Tuesday, January 13, 2015

How to Delete Mystartsearch.com Redirect Virus?

Mystartsearch.com is designed to take control of users’ browsers and affect their browsing activities. Once being allowed to get installed on the browser, the malware will alter the browser settings to the ones controlled by cyber violators without user’s permission. With all the modifications of the browser settings, you will find the default homepage replaced by Mystartsearch.com. When users run the browser to do a search, they will be provided a lot of ads and sponsored links in the search results and clicking on those ads and sponsored links may take them to the websites that contain specific products. Afterwards, it is no possible for users to visit any legitimate sites they want and the search results are totally under this threat’s control.


Under normal circumstance, Mystartsearch.com browser hijack will redirect PC users to visit advertising sites while going online, and then PC users will see many unsafe links and advertisement pages. To put it bluntly, the redirect virus is designed by cyber hackers to make profits by cheating computer users. The advertising sites provided by the browser hijacker are always very tempting, if some users can’t help clicking on the ads due to curiosity they may easily fall for the scams set by the cybercriminals. The so-call preferential information are not reliable, you should not click those ads to avoid getting defrauded.


Though Mystartsearch.com redirect virus is not as malicious as a Trojan horse, it should not be left on the infected computers for a long time. Your screen will be also full of various pop-up ads, error messages and security alerts to interrupt you every few seconds. But the truth is precisely the opposite. The system has been already under the total permanent control of this threat since the computer is compromised. Any vital modification on system settings may lead to unimaginable consequences, take an example, the system security level may lower and many other unwanted programs, including malware, can break into the compromised PC. Under the circumstances, the additional Trojans, adware and other threats will take up a lot of system resources, drastically slowing down the computer performance and speed. Once users cannot take immediate actions to help the system get away from the precarious malware, the system can possibly experience more destructive consequences. Thus, users should take action instantly to get rid of Mystartsearch.com and then repair the affected browsers.


Warning signs of Infection:


1. Mystartsearch.com can not only get on browsers without permissions, but reset default structures of affected browsers without letting you change them back; 
2. It shows up a lot of ads or pop-up links to disturb online sessions; 
3. Those pop-ups and sponsored links may redirect you to insecure websites which contain malware; 
4. The performance of the affected browsers will be incredibly slow down while unresponsive webs will be expected more often; 
5. Users’ usernames, passwords and other confidential data are exposed to cyber criminals.


Guide to Manually Remove the Virus


Mystartsearch.com virus is a dangerous browser hijacker which will change the homepage and browser settings, and redirect your web search results to random sites containing lots of illegal advertisements, even Trojan, rootkit or other malware virus. Sometimes the antivirus software cannot identify the computer threat accurately and timely or remove it permanently. Hence, sometimes manual removal is needed. Users can follow the manual guide here to have this virus removed instantly.


Step 1: Set the default homepage back

For Internet Explorer:
Click on Browser Tools
Select Manage Add-ons on the tools window
Click Search Provider
Here you can see many kinds of search engine option as Bing and Google, select your favorite one to be a default homepage.
Choose Search Results and click on Remove icon to eliminate it
Click Tools, select Internet Options and then the General tab. Here you can option a website you like and save it.
c. Select ‘Search Results’ and click ‘Remove’ to remove it;

For Google Chrome:
Open Customize and control
Click on Settings
Select on Basic Options icon
Here you can reset your homepage (e.g.Google.com)
Once you choose a default homepage, click on Manage Search Engines and then click Google to be your default search engine.
Remove it from the browser by clicking Search Result and then the X’ mark

For Mozilla Firefox:
Click Manage Search Engine
Select Search Results and then click Remove option, click OK
Open Tools, under the General tab, set Google.com as default homepage

Step 2: Locate related files of Mystartsearch.com and remove them from the computer
%AllUsersProfile%
%AllUsersProfile%\Programs\{random letters}\
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~r
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~dll

Step 3: Remove cookies on all browsers
Internet Explorer:
Click options on the browser and then choose Internet Options
Open General tab, click Delete Browsing History to remove all related cookies
Select cookies and click Delete

Firefox:
Click option
Select Privacy and then click on Remove Individual Cookies icon
Delete relevant cookies list on the box

Google Chrome:
Click option
Open Under the Bonnet tab
Select Privacy and then click Clear browsing data
Delete all cookies

Step 4: Remove malicious registry entries
Open Registry Editor on the start menu
Type in Regedit and click OK
Remove all the following registry entries
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings “CertificateRevocation” = ‘1’
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments “SaveZoneInformation” = ‘0’

Conclusion


Technically speaking, Mystartsearch.com is not like Trojans which are used by hackers to gain unauthorized access to the computers remotely for malicious purposes. It does not mean that the malware won’t pose threat on user’s privacy related information. Browser hijacker can come into system when users are careless. So it is also regarded as a type of cyber hackers. Once the redirect virus gets into the PC, the web browser is hijacked and cyber criminals can know you browsing habits and deliver the related advertisements to you. The threat contains many malicious features, such as changing users’ favorite web browsers and damaging the system by adding more other types of threats. Once being infested, the malware will totally control your computer and prevent you from modifying. They might be corrupt or missing and sent to unknown hijackers. So be careful when you surf online, because Internet environment is full of adware trap.



Note: If you are afraid of making any mistakes during the manual removal steps, you can download and install a professional malware removal tool to remove it automatically and safely.

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