How to remove Lucky Site 123 “Virus”

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Welcome to our Lucky Site 123 “Virus” removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.

In this article we are going to explain to you the specifics of a particular browser hijacker called Lucky Site 123. This program is a source of browsing disturbance related to changes in the homepage or the default search engine of some popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox or IE, and a source of a significant amount of page redirects and ads. If you are experiencing a disturbance of this type, then the removal guide below will help you deal with that. It contains detailed instructions and screen shots that will show you exactly how to find and remove the Lucky Site 123 “Virus” and all of its annoying changes from your browser. So, take a look at it and let us know how we helped you.

What’s the purpose of Lucky Site 123?

Generally, Browser Hijackers are pieces of software, which are used by the online advertising industry to promote services, products and web pages. A browser hijacker like Lucky Site 123 has one main purpose – to get you redirected to as many sponsored web pages and advertisements as possible. For that, it may hijack your browser and replace your homepage or search engine with some promotional ones and get you redirected to different web locations, every time you type something in your browser. Usually, all this happens without the users’ approval and this is the main reason why browser hijackers are often classified as potentially unwanted programs and many people prefer to remove them.

The reason for the intrusive ads invasion lies in the basis of a method called Pay-Per-Click, which is a commonly used way for many online based businesses and software developers to earn money from the clicks on sponsored advertisements and pages. With the help of the browser hijacker, they try to display as many of these ads as possible, just with the hope to get more clicks, and respectively, more money. However, for the users, it is basically useless to keep such ad-generating software on their computer because there are hardly any benefits for them, unless they really enjoy being flooded with promotional messages and popping advertisements on their screen all the time.

Can Lucky Site 123 threaten your computer?

Something that is probably troubling you is whether Lucky Site 123 is a harmful program or not. Fortunately, we can calm your fears by saying that browser hijackers do not pose any security risk to your system, so there is no reason for you to worry. However, you may often come across instances of Lucky Site 123 being referred to as a virus, but this is mostly because of the amount of irritation and disturbance this program may cause to some users, who are not really familiar with the nature of browser hijackers. These programs cannot corrupt your system the way that a Trojan horse would do, nor will they attempt to replicate as viruses or encrypt your files like Ransomware. In fact, they do not contain malicious scripts and that’s why security experts classify them as relatively harmless programs.

How can a browser hijacker affect your machine?

Despite being harmless, browser hijackers may still cause a huge amount of disturbance and browsing related irritation to some users. The main reason for that are the unstoppable and intrusive ads, banners, pop-ups and page redirects that may take place every time you open your browser. They may eat up a significant amount of your system resources and affect the general speed of your computer or make your browser slow. Many people may decide to uninstall the annoying software just because of that, but there are a few more things which may add up to that decision. Lucky Site 123 may monitor your browsing activity and collect information about the webpages you visit, the things you search for on the web, your bookmarks, and browsing history. This data may be used by the hijacker owners to show you more customized ads, matching your searches or they may sell it to some third parties for profits.

How to protect your system from browser hijackers in the future?

There are a few useful things to know when it comes to browser hijacker prevention. First of all, pay attention when browsing online and especially when you download and install new software on your computer. Programs like Lucky Site 123 usually find their way to your machine through some other software installers where they are bundled in. Such bundles could be found mostly on freeware platforms, torrent sites, in spam emails, ads, download managers and online installers, and when you download and run them, they install all the programs bundled in the setup. That’s why it is important to always have full control over the setup and this could be done through the Advanced/Custom option during the installation itself. Avoid the standard/Quick installation, because it doesn’t give you much details and control over the software that is about to be installed, and if you are not careful enough, you may end up not only with a browser hijacker but even with a nasty virus or some Ransomware on your machine.

SUMMARY:

Name	Lucky Site 123
Type	Browser Hijacker
Danger Level	Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms	Unauthrosied changes may take place in your browser’s homepage or search engine, numerous ads, new tabs and page redirects may pop-up on your screen.
Distribution Method	Mostly found in software bundles, freeware platforms, torrent sites, spam emails, ads, download managers and online installers.

Lucky Site 123 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 Lucky Site 123, 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 Lucky Site 123 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 Lucky Site 123 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 Lucky Site 123, 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.