PushyCaptcha Virus

Browser Hijacker
by Brandon Skies
November 16, 2022

PushyCaptcha

A browser hijacker like PushyCaptcha, while not as threatening as a Trojan virus, or a Ransomware infection, can be quite a nuisance if allowed to stay on the computer for long. These apps are basically supposed to turn browsers like Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox into ad-generating platforms.

PushyCaptcha

The hijacker may show ads inside the browser, page-redirect your browsing to different sites in order to boost their traffic, and even introduce certain alterations to some of your browser’s settings. One of the most typical hijacker symptoms is the sudden and unauthorized replacement of the toolbar, the search engine, or the homepage and the new-tab page. Some users may not mind these changes too much, but, in general, the modifications a hijacker is likely to introduce to your browser would make the latter much less effective and optimized. You will be constantly getting redirects to sites you have no interest in visiting, and you’d be getting your screen flooded with obtrusive ads. In many cases, the ads may even show up over the articles you are reading, the videos you are watching, or the images you are looking at, and they are likely to stay there until you click on them. Clicking on a hijacker advert, however, is highly inadvisable, as this may increase the risk of getting your computer attacked by malware.

PushyCapcha.live

Despite not being actual representatives of any real malware group, browser hijacker apps the likes of PushyCaptcha, Pushy Captcha Live, Go go tech are definitely not the safest forms of software. The control over their advertising materials is oftentimes non-existent.

SUMMARY:

NamePushyCaptcha
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Detection Tool

Please follow all the steps below in order to remove PushyCaptcha!

How to remove PushyCaptcha

  1. First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
  2. Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find PushyCaptcha in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select PushyCaptcha from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

What we suggest you do first is, check the list of programs that are presently installed on the infected device and uninstall any rogue software that you find there:

  • From the Start Menu, navigate to Control Panel ->>> Programs and Features ->>> Uninstall a Program.
  • Next, carefully search for unfamiliar programs or programs that have been installed recently and could be related to PushyCaptcha.
  • If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to PushyCaptcha.
  • If a notification appears on your screen when you try to uninstall a specific questionable program prompting you to just alter it or repair it, make sure you choose NO and complete the steps from the removal wizard.

Remove PushyCaptcha from Chrome

  1. Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
  2. Go to more tools
  3. Now select extensions
  4. Remove the PushyCaptcha extension
  • Once you open Chrome, click on the three-dots icon to open the browser’s menu, go to More Tools/ More Options, and then to Extensions.
  • Again, find the items on that page that could be linked to PushyCaptcha and/or that might be causing problems in the browser and delete them.
  • Afterwards, go to this folder: Computer > C: > Users > *Your User Account* > App Data > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data. In there, you will find a folder named Default – you should change its name to Backup Default and restart the PC.
  • Note that the App Data folder is normally hidden so you’d have to first make the hidden files and folders on your PC visible before you can access it.

How to get rid of PushyCaptcha on FF/Edge/etc.

  1. Open the browser and select the menu icon.
  2. From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
  3. Look for the PushyCaptcha extension
  4. Get rid of PushyCaptcha by removing it from extensions

If using Firefox:

  • Open Firefox
  • Select the three parallel lines menu and go to Add-ons.
  • Find the unwanted add-on and delete it from the browser – if there is more than one unwanted extension, remove all of them.
  • Go to the browser menu again, select Options, and then click on Home from the sidebar to the left.
  • Check the current addresses for the browser’s homepage and new-tab page and change them if they are currently set to address(es) you don’t know or trust.

If using MS Edge/IE:

  • Start Edge
  • Select the browser menu and go to Extensions.
  • Find and uninstall any Edge extensions that look undesirable and unwanted.
  • Select Settings from the browser menu and click on Appearance.
  • Check the new-tab page address of the browser and if it has been modified by “PushyCaptcha” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

How to Delete PushyCaptcha

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the PushyCaptcha process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete PushyCaptcha
  • Access the Task Manager by pressing together the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys and then selecting Task Manager.
  • Open Processes and there try to find a process with the name of the unwanted software. If you find it, select it with the right button of the mouse and click on the Open File Location option.
  • If you don’t see a “PushyCaptcha” process in the Task Manager, look for another suspicious process with an unusual name. It is likely that the unwanted process would be using lots of RAM and CPU so pay attention to the number of resources each process is using.
  • Tip: If you think you have singled out the unwanted process but are not sure, it’s always a good idea to search for information about it on the Internet – this should give you a general idea if the process is a legitimate one from a regular program or from your OS or if it is indeed likely linked to the adware.
  • If you find another suspicious process, open its File Location too.
  • Once in the File Location folder for the suspicious process, start testing all of the files that are stored there by dragging them to our free online scanner available below.
  • Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy
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    • If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, return to the Processes tab in the Task Manager, select the suspected process, and then select the End Process option to quit it.
    • Go back to the folder where the files of that process are located and delete all of the files that you are allowed to delete. If all files get deleted normally, exit the folder and delete that folder too. If one or more of the files showed an error message when you tried to delete them, leave them for now and return to try to delete them again once you’ve completed the rest of the guide.

    How to Uninstall PushyCaptcha

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for PushyCaptcha in there
    4. Uninstall PushyCaptcha from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Hostingcloud. racing-related entries from the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to open the Registry Editor app (type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter) and then open a Find dialog (CTRL+F key combination) where you have to type the name of the threat. 
    • Perform a search by clicking on the Find Next button and delete any detected results. Do this as many times as needed until no more results are found. 
    • After that, to ensure that there are no remaining entries lined to PushyCaptcha in the Registry, go manually to the following directories and delete them:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory. 
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Random
    What is PushyCaptcha?

    The ads generation of the PushyCaptcha virus tends to be so aggressive, and you get a particularly unpleasant situation. The many ads you see on your screen may not always be reliable, or safe, and in some cases, clicking one some of them could get your system compromised. After all, malvertising is one of the most widespread malware-distribution tactics, and even though browser hijackers like PushyCaptcha aren’t intended to infect you with malware per se, this is exactly what may happen if you aren’t careful, and interact with some obscure banner, or pop-up.
    All things considered, uninstalling the invasive app really is the best course of action, and it’s what we would advise you to do as soon as you finish reading this article. If you need help getting rid of the hijacker, you can have a look at the instructions present in our guide. Follow them, and you should have no problem eliminating the intrusive application.

    Is PushyCaptcha dangerous?

    One thing you must now forget, however, is that you should be cautious in the future, or else you may easily land another hijacker, and then you’d have to go through the whole removal process all over again. Most often, these apps get distributed via installer-bundles – a program’s installer that has some extra apps added in it. In some cases, a hijacker may be such an extra app, which is why you must always use the Custom setup menu, from where you can uncheck the bonus apps, and only install the main program.


    About the author

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    Brandon Skies

    Brandon is a researcher and content creator in the fields of cyber-security and virtual privacy. Years of experience enable him to provide readers with important information and adequate solutions for the latest software and malware problems.

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