Welcome, reader, to our HxTsr.exe removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.
Recently, a new virus of the Trojan horse type has been released. The name of the new threat is HxTsr.exe and many recent reports of computers infected by it. In order to help our users protect their computers from the malicious threat, we have written this article. Here, you can find important information regarding this type of harmful software and how you can prevent your PC from getting infected. Additionally, there is a guide manual with detailed instructions on how to remove the Trojan from your system if it has already been attacked by the virus. However, bear in mind that simply going through the removal guide will not be enough to ensure your PC is protected in the future. Therefore, we advise you to read everything and acquaint yourself with the different potential dangers of a Trojan and what you can do to improve your machine’s safety and security.
What makes Trojan horses so dangerous?
One of the worst things about a Trojan infection is that there are oftentimes little to no symptoms. This makes detecting the invasion of the malicious software very difficult. Many users have no idea that their PC has been attacked by a virus until it is way too late. In some cases, there might be certain symptoms of a Trojan horse infection. For example, crashes and freezes, general system slow-down and odd PC behavior. However, as we already said, this is situational and with many Trojans there will be little to no symptoms. Another reason why viruses like HxTsr.exe are such a huge issue and are so widely spread is because they can be used for almost everything. Trojan Horses are a very versatile type of harmful software and hackers can employ them for a variety of different illegal tasks. This makes them very popular among all sorts of cyber-criminals.
Potential HxTsr.exe uses
In this paragraph, we will list some of the most common ways, in which Trojan horse viruses are being used.
- File/system destruction – Many Trojans are able to delete your personal documents, corrupt important system data and even annihilate your whole system. In some instances, your machine could be made completely useless after the virus has finished its job.
- Espionage – Viruses the likes of HxTsr.exe are perfect tools for cyber-spying. There is a variety of different methods that can be employed for that task. Some Trojans can enable the hacker to see what is happening on your screen or get information about everything you type using your keyboard (keystroke logging). One particularly feared and disturbing espionage method is when the malware uses your own webcam to spy on you. In most cases the victim has no idea that the camera is actually working because it appears to be turned off.
- Stealing money from bank accounts – If the criminal manages to get hold of your online bank account password and username with the help of the Trojan, they’d be able to extract all your money without any difficulty. You might not even realize what has happened until you check your balance, by which time it would be way too late to undertake any sort of counteraction.
- Cryptocurrency mining – Some viruses of the Trojan horse type can turn your computer into a mining tool for bitcoins. This uses up all available system resources and puts them into the mining process. Later, the generated bitcoins are sent to the hacker and as long as the virus stays on your PC, the computer will be forced to keep on doing that.
- Botnet – Another possibility is that your computer becomes a part of a botnet. This is a network of computers that is used to fulfill a specific task. In most cases such botnets are used to spread spam e-mails or messages containing malicious hyperlinks.
- Spreading other malware – Malware such as HxTsr.exe could also be employed to allow other viruses into the user’s computer. Nowadays, this backdoor technique is often used to infect people’s systems with the infamous Ransomware viruses.
How to keep your machine safe and protected
The best way you can handle Trojan horse threats is to ensure that your PC is well secured against potential attacks. In order to do that, you’d need to learn a couple of important rules and adhere to them from now on.
- Provide your system with a reliable anti-virus program. It is also important that you remember to always keep the security up-to-date.
- Stay away from sites that seem obscure or ones that are illegal especially if you are about to download software from the internet. Stick to sources that are reliable and trustworthy.
- Be careful with any suspicious-looking e-mails that get sent to you even if they are not in the spam folder. Also, do not open any shady links that you might come across.
- Have a back-up of all important files that are stored on your hard drive. That way even if your system gets invaded by a virus, you’d at least have your important data safe on a separate device.
HxTsr.exe 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 HxTsr.exe, 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 HxTsr.exe 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 HxTsr.exe 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 HxTsr.exe, 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.
