Problems with Search US com browser hijacker

[Clueless101]

Hi,

Looking for some help pls, tbh not sure if this is the area of the forum to ask but it looked the most likely, apologies if it's not.

Basically I downloaded some software from cnet, when I installled it the actual application I thought I was installing didnt appear but I did manage to get the Search US com browser hijacker infecting my system. I am generally careful when installing things but was tired and may have clicked too soon.

I searched about and think I managed to remove it from my system but to be honest I am not totally sure as I dont know much about it. Can anyone tell me how I can check if it is gone, and if this is particularly dangerous if I havent managed to clear it all out pls? I am hoping to get some peace of mind as am worried about what this could do.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me

 

[hang-the-9]

Run Malwarebytes and a anti-virus bood CD scan, Avira Antivir has a good free one, if those come up clean, should be OK. If the computer is working normally after a few reboots, you can consider the spyware gone.

 

[Clueless101]

Thanks a lot for the advice I ran Malwarebytes and have an anti virus running constantly and have ran a full check and all has come up clean so fingers crossed it's gone for good.

Thanks again

 

[tech_99]

I had the same issue a few days a ago as well. Malwarebytes removed most of the files that were related to this browser hijacker, however, at least in my case it also hijacked web browser shortcuts. More info here:

http/deletemalware.blogspot.com/2013/06/remove-startsearchuscom-homepage.html

So, basically to remove it completely you also need to check shortcuts and remove search.us.com as an argument in the target field. Malwarebytes won't do this for you.

 

[Saga Lout]

That's a good shot tech-99 - most folks carry on wondering why IE fails to take them to their homepage in spite of reinforcing it in settings and running malware scans. As you point out, the desktop shortcut to a browser has actually been edited to take the user straight to the hijack page.

Right click that shortcut and delete the target, replacing it with, in IE's case, c:\program files\internet explorer/iexplore.exe and everything will be back to normal. Other browsers will need a different target.