Advaguru
Advaguru is an application that can expose you to overly aggressive and continuously appearing advertisements and page redirect prompts. In addition to that, Advaguru can hijack your main web browser by replacing its default settings.
Although it may seem particularly annoying and may redirect you to unfamiliar web sites and random pop-up messages, you should not worry too much about Advaguru. In no way can this program harm your machine because Advaguru is not a virus but a program that falls under the category of the so-called browser hijackers. Typically, this program can integrate with commonly used browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge and can replace their search engine or homepage with ones that constantly promote specific offers and web links. You will get the whole picture about this browser hijacker if you read the rest of the article. Besides, at the end of the page, you will find a removal guide and a professional tool that can help you uninstall Advaguru and remove its ads without giving a sweat.
The Advaguru Virus
Programs like the Advaguru virus are often criticized for using quite invasive online advertising methods that interrupt your web surfing. However, the Advaguru virus is not malicious and should not be confused for viruses or representatives of the Ransomware and the Trojan horse category.
SUMMARY:
| Name | Advaguru |
| Type | Adware/Browser Hijacker |
| Danger Level | Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk) |
| Symptoms | There are some typical symptoms that can be observed such as a change in the browser’s homepage or search engine settings and a constant page-redirect to unfamiliar websites. |
| Distribution Method | Users can often land a Browser Hijacker in their system by downloading and installing a free software package where such programs are bundled. |
| Detection Tool | Some threats reinstall themselves if you don't delete their core files. We recommend downloading SpyHunter to remove harmful programs for you. This may save you hours and ensure you don't harm your system by deleting the wrong files. |
Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Advaguru!
How to remove Advaguru
- First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
- Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find Advaguru in the programs list that would show up.
- Select Advaguru from the list and click on Uninstall.
- Follow the steps in the removal wizard.
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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 Advaguru.
- If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Advaguru.
- 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 Advaguru from Chrome
- Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
- Go to more tools
- Now select extensions
- Remove the Advaguru extension
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- 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 Advaguru 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 Advaguru on FF/Edge/etc.
- Open the browser and select the menu icon.
- From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
- Look for the Advaguru extension
- Get rid of Advaguru by removing it from extensions
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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 “Advaguru” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.
How to Delete Advaguru
- Open task manager
- Look for the Advaguru process
- Select it and click on End task
- Open the file location to delete Advaguru
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- 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 “Advaguru” 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 accuracyThis 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.
Drag and Drop File Here To Scan
Analyzing 0 sEach file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracyThis 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. - 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 Advaguru
- Click on the home button
- Search for Startup Apps
- Look for Advaguru in there
- Uninstall Advaguru from Startup Apps by turning it off
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- Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Advaguru-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 Advaguru 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
Is Advaguru dangerous?
For most browser hijackers it is not possible to auto-replicate, access personal data, or manipulate the computer’s system. Therefore, you can rest assured that programs similar to Advaguru do not need your money or your confidential details. They just need your attention and time so that you click on the pop-up messages they try to advertise on your screen. As a matter of fact, the generation of online ads is a totally legitimate and profitable practice and a lot of software developers and online marketers take advantage of it. They use programs like Advaguru to display sponsored advertisements and to earn pay-per-click revenue every time that users click on some of the displayed ads. Free software packages are among the usual distribution methods used by the developers of browser hijackers. Programmers may usually add browser hijacker applications in shareware packages in order to generate additional income from the pay-per-click ads.
In many cases, however, software that produces ads can behave extremely annoying once it gets installed in the system. For instance, a program like Advaguru, Total ReCaptcha and Searchesmia may start to automatically redirect your searches to specific ad-supported sites. Or, it may literally flood your screen with hard-to-remove banners, blinking boxes, offers and colorful notifications that prevent you from navigating the page you are in. Unfortunately, no one can guarantee the safety of all these pop-ups and banners created and sometimes, clicking on them can forward you to websites containing dangerous contents such as Ransomware, Spyware, Trojans and other viruses. That’s why the best piece of advice we can give you in case that Advaguru has recently hijacked your favorite browser is to use the instructions below and safely uninstall the annoying program. By doing so, you will prevent it from redirecting you to random pages and filling your screen with hard-to-remove ads.
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