Fishjane “Virus” Removal (Chrome/Firefox/IE)

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

We have recently received many messages from people wanting to deal with a particular adware program called Fishjane “Virus”. It appears that this program is a source of browsing related disturbance, caused by unstoppable advertisements that appear all over the user’s screen. All popular web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Explorer and many more could easily get affected by this intrusive software and get their browsing settings messed up. Once Fishjane “Virus” gets inside the computer, it immediately starts to impose some changes on the homepage and the search engine of the default browser, as well as initiating some page redirects and an aggressive flow of ads, pop-ups and banners. This could really cause some great irritation and inconvenience to the normal online activity of some users, so to help them deal with that, we decided to create a removal guide, which will show them how to remove Fishjane “Virus” and bring their browser back to normal.

Is it right to call Fishjane a “Virus”?

Put simply, Fishjane is luckily not a virus. This program is adware, which means that it has been created with the idea to display advertisements, not to do harm to the user’s computer. However, the rather aggressive way it does that may be a bit shocking for some users, who are not really familiar with the nature of this type of software. Many users may wrongly refer to Fishjane as a virus, simply because they may feel tricked by the way this software got inside their system. Although it does not infect their computer the way that a real virus or malware like Ransomware usually does, this adware may still appear where least expected. Its developers usually combine it with some other applications that users download and bundle it inside their installers. Free apps, test software, some games, players, installation managers or torrents may contain such adware inside their setup and once users get them installed, they inevitably would get the adware alongside it. This especially happens when users don’t pay attention to all the installation options when they run the setup. A common mistake is clicking on the “standard” or “quick” option without checking the “advanced” one or reading the EULA, which automatically installs the whole pack of programs on the computer.

What is Fishjane used for?

The aggressive way adware behaves has its explanation – money. This software is mostly used in a remuneration scheme called Pay-Per-Click. It works by displaying a huge amount of advertisements on the user’s screen, which are sponsored. This means that every time the users click on some of the displayed ads, some amount of money cashes in for the developers of the adware. This way they earn from the clicks and when profit is involved, they are naturally trying to display as many ads as possible and get as many clicks as possible. Pay-Per-Click is a popular business model nowadays, which explains why there are so many ad-generating applications distributed online. However, the irritation and disturbance they may cause, once they get inside the computer, may really make the affected users face the need to remove this software.

What disturbance may this program cause?

There are some potentially unwanted activities, which you may face while Fishjane is operating on your computer. And while they are not as dangerous as the malicious activities that a cryptovirus like Ransomware could do, they still may be irritating. Here are a few good reasons to consider uninstalling Fishjane. Shortly after this adware has appeared on your computer you may notice that the ads, pop-ups and banners it displays may become really intrusive and you may not be able to close them. The more you keep this program on your PC, the more advertisements you may get flooded with. After some time you may notice that some of the ads may somehow “magically” adjust to your latest searches or interests. This is a result of the tracking activity that the adware may initiate on your browsing habits. Various browsing related data may be collected during the time that Fishjane operates on your machine. Some users may find this activity disturbing, moreover, it may not really be clear where this data goes and how it it be used later. In addition, adware may affect the speed of the browser itself or cause some lags to your system. If you don’t feel like tolerating these activities, removing this intrusive software may be the right solution for you. Just check out the removal guide below and let us know if we helped you.

Fishjane “Virus” Removal

I – 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
   1. If you are unable to spot Fishjane, 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

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

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 Fishjane 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 Fishjane 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 Fishjane, 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.