Captcha Fair Virus

Browser Hijacker
by Violet George
January 3, 2023
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Captcha Fair

Captcha Fair is a type of program identified by experts as a browser hijacker. Captcha Fair can integrate with most any type of browsing program including Chrome, Firefox, Edge and others.

Captcha Fair

Once integrated with the browser, software like this typically alters some of its settings, such as the homepage and oftentimes also the default search engine. In addition, immediately after an infection like this, users tend to notice an extra toolbar that’s been added to the browser, as well as a new add-on or plugin. But those are just the very obvious changes that are immediately noticeable.

The CaptchaFair Virus

What becomes apparent after a certain time is the increase in the number of online ads that are displayed on the browser’s screen, all because of the CaptchaFair virus. These can come in every shape and size, including popups, banners, box messages, in-text links, etc. Furthermore, CaptchaFair and others like it (Expo Captcha) have a tendency to trigger page redirects just as you’re browsing the web and in doing so send you to various sponsored web locations.

And all of this takes place within your browser for the sole purpose of promoting different products, services and websites in exchange for profit.

However, none of this usually benefits the end user in any way. And that is why they typically prefer to simply uninstall the annoying program together with all of its unwanted effects. But because Captcha Fair doesn’t come with a clear uninstallation option, you will have to use a removal guide like the one we’ve published below in order to completely remove it from your system.

 

SUMMARY: 

Name Captcha Fair
Type  Browser Hijacker
Detection Tool

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Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Captcha Fair!

How to remove Captcha Fair

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

How to Delete Captcha Fair

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

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

    Does Captcha Fair pose a threat to your system?


    If this is the first time you’ve ever had to deal with a browser hijacker, then perhaps you may be worrying if this program may in fact be a virus. And it’s very understandable, too. However, luckily, this is not at all the case. Browser hijackers pass as potentially unwanted program at their worst, and they certainly don’t possess the same dangerous qualities or capabilities that actual viruses do.
    But that doesn’t make them entirely safe either, and it’s important to still be cautious around them and the content they expose you to. It is possible that you could encounter unsafe web locations and there may be a risk of landing genuinely awful infections with Trojans, ransomware, spyware and others. And since there’s really no way of knowing if and at what point you might be redirected to a page like this, it’s best to have Captcha Fair deleted from your PC as soon as possible.
    With that in mind, an altogether good advice regarding all browser hijackers in general is to avoid their installation in the first place. The most common way of getting infected is by installing various types of freeware and shareware using their default or automatic settings. What you ought to do is utilize the custom (also called advanced, or manual) settings instead. This will give you more control over the whole process and will typically also present you with the option to opt out of the installation of any added programs (e.g. Captcha Fair).


    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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