How to Remove Hotwebfree.com Redirect Virus Thoroughly

Hotwebfree.com is a piece of browser hijacker typically used to promote specific commercially oriented websites. Once being allowed to get installed on the browser, the malware will alter the browser settings to the ones controlled by cyber violators without user’s permission. With all the modifications of browser settings, the default homepage would be replaced by Hotwebfree.com without users noticed. When users open their affected browsers to surf online, this virus will force them to unknown but malicious webpages. Then they cannot access some common websites that they usually visited before because the sites are blocked by the browser hijacker.

Most of time, Hotwebfree.com browser threat is likely to redirect the web page to variety ad-supported sites which contain plenty of commercial ads so that it can perform its malicious activities secretly. Due to the reason that browser virus is easy to use for gaining profits, many criminals choose to make use of such kind of infections as Hotwebfree.com to make money. This malware completes its purpose through enticing user into clicking on the ads pops- up promoted for adware developer, so users are usually captured in the trap after they choose to believe in the pops- up. It is important to know that the information provided by Hotwebfree.com is not trustworthy, users would be better be away from this site to prevent monetary and other loss.

Furthermore, Hotwebfree.com should be fully removed from the system once it appears on the system security scan results. Most users would mistakenly think that if they do not click on the pop-up ads or sponsored links from the website Hotwebfree.com, they could keep their computers safe. However, it’s not as simple as that. As the redirect virus makes some modifications on the system settings, things may become out of control. After the affection is spread throughout the entire machine, the security defense of the target computer will be reduced or destroyed which will introduce a lot of dangerous viruses. If that happens, the computer system will face lots of problems such as PC performance degradation. What’s worse, it is able to spy on your Internet activities and browser history to steal your confidential information for illegal benefits, such as credit card numbers, bank information, user names, passwords, identity information, IP address and email address, etc. So, it is considered to eliminate Hotwebfree.com immediately.

Remove Hotwebfree.com Browser Threat Step By Step

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 the unwanted address 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 Hotwebfree.com 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 the redirect virus 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
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings “CertificateRevocation” = ‘1’
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments “SaveZoneInformation” = ‘0’

Conclusion

Most users may not know how and when Hotwebfree.com redirect virus enter their computers. The computers will be in danger for the users usually have no idea about computer infection. Hackers can get benefits from victims via making good use of their weakness. Thus, cyber users need to pay more attention to their computer performance so as to take prompt measures to get rid of the potential threats from their PCs to safeguard the systems. It can not only deeply scan your whole system, but also can delete the threat automatically and quickly within minutes. Besides, it has the ability to fix your corrupt system and provide real time protection to prevent your PC from other potential threats. A reliable professional removal should be the best choice for the PC users to clean all the threats from Internet.