Hackers from all over the world keep coming up with several innovative ways to hack into computers connected with the internet. The hackers who use Google redirect virus target the Google search results of Windows users with an objective to drive traffic to malicious websites.
How Google Redirect Virus Affects Your System?
When you type something in the Google search box, see the search engine results and click on any website; your internet browser opens up a malicious website which is actually not the page you exactly saw in the search engine results. This is how the Google redirect virus affects your system. You will be amazed to know that many anti-viruses have been unable to remove this virus. This article highlights some manual steps to remove Google Redirect Virus from your system.
Clean LmHosts.sam file
If your internet browser is being redirected to a malicious website, it may be due to the manipulation of the ‘lmhosts.sam’ file located in the system 32 folder of your windows system.
To open the ‘lmhosts.sam’ file, you just need to open your windows explorer program and open the following folder – ‘C:WindowsSystem32Driversetc’
‘lmhosts.sam’ file contains your DNS Redirect settings. You can open this file using the notepad. In case, you see any IP address and domain name listings entered in this file, simply delete them and save this file. In this way, you can stop the redirection of your Google search results.
Change TCP/IP Setting of Your Web Browser
To prevent your redirection of your Google search results, you can also change the TCP/IP settings of your web browser. For this, just go to the control panel, open the list of network connections and access the properties of your internet connection and specifically the window having your TCP/IP properties. Now tick this checkbox: ‘Obtain an IP address automatically’.
Remove Proxy Settings on Your Web Browser
It may be possible that your web browser’s settings have been changed. To fix it, open the internet setting of your browser and check if there is any proxy server settings been entered. If they are, disable them by checking the no proxy server box.
Run a Complete Virus Scan
After checking all the aforesaid things; you are recommended to run a complete virus scan of your system drive in order to remove the remnants of that virus left in form of Trojans or other malware. In this way, you can easily remove Google redirect virus from your system.