How to Remove TF.org “Virus” (Chrome/FF/IE)

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Welcome to our TF.org “Virus” removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.

You’ve probably landed on this page seeking for salvation from the enormous amount of ads, pop-ups, page redirects, new tabs and browser changes that have recently taken over your default browsing program. Whether it is Chrome, Firefox, IE or some other browser, here you are going to find an effective solution that will help you to remove all these annoying changes and bring your favorite browser back to normal. What is more, we are going to prompt you to the most probable reason for your entire disturbance – a browser hijacking program named TF.org “Virus”. This program is commonly known for the page redirects, the homepage or the search engine replacements it may impose, and the overall browsing disturbance it may cause. On this page, we are going to discuss its specifics and offer you a removal guide, which can help you fully uninstall TF.org “Virus” from your system and remove all of its modifications from your affected browser.

TF.org “Virus” – what should you know about this program?

Similarly to any other program, which is classified as a browser hijacker, TF.org “Virus” has some typical traits that place it into that category. This piece of software is developed to generate and display a huge amount of advertisements, different sponsored messages and promotional websites. For that, it uses a rather invasive method, called browser hijacking, to position these ads strategically, so that you could not be able to easily ignore them. What it basically does is it integrates with your default browser and imposes some specific changes to your homepage or search engine, installs some sponsored toolbar or modifies your searches in such a way, that you constantly get redirected to different advertisements, pop-ups, banners and offers.

The ultimate goal behind this aggressive advertising approach is TF.org “Virus” to collect clicks on the displayed ads for the profit of its creators. This is how the infamous Pay-Per-Click method works. Many vendors, software developers and advertisers apply this method to earn revenue for their business, and there is nothing illegal or wrong about it. However, for the users, who have to face the enormous amount of advertisements and deal with them constantly, the browser hijacker invasion could be a real nuisance. That’s why, some of them seek for effective ways to uninstall this type of software from their machines and get their browsing experience back to normal.

Potential risks, related to browser hijackers…

Oftentimes, apart from the intrusive ads displaying, data tracking activity is also activated. Whether the users know about it or not, thanks to the data tracking TF.org “Virus”‘s developers may collect information about all the browsing activity, bookmarks, history of searches and latest pages that the people have visited. This information is a valuable marketing data, and the owners of the browser hijacker can effectively use it to customize and display more of their ads, or even sell it to other advertisers. Considered as a form of a privacy invasion, this data tracking is one of the reasons why such software is referred to as potentially unwanted and is often removed from the users’ computers. Another rather risky thing is not the program itself, but the ads and pages it displays. There is a chance that you may unknowingly get infected with some virus or malware, if you are not really careful when you click on the randomly generated advertisements and pop-ups that keep appearing on your screen. Sometimes, fake ads or malicious transmitters of Ransomware and Trojan horses may sneak in between, camouflaged as an interesting offer or a promotional web page. And since there are hardly any symptoms that may help distinguish a fake ad from a real one, you could never know whether the ads that you see on your monitor are safe or not. That’s why it is best if you avoid clicking on such intrusive messages or totally eliminate the browser hijacker that generates them.

However, apart from all the potentially unwanted activities and risks, there is one thing about browser hijackers that we would like to clarify. These pieces of software are not malicious. Many users may wrongly call them viruses, but the truth is that the browser hijackers are not harmful in their nature and do not aim to perform system corruption, data theft or other criminal deeds on your machine. These are the specialties of real viruses and malware like Ransomware infections, Trojan horses, Spyware, etc. So, if you have a program like TF.org “Virus” on your PC, there is no need to panic. If your browsing has been disturbed, you can simply remove it from your system.  The best is that you don’t even need a specialists’ help for that. Just follow the instructions in the removal guide below, and in a few minutes you will be able to browse the web in peace again.

How to Remove TF.org “Virus”

I – Safe mode and revealing hidden files

1. Boot your PC into Safe Mode /link/
2. Reveal hidden files and folders /link/

II – Uninstallation

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1. Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
   
2. Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
   
3. Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall

If you are unable to spot TF.org “Virus”, search for any unrecognized programs that you do not remember installing on your PC – the unwanted software might disguise itself by going under a different name.

III – Cleaning all your browsers

1. Go to your browser’s icon, right-click on it and select Properties.
   
2. Go to the Shortcut tab and in the Target make sure to delete anything written after “.exe”.
   
3. Now, open your browser and follow the instructions below depending on whether you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE.

• Chrome users:

1. Go to your browser’s main menu located in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
   
2. Scroll down, click on Show Advanced Settings and then select Clear browsing data. Just to be sure, tick everything and clear the data.
   
3. Now, in the left pane, go to Extensions and look through all extensions that are integrated within your browser. If you notice any suspicious add-on, disable it and then remove it.
   

• Firefox users:

1. Similarly to Chrome, go to the main menu and select Add-ons and then Extensions.
2. Remove any suspicious browser extensions that you may have even if they do not have the name TF.org “Virus” on them.

• IE users:

1. Go to Tools and select Manage add-ons.
   
2. Click on all add-on types from the left pane and check if there is anything suspicious in the right panel. In case you find anything shade, make sure to remove it.

IV – Removing Shady processes

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1. Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
   
2. Thoroughly look through all processes. The name TF.org “Virus” might not be there, but if you notice any shady looking process that consumes high amounts of memory it might be ran by the unwanted program.
3. If you spot the process ran by TF.org “Virus”, right-click on it, open its file location and delete everything in there. Then go back to the Task Manager and end the process.
   

V – DNS check

1. In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
   
2. Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
   
3. Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
   
4. If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
   
5. Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
   
6. Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.