How to Remove Search.gomaps.co Redirect Thoroughly?

Search.gomaps.co is categorized as a dangerous browser hijacker that created by cyber criminals for commercial purposes. In this way, it can force users to use its search service and decide what would be shown to them. Since Search.gomaps.co appears as a useful search provider similar to Google, most computer users won’t be vigilant when they find their homepage is replaced by this site, some even keep this one as their default homepage unconsciously.

Search.gomaps.co redirect virus has the ability to interfere with users’ activities on the browsers by redirecting them to some unknown websites which contain lots of advertisements and sponsored links. Despite of the weird phenomena happen on the browsers, the redirect virus also cause constant popping up of ads which aims at misleading the net users to click and redirecting them to domain web pages. In most cases, those shopping websites may be phishing websites for collecting user’s privacy information and then help cyber criminals to steal their money. Commodity sales promotion, activity coupons, discounts on goods and bargains are other sources that can be exploited to distribute Search.gomaps.co redirect virus. Some users just could not resist on such lure of price trap.

The Search.gomaps.co redirect will shut down the secure service on the computer, other threats on the Internet will be able to attack the infected computer. After the modifications are done, endless additional browser items will be installed in the name of regular browser items without consent, including unwanted add-ons, unsafe extension and unnecessary toolbar. In this case, the computer performance may drastically decrease and the web browser freezes or even crashes occasionally. Besides, the redirect virus may add lots of malicious website URLs to users’ Favorite folder and Bookmark list. If users click and visit those websites, they are likely to get malware downloaded and installed on their computers and suffer from various unpleasant problems.

How to Remove Search.gomaps.co Effectively

1. Remove the browser hijacker from the infected computer.
Click on the Start button and select Control Panel. Click on Uninstall a program under the Programs category.
Find out and locate the programs related to the browser hijacker. Click on the Uninstall button to remove them all.
2. Launch the infected browser and remove the add-ons or extensions related to the browser hijacker.
Internet Explorer:
Open IE, click on Tools and then select Manage Add-ons. When it opens a window, click on Toolbars and Extensions. Find out the extensions related to the browser hijacker and select them. Then, right-click them and click on the Disable option. Restart IE to finish the procedure.
Google Chrome:
Launch Google Chrome. Click on the Three-bar icon on top-right of the browser, select tools and then Extensions from the list. After that, click Extensions on the left side of the window. Locate the extension related to the browser hijacker, select it and click on the trash icon. Restart the browser to complete the procedure.
Mozilla Firefox:
Start Firefox and click on the tool menu from the top menu. Click on the Add-ons tab to open the configuration window. Then, click Extensions on the left side of this window. Now find out the extensions of the redirect virus and remove them from the browser. Restart the browser to complete the process.
3. Show hidden files and folders.
Go to Control panel again and click on Appearance and Personalization. Then double click on Folder Options. Hit the View tab, tick “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and deselect “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”. Click on the OK button to apply the changes.
4. Delete the malicious files of Search.gomaps.co from the local disk.
The files listed below are reference only because the virus may has the ability to changes the names and locations of its files.
%Program Files%\ random
%AppData%\Protector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\Inspector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\vsdsrv32.exe
5. Open Registry Editor and delete the registry entries of the browser hijacker..
Press Windows+ R keys simultaneously to open the Run window. Then type “regedit” in the run box and press Enter key to open Registry Editor.
After that, find out and delete all the registry entries of the redirect virus. The below registry entries are also for reference only.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\[random].exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\browser hijacker name
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System ‘DisableRegistryTools’ = 0
6. Restart the infected computer to apply all changes.

Conclusion

Generally, Search.gomaps.co redirect virus breaks into the targeted computers by coming bundled with a junk email attachment, pretending itself to be a legitimate file (such as audio file, image file, or txt file) and cheating users into click on the attachment. Another way it often uses is through bundling with some programs installers thus it can be installed if the user do not pay attention to some unnoticeable options. Most of the PC users will choose to ignore this virus infection and lose the best time to wipe out this nasty redirect infection.

One can never be too carefully when he is about to install, download, and open things on the Internet if he wants to keep a healthy computer because any of the actions can cause virus attacks without your attention. If the browser has been under the control of Search.gomaps.co redirect virus, the most effective solution is to enable a trusted anti-malware scanner on the computer. Then repair the browser settings and safeguard their PCs against other cyber threats. In addition, scan each downloaded file before running it on computer for security, in case of the virus or rogue software mix together with others and invade system and post threaten to computer.