Anvilworker Virus

Browser Hijacker
by Violet George
April 29, 2023

Anvilworker

An application called Anvilworker has recently been reported to our “How to remove” team. According to users who have it, Anvilworker has the ability to redirect their web searches to different sites that are full of aggressive pop-ups, banners and other commercial messages promoting some third-party products and services.

Anvilworker.top

In addition to that, Anvilworker may also be related to some potentially unwanted changes in the browser (Chrome, Edge, Opera, Firefox, etc.) such as replacement of the homepage or installation of a new search engine.

Anvilworker.top

Fortunately, none of these activities can be linked to some criminal actions, system corruption, theft or fraud because Anvilworker.top behind them is not malicious and does not have the harmful capabilities of threats like viruses, ransomware or spyware. By nature, Anvilworker.top is considered to be a browser hijacker which is a type of advertising software.

The Anvil Worker virus

Yet, if such software like the Anvil Worker virus or Stonkstime is present in your system, it may cause some annoying interruptions to your regular browsing activity and may affect the way your Chrome, Firefox, Explorer or any other browser you may be using operates. With the Anvil Worker virus for instance, you may get to experience frequent screen freezing, browser unresponsiveness, sudden crashes and interruptions which may typically be a result of the hijacker’s constant occupation of the system’s resources.

SUMMARY:

NameAnvilworker
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Danger LevelMedium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Detection Tool

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

How to remove Anvilworker

  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 Anvilworker in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select Anvilworker from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

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.

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 Anvilworker.
  • If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Anvilworker.
  • 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 Anvilworker 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 Anvilworker 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 Anvilworker 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 Anvilworker 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 Anvilworker extension
  4. Get rid of Anvilworker 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 “Anvilworker” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

How to Delete Anvilworker

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the Anvilworker process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete Anvilworker
  • 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 “Anvilworker” 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 Anvilworker

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for Anvilworker in there
    4. Uninstall Anvilworker from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Anvilworker-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 Anvilworker 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 Anvilworker?

    Most applications of this type, like Grand Explorer, Sensiblemoth and New Captcha Here, may not only spam your screen with different sponsored pop-up ads and redirect links but may also collect information about your browsing habits and search queries. They may use various traffic-data collection methods such as tracking cookies in order to provide their creators with details about your browsing history, the pages that you normally visit, your bookmarks, social media likes, shares and more.
    This data typically has high marketing value as it can “tell” the advertisers what products or services you may be interested in and can help the advertisers customize the ads that the browser hijacker displays on your screen. Those customized ads, in turn, have a better chance to grab your attention and to make you click on them and then land you on the promoted pages which brings revenue for the advertisers.


    Is Anvilworker dangerous?

    A lot of web users, however, may not find this activity very pleasurable and may actually have difficulties navigating through the stream of sponsored and customized commercial messages that get streamed on their screen. They may also get annoyed by the automatic redirects that expose them to websites full of aggressive ads which constantly prompt them to click on something, purchase some product or download some unfamiliar software. Some people even fear that they may land on shady web locations or misleading ads that may contain real viruses or malware like Trojans, ransomware and other nasty threats.
    That’s why it is not surprising that a lot of web users seek methods to remove the hijacker and regain control over their browser by uninstalling all the imposed changes from their system. A browser hijacker, however, despite not being malicious, could still be tough to successfully eliminate. For this reason, if you want to effectively uninstall an application like Anvilworker from any of your browsers, we suggest you follow our step-by-step guide that you can find below. It contains detailed instructions and a professional removal tool, with the help of which you can deal with the unwanted software in no time.


    About the author

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    Violet George

    Violet is an active writer with a passion for all things cyber security. She enjoys helping victims of computer virus infections remove them and successfully deal with the aftermath of the attacks. But most importantly, Violet makes it her priority to spend time educating people on privacy issues and maintaining the safety of their computers. It is her firm belief that by spreading this information, she can empower web users to effectively protect their personal data and their devices from hackers and cybercriminals.

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