Completely Remove Search-shield.com Redirect Virus

Search-shield.com is a risky redirect virus prowling on the Internet and it will take every chance to infect users’ computer and modify the browser settings, causing users’ default homepage to be changed to its own page. It usually attaches itself to SPAM emails, attachments, online chats, instant messages, pop-up ads, suspicious links, unknown websites, peer to peer programs and other unprotected networks. The appearance of the Search-shield.com is quite similar to the Google Chrome search service but it will result in unwanted redirection when users want to search something.

Search-shield.com can block some legitimate search results and display some unreliable links which may redirect you to unwanted websites that contain lots of games, porn ads and other forbidden contents. Not only popping up advertisements on the web pages that users are browsing, this redirect virus will also display a number of advertisements on the computer screen as well as some third-party programs such as game software and media player, in order to attract users to click on them and visit the specified websites. In most cases, the advertising sites are designed to promote various products or services to make money. Most of the time, careless users can’t help being attracted by the coupons, discounts, bargains and other promotions and clicking on them. So most of the users click on the ads and access the advertising sites or receive the pop-up ads.

Once being allowed to enter the browser, Search-shield.com redirect virus will modify the system security setting according to their desire, which may result in more malware invasion. Since user’s browser settings got changed, numerous unnecessary plug-in units will make use of this seam to creep into and attach to the browser, pose as helpful tools adhere to the toolbar. This done may result in poor browser performance, such as very slow browser response, frequent browser stopping working or even crashing. Moreover, this redirect virus will display all types of web links which might take users to some malicious websites. When the victims browse these malicious sites, a bunch of viruses or malware will get installed into the computer and ruin the compromised system without user’s awareness.

How to Remove Search-shield.com Redirect Virus From Your PC Completely?

1. Remove the browser hijacker from the infected computer.
Click on the Start button and select Control Panel. Click on Uninstall a program under the Programs category.
Find out and locate the programs related to the browser hijacker. Click on the Uninstall button to remove them all.

2. Launch the infected browser and remove the add-ons or extensions related to the browser hijacker.

Open IE, click on Tools and then select Manage Add-ons. When it opens a window, click on Toolbars and Extensions. Find out the extensions related to the browser hijacker and select them. Then, right-click them and click on the Disable option. Restart IE to finish the procedure.
Google Chrome:
Launch Google Chrome. Click on the Three-bar icon on top-right of the browser, select tools and then Extensions from the list. After that, click Extensions on the left side of the window. Locate the extension related to the browser hijacker, select it and click on the trash icon. Restart the browser to complete the procedure.
Mozilla Firefox:
Start Firefox and click on the tool menu from the top menu. Click on the Add-ons tab to open the configuration window. Then, click Extensions on the left side of this window. Now find out the extensions of the redirect virus and remove them from the browser. Restart the browser to complete the process.

3. Show hidden files and folders.

Go to Control panel again and click on Appearance and Personalization. Then double click on Folder Options. Hit the View tab, tick “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and deselect “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”. Click on the OK button to apply the changes.
4. Delete the malicious files of Search-shield.com from the local disk.
The files listed below are reference only because the virus may has the ability to changes the names and locations of its files.
%Program Files%\ random
%AppData%\Protector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\Inspector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\vsdsrv32.exe

5. Open Registry Editor and delete the registry entries of the browser hijacker..
Press Windows+ R keys simultaneously to open the Run window. Then type “regedit” in the run box and press Enter key to open Registry Editor.
After that, find out and delete all the registry entries of the redirect virus. The below registry entries are also for reference only.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\[random].exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\browser hijacker name
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System ‘DisableRegistryTools’ = 0
6. Restart the infected computer to apply all changes.

Conclusion

Search-shield.com virus usually invades into the system by hiding in some software update packages, with the cover of as an optional item and coaxing the innocent users to permit its installation request. Apart from player update, it still can utilize third party process as free download, music files or movie to finish its automatically installation by bundling with them. Most computer users are unaware of the danger of this redirect virus and keep it on the computer for a long time, bringing many problems to their computers.

Users should check whether their computers are infected by the redirect virus when noticing these symptoms on the computer: default homepage has been changed to another unknown one; lots of new add-ons have been added to the browsers unwittingly; numerous ads pop up on the browsers or computer screen. Under such condition, they are strongly recommended to delete such virus from their computer instantly with a practical anti-malware application or antivirus software. Ensure a complete deletion of Search-shield.com redirect virus, the safest and best way is to get a professional removal tool on your computer. In the meantime, no matter what new programs are going to be downloaded onto the computer, do take advanced actions to make sure they are clear and prevent further malware infection or other virus attacks.