Search Redirect Virus – How to Stop Your Search Results on Google, Yahoo and Bing Being Redirected

The “Redirect Virus” is one of the most common, but unknown virus infections that you can get on your PC. This infection basically redirects your search results to random websites, making browsing the Internet extremely difficult and frustrating. Millions of people around the World have to put up with this virus every day, and it can actually cause a lot more damage than you might first think.

Commonly known as the Google Redirect Virus, this infection comes from the likes of Trojan Horses, malicious software and other virus infections. It’s most commonly associated with the “fake antivirus” viruses that install themselves on your computer and pretend to clean out viruses. It works by installing itself on your PC, changing some web browser settings, and then disappearing again. This has made removing the redirect virus extremely difficult because most antivirus programs have no way of knowing if it’s on your PC or not.

This virus works by hijacking the normal redirect that all search engines use to monitor your traffic. Whenever you click a link on a major search engine, it won’t direct you straight to the website you want, instead, it will send you through a page on Google.com, or Yahoo.com or Bing.com. This is designed to capture anonymous information about what link was clicked, and what search was performed (it helps the search engines to calculate advertising costs). The Google Redirect Virus basically infects this natural redirection on your PC, and points it to a random advertisement website, making your Internet extremely difficult to use.

To remove this virus, you need to use a tool or program which will not only recognize you have the infection, but will also remove it in its entirety. Most antivirus programs are ineffective with this infection because of the way they work – most antivirus tools will just scan for applications or files which are continually running in the “background” of your PC. Most viruses have the attributes of continually running on your system, but the Google Redirect Virus just changes a few system settings and disappears. To ensure this virus is removed, you need to use a tool that can fix the various files this virus infects – and the best tool that you can use to do that is one called “ComboFix”. This is a little-known antivirus tool, but is one of the most effective at removing the search redirect infection. You should use this program, and then use a ‘registry cleaner’ to repair any of the damage caused by the virus inside the registry of your PC.