Welcome to our Takeofftv.su “Virus” removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.
Today we are going to talk about browser hijackers in general, and a particular version of them called Takeofftv.su “Virus”. These programs are known to produce pop-ups as often as you try to browse the Internet; to redirect you to pages you have never wanted to visit; and to set new and unfamiliar homepages and search engines to all of your browsers – Firefox, Opera, Explorer and Chrome. We have assembled this article to help you understand this software type’s nature and to assist you in removing such programs.
What is a browser hijacker?
As we have mentioned above, this sort of software could show some quite annoying features like the production of pop-ups and the redirecting processes it may conduct. Nevertheless, such a program may have some more quite disturbing features such as:
- doing a little research into your browser databases and determining, what kin dof content you are most interested in;
- producing such a big number of advertisements that your machine may get completely frozen due to the high consumption of RAM and CPU.
Could Takeofftv.su actually “hijack” anything from your PC? Is it malicious?
No browser hijacker represents a virus. There is no connection between malware and this sort of advertising software. There are some enormous differences between Takeofftv.su and a typical virus, such as Ransomware or a Trojan. Trojans destroy or steal something from your system. Ransomware encrypts files and then asks for ransom in order to decrypt. Both types of malware could infect your computer by themselves, no permission necessary, even an indirect one. But, if Takeofftv.su is not a virus, why was it created?
Browser hijackers have distinctive advertising functions. All the redirecting, the new homepages and search engines, as well as the variety of the generated ads serve to promote all kinds of products. Developers are hired to advertise services, software and all sorts of goods in the best possible way. They are in fact paid according to the exact number of ads they broadcast more specifically those that get clicked by users, which is why they always strive to produce more for more money. All the activities it may conduct are completely legitimate and do not break any laws.
What about the distribution of these programs? How could you catch a hijacker like Takeofftv.su?
The ways of spreading such promoting programs could also occur pretty shadily. Hijackers are not viruses but the changes they might provoke could definitely annoy the affected users a lot. That’s why everyone should try to avoid them as often as possible. In order to stay away from an irritating program, users should first avoid its sources.The potential sources of hijackers are the following:
- Shareware web pages; video-streaming websites and torrents: Almost all copyright-law breaking websites are possible sources of advertising programs. Their owners are able to provide movies, software and other things for free, because they make money out of the promoting software they may distribute.
- Spam and other pop-ups: Sometimes just a click on a random advertisement while you are browsing the web could lead to your redirecting to contagious places where you might catch programs like Takeofftv.su.
- The biggest and the most common potential sources of Adware and browser hijackers are the products of the process called bundling – the so-called software bundles. They are actually combos of free apps, games and programs that you can download from the Internet. Nonetheless, it is not enough to download such a software mixture in order to catch the infection; you have to install it as well.
How to install a bundle or a program right, so that you will not face an infection?
Always remember the following tip when you venture into installing a program or a software bundle. The installation wizard feature you use always matters. Make sure that it is one of the more detailed features such as the Custom or the Advanced one, which normally provide you with the opportunity to choose the exact features and components of the bundle that you want inside your system. In this way the installation process will not be automatically performed and you will have the control over it. It is recommended that you should not use the Automatic/ the Default; or the Quick installation option, because they will deprive you of actually choosing what to incorporate into your system.
As far as the removal of this program is concerned, it is not that difficult if you decide to use our Removal Guide below. It is specially designed to help you with that delicate task.
Takeofftv.su “Virus” Removal
I – Uninstallation
- Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
- Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
- Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall
- If you are unable to spot Takeofftv.su, 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.
II – Safe mode and revealing hidden files
III – Cleaning all your browsers
- Go to your browser’s icon, right-click on it and select Properties.
- Go to the Shortcut tab and in the Target make sure to delete anything written after “.exe”.
- Now, open your browser and follow the instructions below depending on whether you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE.
- Chrome users:
- Go to your browser’s main menu located in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
- Scroll down, click on Show Advanced Settings and then select Clear browsing data. Just to be sure, tick everything and clear the data.
- 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:
- Similarly to Chrome, go to the main menu and select Add-ons and then Extensions.
- Remove any suspicious browser extensions that you may have even if they do not have the name Takeofftv.su on them.
- IE users:
- Go to Tools and select Manage add-ons.
- 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
- Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
- Thoroughly look through all processes. The name Takeofftv.su 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.
- If you spot the process ran by Takeofftv.su, 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
- In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
- Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
- Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
- If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
- Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
- Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.
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