How to remove Shellsearch.net? When you open your browser, you just can see this site and your original homepage disappears? You don’t know why the browser settings are changed? You cannot access your favorite web sites? Another thing you can’t stand is that it always redirects your links to unknown places. How to get the browser back to normal?
Shellsearch.net is a browser hijacker. Computer users’ online activities are often harassed by the hijacker, because it is able to modify the network configurations and browser settings. It forces computer users to visit its sponsored websites to generate network traffics and increase search rankings. You also can see the default home page and search engine are changed. Its developers give it a pure interface so that it can masquerade as a legitimate search site. However, it differs from the famous Bing, Yahoo and Google.
Shellsearch.net has the ability to modify DNS settings to prevent computer users from accessing their favorite web sites. It is clear that the browser hijacker should be removed as it behaves suspicious tasks on the computer. At the same time, it can download unnecessary things on your computer to record your search history and cookies. You also have to get a lot of pop-up ads which may redirect you to unsafe sites or even make you activate malware and spyware. It can spread to your computer in several ways. If you download and install free programs from unknown sources, you can get it. Shellsearch.net is often associated with those unknown free programs. You can also let the hijacker get into the system if you accidentally open a spam email attachment or click on an unreliable link. We should be cautious so as not to suffer from this browser hijacker and other potential threats.
1. Shellsearch.net is able to become the startup page of your web browser via modifying browser settings. No matter which browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Opera), you can see the browser is occupied by it completely.
2. It may also install plug-ins, extensions and toolbars in the browser so as to record your search history as well as cookies.
3. You need to wait for a long time when visiting websites because the browser always gets stuck and is slow in reaction.
4. This annoying redirect may also result in unstable Internet connection and system freezes frequently.
5. You are forced to receive many advertisement windows when the computer is connected to the Internet.
Shellsearch.net browser hijacker changes the homepage as well as browser settings, and redirects your web search results to random sites containing lots of illegal advertisements, even Trojan, rootkit or other malware viruses. Sometimes the antivirus software cannot identify it accurately and timely or remove it permanently. Therefore, manual removal is the best choice to uninstall it completely from your computer. Users can follow the manual guide here to have the hijacker removed instantly.
1. Clean Add-ons and Extensions
* Internet Explorer:
(1). Click Tools in the Menu bar and then click Internet Options
(3). Click Programs tab, click Manage add-ons and disable the suspicious add-ons
* Firefox:
(1). Click Tools in the Menu bar and then click Add-ons
(2). Click Extensions, select the related browser add-ons and click Disable
* Google Chrome:
(1). Click Customize and control Google Chrome button → Tools → Extensions
(2). Disable the extensions of Shellsearch.net
2. End Relevant Processes
(1). Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc together to pop up Windows Task Manager, click Processes tab
*For Win 8 Users:
Click More details when you see the Task Manager box
And then click Details tab
(2). Find out and end Shellsearch.net’s processes
3. Show Hidden Files
(1). Click on Start button and then on Control Panel
(2). Click on Appearance and Personalization
(3). Click on Folder Options
(4). Click on the View tab in the Folder Options window
(5). Choose Show hidden files, folders, and drives under the Hidden files and folders category
(6). Click OK at the bottom of the Folder Options window
*For Win 8 Users:
Press Win+E together to open Computer window, click View and then click Options
Click View tab in the Folder Options window, choose Show hidden files, folders, and drives under the Hidden files and folders category
4. Delete Relevant Registry Entries and Files
(1). Delete the registry entries related to Shellsearch.net through Registry Editor
Press Win+R to bring up the Run window, type “regedit” and click “OK”
While the Registry Editor is open, search and delete its registry entries
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\[RANDOM CHARACTERS].exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run ‘Random’
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Random
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings “CertificateRevocation” =Random
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\run\Random.exe
(2). Find out and remove the associated files
%AllUsersProfile%\random.exe
%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\random.exe
%Temp%\random.exe
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\random
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~random
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\.dll HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Random “.exe”
Shellsearch.net is a rampant browser hijacker. It is able to destroy a computer user’s online activities through changing your default home page as well as the search engine and redirecting you to unknown sites. You are prevented from accessing your favorite websites. To help the developers earn pay-per-click, it also pops up a lot of advertisements promoting unreliable business products and services, which is related to your search keywords for it can collect your search habits. Therefore, once you see Shellsearch.net appearing in the computer, you had better delete all its components as soon as possible in order to avoid more problems.
The above manual removal is quite dangerous and complicated, which needs sufficient professional skills. Therefore, only computer users with rich computer knowledge are recommended to implement the process because any errors including deleting important system files and registry entries will crash your computer system. If you have no idea of how to process the manual removal, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further assistance.
Published by & last updated on May 28, 2015 2:58 am
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