Remove Hightsearch.com - Redirect Virus Removal Guide

Information About Hightsearch.com

Hightsearch.com is as dangerous as it sounds, which is a malicious browser hijacker that can cause serious PC problems. Once gets into a target computer, the browser hijacker will force the user to visit its domain every time you open the infected browser. The main objective of this redirect virus is to disturb internet activities and get monetary benefit from victims. In a word, the ultimate purpose of creating this redirect virus is to make money. It is suggested to take immediate steps to clean up Hightsearch.com for it is capable to open up the gate for other malware if users desire to keep their computer and confidential information under legit anti-malware protection.

Consequences of Hightsearch.com

Once Hightsearch.com has been installed to the infected browser successfully, the Internet settings on the infected browser will be totally modified. The original homepage and search engine will be replaced with the browser hijacker. As a result, when users do a search, they may receive lots of ads and sponsored links in the search results. No matter what you click on it intentionally or unintentionally, it can take any chance to slip into your system and corrupt your computer. Those ads are usually include ads, coupons, deals, revenues, pop-banner, and sponsored links, which are utilized to rope victims into purchasing some fake or non-existent products or services. If users click on those pop ups and buy the promoted products or services, they would end up losing their money without getting anything back. What’s more, the redirect virus may collect users’ confidential information and data for malicious purpose.

How to Remove Hightsearch.com from an Infected Computer?

Removing Hightsearch.com redirect virus is not an easy job since it will replace the Internet items and create related files in the local disk and registry. Therefore, PC users will be attacked by this redirect virus even they restore the browser to the default settings. Here we recommend you to use a professional malware removal tool to scan the PC and fix the browser hijacker problem conveniently.

Step by Step to Remove Hightsearch.com Redirect Virus

Step 1: Remove the redirect virus related programs.
1. Click Start menu and select Control Panel.
2. Click on Uninstall a program under the Programs category.
3. In the programs list find out any suspicious programs, and then click on the Uninstall.
4. Follow the wizard to accomplish the removal.
Step 2: Remove all unwanted extensions from the browsers.
Internet Explorer
1. Start the Internet Explorer, click on Tools, and select Manage Add-ons in the drop-down list.
2. Click on Toolbars and Extensions, find out and disable the add-ons related to Hightsearch.com redirect virus.
Mozilla Firefox
1. Run the Mozilla Firefox, click on Tools and choose Add-ons.
2. Click on Extensions, then select the unwanted add-ons in the list and click on Remove\Disable button.
3. Click Plugins, and remove\disable any unknown add-ons.
Google Chrome
1. Launch Google Chrome and click on the menu icon.
2. Click the Tools in the list then select Extensions.
3. Click on Extensions, then find out the redirect virus related add-ons and delete them.
Step 3: Remove all malicious files and registry entries.
1. In the local disk C, local the following folders:
%Temp%\
%Program Files%\
%UserProfile%\Desktop\
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\
%Document and Settings%\[UserName]\Application Data\
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\
2. In the above folders, find out and remove any malicious files.
3. Open the registry editor by following the steps: click Start menu, type “regedit” into the search box, and click “regedit.exe” from the results list.
4. In the registry editor, find out and delete any malicious registry entries from your PC.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “[RANDOM].exe”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “[RANDOM].exe”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\run\Random.exe

Conclusion

Hightsearch.com browser hijacker virus uses many ways to distribute the virus, but the major one is third party Windows freeware as victimized users are not able to recognize such intrusive virus. In general, the redirect virus often penetrates into a target system by bundling with some freeware and hiding behind some unsafe web links that are not easy to be caught by any anti-spyware software. Users install one program without knowing what is going on. Many additional browser extensions and potentially unwanted programs seize the opportunities to get into the computers in this way and compromise the target computers after installations. Such dangerous browser hijacker as Hightsearch.com is closely related to frequently browser redirection and suddenly commercial pop up ads. That is why it is advised to get rid of redirect virus before further damage. Don’t know how to remove the browser hijacker? It is safe and recommended to download and use a program which is designed specially for virus removal to solve the problem in time.