Videobah.com “Virus” Removal (Chrome/Firefox)

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In this article we are going to try and help you remove Videobah.com “Virus”. Our instructions cover all Windows versions as well as most browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.

The point of any browser hijacker is to introduce certain changes to your browser (Chrome/Firefox/etc.) with the purpose of promoting given products and services. These changes might include setting a new homepage and/or default search engine that will be redirecting your search queries to various promotional pages and sponsored links. Not to mention the amazing number of ads that will be greeting you every time you open your browser and try to surf the web. Videobah.com is a very typical hijacker in that sense, as you may have already noticed, and we’re guessing you’ve had enough of it, since you’re on this page. Well, you certainly aren’t alone in your desire to remove this pesky advertising software, along with all its imposed new settings and numerous popups. We have created a removal guide to help you deal with this issue and you will find just below this article.

PPC, ads and controversy

In the core of most software that serves the purpose of the online marketing industry, like Videobah.com, lies a certain business strategy more popularly referred to as PPC, which is short for the Pay Per Click scheme. It’s a lucrative business model and ensures that software developers get paid for generating and distributing advertisements of various products and services by the vendors and providers of those products and services. They are usually paid based on the amount of clicks their ads land and this should probably explain the annoying placement of the ads and their crazy numbers. But the developers don’t count on obstructive positioning and quantity alone to make you interact with the various banners, popups, box messages and links. They often employ a somewhat more devious tactic, which enables Videobah.com or other browser hijackers to monitor the browsing-related details of the affected user. This means that the program has access to the person’s browsing history, their search query history and also potentially the history of any content they may have liked, shared or posted on social media. This information allows Videobah.com to determine where that particular user’s current interests lie and this will in turn tell the browser hijacker what kind of ads to display, so that you are more likely to click on them.

This practice is often frowned upon and most users don’t rejoice at the idea that some randomly installed program is going to record everything they do online. That is an additional reason for people deciding to remove the hijacker and, provided that the developers of software like Videobah are known for selling the collected data to third parties, this should hardly come as a surprise. In fact, this type of activity comes across as so disturbing that browser hijackers have gained the reputation of viruses and are often compared to malware. We can assure you that that’s not the case here. Videobah.com is not a virus and won’t harm your machine, the files on it or you personally. But because of its intrusiveness, stealthy installation techniques and its potential of exposing users to more serious threats, it has been placed under the potentially unwanted programs category, or PUP for short.

What we meant by exposing you to threats, we were referring to the now-common practice of malvertising, which is illegal activity that involves corrupting online ads by injecting them with viruses. The infamous ransomware, for example, is notoriously distributed with the help of these misleading ads and the reason for that is that there is no visible difference between a fake ad and a real one. Naturally, with a program that is designed to distribute online adverts the risk of some hacker taking advantage of one or more of them is beyond real. As for Videobah.com’s distribution, you are most likely to have installed it alongside some other program, maybe even without noticing it. Program bundles are one of the main sources for such programs, as they are typically hidden within the installer of another, more desirable program. When the affected user downloads and proceeds to install that desirable program, by choosing the wrong option in the setup, they will end up installing all the added content in that bundle. Of course, none of this will be openly disclosed. To avoid this, simply choose the custom/advanced setting of the installation wizard (as opposed to the default one) and therein you will be shown a list of the added programs, from which you will be able to decide what goes and what stays.

Videobah.com “Virus” Removal

Many types of malware will restrict your access to their core files. It is highly recommended that you reboot your PC in safe mode before attempting to use this guide.

• To enable Safe Mode reboot you PC, then hit F8 repeatedly. When the corresponding menu opens please select Safe Mode with Networking.

WARNING! If you are using Windows 8,0 or later and/or your operating system is installed on a fast SSD drive this may fail to work. In this case click here to see how to start your PC in Safe Mode.

#1: Uninstall the malicious program from your control panel

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Enter control panel to look for any suspicious programs, which may have installed on your PC. To do that:

1. Navigate to your Desktop
2. Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)
3. In the Run window that just opened type appwiz.cpl

4. Go through the list of programs and find Videobah.com or anything else that may seem suspicious. Right-click on it and choose the uninstallation option

WARNING! Carefully read any confirmation messages that may be created in the process. Sometimes you may get offers to download more Adware applications and this can be linked to either the Yes or the No answer depending on the wording!

• Optional:

Go through the list of programs again and check online for any potentially unwanted programs. We have an article that covers this awesome free software that makes sure that your computer is free from bloatware and programs that you don’t need.

#2: Remove Videobah.com From Chrome

Now we’ll remove the extensions that the malware has attached to your browser.

1. Open your Google Chrome browser.
2. Type chrome://extensions/  in the URL address bar and press Enter.
3. Click on “Developer Mode” on the top right and look for the extension installed by Videobah.com and anything that might be related to it. Copy their IDs (the string of letters), then remove them by clicking on the trash bin icon.

1. Type Regedit in the Windows Start Menu and press Enter. Go in : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\Extensions and delete the entries corresponding to the suspicious IDs you recorded.

#3: Remove Videobah.com From Firefox

1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. Type “about:support” in the URL address bar and press Enter.
3. Click on the “Refresh Firefox” button on the right and confirm.

#4 Remove Videobah.com From Internet Explorer

1. Open your Internet Explorer internet browser.
2. Click on the Gear icon on the up right, then on manage add-ons.
3. Go through the list disable any suspicious extensions.

#5 Remove any leftover parasitic processes

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From the task manager:

1. Use Ctrl + Shift + Esc and open the Task manager, then click on the Processes
2. Go through the list of processes and look for unknown or otherwise suspicious entries.
3. If you see anything suspicious right click on the process and shoes Open File Location, then terminate the process and delete any files you find in the directory.

WARNING! If the directory you open from this menu has no files inside of it it’s probably because the malware has hidden them. You need to reveal hidden files and folders in order to be able to see them. Click here if you don’t know how to do that.

From the start menu:

1. Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)
2. In the Run window that just opened type msconfig
3. Click on the Startup tab.

This menu controls which programs are loaded when windows starts after a reboot. Disable anything that seems suspicious. Optionally you can also disable any program that you don’t need and also has a high impact on your startup time.

Feel free to write to us in the comment section with any questions that you may have. Also if we have been helpful to you please share this article to help us reach more people like you.