Special-news.online “Virus” Removal Chrome/FF/IE

This page aims to help you remove Special-news.online “Virus”. Our removal instructions work for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, as well as every version of Windows.

If you have a software applicaiton like Special-news.online “Virus” on your computer, know that this might not be the most harmful form of  unwanted software which you might encounter but it could still trigger immense irritation and annoyance. Typically, pieces of software of this kind are better known as “browser hijackers” and they may cause some quite unpleasant and irritating changes to your Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Internet Explorer browser (or to whatever browser you might prefer to use – it really doesn’t matter). For example, they may replace your default search engine with another one, they may install a new toolbar or set a new homepage and initiate the generation of some difficult to close ads, pop-ups, banners and new tabs on your screen.

The hijackers are also famous for their redirecting activity which tends to expose the web users to random pages and various commercials without their approval which is why another name used to refer to this software category is browser/page redirects. In fact, this is one of the mains reasons why Special-news.online and other applications from its category are regarded as potentially unwanted. Here, we are going to talk about how to remove the annoying changes and uninstall this software, so if Special-news.online is causing you trouble, stay with us. Below, you will find a detailed removal guide and a professional removal tool which can help you safely eliminate this browser hijacker from your computer.

Browser hijackers are all over the web!

Thousands of software apps like Special-news.online can be found on the Internet and they all are specialized in producing ads and promoting certain products, services, software programs, and web pages. The reason why these pieces of software are so widespread is because they tend to be extremely profitable for their developers and very effective when it comes to ads generation and exposure to specific commercial content. Various vendors, advertisers, and goods producers actually pay the developers of such software to display their ads and make people click on them with the hope of making more sales or increasing the traffic and popularity of the advertised website. To serve this purpose, page-redirecting applications like Special-news.online “Virus” may often employ aggressive advertising techniques such as page redirects, modification of search results or installation of sponsored search engine tools or homepages. In their core, however, these pieces of software are not harmful and cannot be compared to computer viruses such as Ransomware, Trojans or other similar threats. The nature of the browser hijackers is not considered to be malicious and their aggressive advertising activities are typically not violating any law.

Special-news.online “Virus” Removal

If you have a Windows virus, continue with the guide below.

If you have a Mac virus, please use our How to remove Ads on Mac guide.

If you have an Android virus, please use our Android Malware Removal guide.

If you have an iPhone virus, please use our iPhone Virus Removal guide

Some of the steps will likely require you to exit the page. Bookmark it for later reference.

Reboot in Safe Mode (use this guide if you don’t know how to do it).

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC at the same time and go to the Processes Tab (the “Details” Tab on Win 8 and 10). Try to determine which processes are dangerous. 

Right click on each of them and select Open File Location. Then scan the files with our free online virus scanner:

Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy

This scanner is free and will always remain free for our website’s users.

This file is not matched with any known malware in the database. You can either do a full real-time scan of the file or skip it to upload a new file. Doing a full scan with 64 antivirus programs can take up to 3-4 minutes per file.

Full ScanUpload New File

Drag and Drop File Here To Scan

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Analyzing 0 s

Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy

This scanner is based on VirusTotal’s API. By submitting data to it, you agree to their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and to the sharing of your sample submission with the security community. Please do not submit files with personal information if you do not want them to be shared.

After you open their folder, end the processes that are infected, then delete their folders. 

Note: If you are sure something is part of the infection – delete it, even if the scanner doesn’t flag it. No anti-virus program can detect all infections. 

Hold together the Start Key and R. Type appwiz.cpl –> OK.

You are now in the Control Panel. Look for suspicious entries. Uninstall it/them.

Type msconfig in the search field and hit enter. A window will pop-up:

Startup —> Uncheck entries that have “Unknown” as Manufacturer or otherwise look suspicious.

Hold the Start Key and R –  copy + paste the following and click OK:

notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts

A new file will open. If you are hacked, there will be a bunch of other IPs connected to you at the bottom. Look at the image below:

If there are suspicious IPs below “Localhost” – write to us in the comments.

Open the start menu and search for Network Connections (On Windows 10 you just write it after clicking the Windows button), press enter.

1. Right-click on the Network Adapter you are using —> Properties —> Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP), click  Properties.
2. The DNS line should be set to Obtain DNS server automatically. If it is not, set it yourself.
3. Click on Advanced —> the DNS tab. Remove everything here (if there is something) —> OK.

• After you complete this step, the threat will be gone from your browsers. Finish the next step as well or it may reappear on a system reboot.

Right click on the browser’s shortcut —> Properties.

NOTE: We are showing Google Chrome, but you can do this for Firefox and IE (or Edge).

Properties —–> Shortcut. In Target, remove everything after .exe.

  Remove Special-news.online from Internet Explorer:

Open IE, click   —–> Manage Add-ons.

Find the threat —> Disable. Go to  —–> Internet Options —> change the URL to whatever you use (if hijacked) —> Apply.

 Remove Special-news.online from Firefox:

Open Firefox, click    ——-> Add-ons —-> Extensions.

Remove Special-news.online from Chrome:

Close Chrome. Navigate to:

 C:/Users/!!!!USER NAME!!!!/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data. There is a Folder called “Default” inside:

Rename it to Backup Default. Restart Chrome.

Type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter.

Inside, press CTRL and F together and type the threat’s Name. Right click and delete any entries you find with a similar name. If they don’t show up this way, go manually to these directories and delete/uninstall them:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—–Random Directory. It could be any one of them – ask us if you can’t discern which ones are malicious.
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—-Windows—CurrentVersion—Run– Random
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—Internet Explorer—-Main—- Random

If the guide doesn’t help, download the anti-virus program we recommended or try our free online virus scanner. Also, you can always ask us in the comments for help!

Still, Special-news.online and other apps like it could be very irritating and could cause serious browsing disturbance and exposure to unwanted or inappropriate web content. Random encounters with security hazards (like coming across some shady and unreliable link or a webpage) is also possible due to automatic redirects which is why the security experts advise on timely uninstallation of this the browser hijacker.

People typically install browser hijackers on their own!

The creators of most browser hijackers typically present their programs as helpful or beneficial to the web users, claiming that their products could add some new browser features, making the users’ web surfing safer, faster or better optimized. Hijacker developers often distribute their apps as additional components in a bundle with some other free or helpful programs. That’s why most people willingly install the entire software package without questioning its content. Another common way of distribution of hijackers is via spam messages, email attachments, social media shares and recommended download links. If the user decides to download the software from the link and install the suggested software package via the Automatic/Quick installation option, the potentially unwanted program will automatically become part of their system. Fortunately, there is an easy and simple way to avoid the installation of additional or unwanted components. All you have to do is make sure that next time you want to install a new program on your computer you carefully read the EULA and check the expanded installation menu for any bundled components or optional installs, which you could then uncheck and that way leave out from the main installation. The most detailed installation options are usually labeled as Advanced/Custom/Manual and they are the best to use if you want to have full control over every setup.

In some cases, on-screen ads, different banners, offers, free software updates or suggested installations may also offer you to download and install unwanted software like Special-news.online. It is very common for such ad-generating software to get distributed via different data-sharing websites, torrent platforms, freeware or streaming pages. That’s why our advice is to be mindful where you get your software from and to stick to official download pages of reputed developers rather than open pop-up links, spam messages, and sketchy platforms.