Istsearch.com Virus – Completely Removal Guide

Overview of Istsearch.com Virus

Istsearch.com redirect is recognized as a browser hijacker website which can cause havoc to computers and affect the users’ regular online activities. It looks like a legitimate search engine for it has a pure interface similar to famous search providers, such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. In fact, it is specially designed by cyber hackers to make great benefits, mainly through the pay-per-click ads. Usually, the browser hijacker can be distributed via phishing websites, insecure pop-ups or advertisements or free downloads. This foxy redirect virus can also spread itself through the spam email attachments. It can also spread additional parasites like Spyware, Malware and Adware on your computer to mess up your system severely. 

The initial change this Istsearch.com redirect brings to the infected computer is to infect the system browser and make modification on it so that the users cannot operate their browsers as they used to do. At the beginning of the infection, this redirect will only affect the browsers only. To increase websites traffic, it will alter the setting and options of the browser according to the bundles of Istsearch.com. Therefore, this site will come up when PC users try to run the infected browser or open a new tab on it. In this way, this redirect virus could block users’ access to the websites they intend to visit and at the same time deliver many misleading advertisements to them. 

This Istsearch.com redirect virus needs be removed completely from the infected browser to avoid further damage. This malware combines with associated add-ons, toolbars or extensions which are utilized to get installed on the browser for tracking on user’s browsing activities and search records. Under the circumstances, people’s personal information may be exposed to the creator of the redirect virus. Besides, this redirect virus will greatly decrease users’ computer performance, since it will consume lots of system resources when it is running in the background. What is bad, Istsearch.com redirect virus will be able to corrupt security tools on the infected PC so that other threats could attack the targeted computer from backdoor process. With the help of this backdoor process, cyber criminals could do anything they want on the infected computer without any warning. 

What’s the best security tool to remove Istsearch.com? 

Istsearch.com is a malicious redirect virus that should be deleted from PC as soon as possible. In order to successfully control your web browser, it will make undesirable modifications to the target browser and then replace your default homepage and search engine silently. The reason why security processes do not take effect is that majority security tools do not regard this infection as a computer threat so they will not detect any trace of it. That’s because their installed anti-malware programs are not powerful enough to capture all kinds of viruses, especially viruses with variable properties. What’s worse, it has the ability to trace your browsing history and record search query to gather users’ precious data and send to the remote cyber criminals. In this case, it is strongly suggested that users remove Istsearch.com manually step by step. 

Before manually remove this threat, users need to know that the manual removal method will be harder than automatic removal method. You are required to have certain level of computer skills that enable you to deal with processes, files, and registry entries, etc. Keep your computer updated and frequently scan your whole system to ensure your computer safe and healthy. 

How to Remove Istsearch.com Completely from Your PC? 

Step one: set the default homepage back

For Internet Explorer:

1. Click on Browser Tools

2. Select Manage Add-Ons on the tools window

3. Click Search Provider

4. Here you can see many kinds of search engine option as Bing and Google, select your favorite one to be a default homepage.

5. Choose Search Results and click on Remove icon to eliminate it

6. Click Tools, select Internet Options and then the General tab. Here you can option a website you like and save it.

c. Select ‘Search Results’ and click ‘Remove’ to remove it;

For Google Chrome:

1. Open Customize and control

2. Click on Settings

3. Select on Basic Options icon

4. Here you can reset your homepage (e.g.Google.com）

5. Once you choose a default homepage, click on Manage Search Engines and then click Google to be your default search engine.

6. Remove it from the browser by clicking Search Result and then the X’ mark

For Mozilla Firefox:

1. Click Manage Search Engine

2. Select Search Results and then click Remove option, click OK

3. Open Tools, under the General tab, set Google.com as default homepage

Step two: locate related files of Istsearch.com and remove them from the computer

%AllUsersProfile%

%AllUsersProfile%\Programs\{random letters}\

%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~r

%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~dll

Step three: Remove Cookies on all Browsers

Internet Explorer:

a. Click options on the browser and then choose Internet Options

b. Open General tab, click Delete Browsing History to remove all related cookies

c. Select cookies and click Delete

Firefox:

a. Click option

b. Select Privacy and then click on Remove Individual Cookies icon

c. Delete relevant cookies list on the box

Google Chrome:

a. Click option

b. Open Under the Bonnet tab

c. Select Privacy and then click Clear browsing data

d. Delete all cookies

Step four: Remove Malicious Registry

a. Open Registry Editor on the start menu

b. Type in Regedit and click OK

c. Remove all the following registry entries

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings “CertificateRevocation” = ‘1’

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments “SaveZoneInformation” = ‘0’

Conclusion 

Istsearch.com virus will threat all internet users around the world and it should be eliminated from the system immediately. The longer this infection stays on the system, the more damages will be promoted on the browsers. The redirect virus will hijack most of popular browsers to boost web traffic and display advertisements. The stubborn redirect virus can surviving from the security removal tools benefit by its changeable features. Do not hesitate to get rid of Istsearch.comRedirect virus effectively from your computer once found. 

Manual removal of Istsearch.com is effective but not for each one, especially for a regular PC users who may lead to irreparable PC damage. If you want to fix the browser problem you can use the malware removal tool for good.