Chrome by the way. How to remove them?
Personal-browser.com is one of the spam search engines that associated with browser hijacker, adware or potentially unwanted programs. It has a similar look like other hijacking malware such as Searchzillions.com and SearchSafe.com. By disguising as a useful search engine, it tricks users into making its page as homepage and visiting it again and again so as to get more traffic. However, this fake search page cannot offer users any reliable search results. If you try to make a search using Personal-browser.com, you will see that it only displays sponsored links and misleading information. Its purpose is to promote various free programs and make users visit sponsored websites. It also shows numerous ads among your search results. This tricky hijacker modifies browser settings and hijacks most of popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome without any permission.
Personal-browser.com hijacker convinces users into believing it is a legitimate and reliable site but in fact it changes your home page and default search engine provider, redirects your web browser to suspicious web pages any time you enter invalid address or perform a web search like doing a Google/Yahoo/Bing search, and adds unwanted toolbars or Favorites to your browser to interrupt your browsing experience. It’s extremely malicious and intrusive, not to mention damaging and annoying. It uses unfair methods to infiltrate and it doesn’t require users’ authorization to be set as a homepage and default search provider. The page can pop up as a new tab whenever you are online and the ads it displays on its page can lead to serious security related issues. Furthermore, it can track your browsing history, cookies in the background and interfere with your privacy. Personal-browser.com can cause an immense problem to the functioning of your computer system so you had better remove it as quickly 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 Personal-browser.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.
1. You keep getting random pop-ups opening in new browser tabs.
2. When clicking on Google search links you get taken to sites that have nothing to do with the subject you searched for.
3. Anti-virus and firewall software won’t start.
4. Internet stops working.
5. Unknown software has been installed without your authorization.
6. You can’t access reputable sites unless you type the URL into the navigation bar
Personal-browser.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 Personal-browser.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 Personal-browser.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
Personal-browser.com is a browser hijacker that can modify default homepage and take control of your web browser whenever you use IE, Chrome or Firefox. This questionable website imitates itself as a legitimate and trustworthy search engine and hijacks user’s homepage without any permission. You should stay away from it because this is a spam search engine displays ads more than reliable results. It can affect the functioning of your web browser and even the whole computer. It may take much longer than before to load up Internet pages and you will be displayed by crazy pop-up ads during online sessions. Furthermore, the hijacker can use cookies to record information about people’s mostly visited websites, data that they entered, their computers’ IP address or location, and similar data in order to deliver more and more ads. As long as you click on the ads, it may immediately redirect you to irrelevant pages which are high-risk and could install other threats to your computer. It is suggested users remove Personal-browser.com hijacker manually without any delay.
Published by & last updated on June 27, 2015 2:40 am
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