Goldensmith
Goldensmith is a potentially unwanted program that installs some ad-generating and page-redirecting components in your browser, which then hijack it. Goldensmith hijacker may attach itself to any browser – Chrome, Firefox, Opera, IE and many others – and fill it with intrusive pop-up advertisements and page redirects that may cause it to crash or become unresponsive.
As soon as this browser hijacking software is installed on your computer, you will notice it immediately. There most likely will be changed to the browser’s start page, default search engine, and the frequency with which you are redirected to unfamiliar and suspicious sites. However, keep in mind that there are a number of dubious websites out there with too pushy advertisements that might force the browser to act in a similar manner. If the advertisements, pop-ups, and page redirection stop after you leave a certain website, it is likely that the problem was with that particular website rather than with your browser. If, on the other hand, the ads disturbance continues regardless of the website you are visiting, you very probably have a hijacker such as Goldensmith in your browser, which you may want to remove immediately.
The Goldensmith Virus
Despite the fact that potentially unwanted software components such as browser hijackers like Goldensmith, Secure Captcha, Captcha Wizard are usually referred to as viruses, they do not represent a direct danger to your computer. When it comes to internet safety, they are often considered to be more of an annoyance rather than a real danger. That being said, you should never underestimate the threat posed by a browser hijacker such as Goldensmith since, even if it is unlikely to inflict any direct damage to your system, there is always the possibility that the advertising material it spams you with is harmful.
Online scammers, for example, use browser hijackers to redirect potential victims to their phishing or malware-distributing websites, where their personal information may be stolen or from where they may unknowingly download a malicious program such as a Trojan Horse or Ransomware onto their computer.
That’s why, even though Goldensmith is not as dangerous as some users may worry, it has the potential to serve as a gateway for substantially more troublesome threats, which is why it is strongly recommended that such software be removed and carefully uninstalled from the affected system.
Dealing with browser hijackers isn’t difficult, and you should be able to uninstall Goldensmith from Chrome with the assistance of the instructions provided below and/or the assistance of the professional anti-malware application available on this website.
However, merely removing this rogue application is not enough. You must also take precautions to prevent other such undesirable applications from infecting your computer in the future. To do that, you should avoid visiting dubious websites and installing suspicious free software if you want to prevent additional hijackers from infiltrating your system and browsers. Also, if you see a suspicious pop-up in your browser while attempting to access a certain website, do not engage with it; instead, just dismiss that browser tab/window and restart your browser.
A large number of hijacker sites get control of the user’s browser by posing as legitimate site-permission pop-ups, which users often click on without taking the time to consider what they are really engaging with. So keep that in mind the next time you automatically click the “allow” button that pops up during your browsing.
When installing new software on your computer, be sure to choose Advanced/Custom options in the installation manager and uncheck any extra bonus/additional components that you do not want to be installed on your machine. This is because, many optional installations are typically browser hijackers, adware, or other types of potentially unwanted applications, that’s why it is advisable to leave them out of the installation process altogether in order to avoid any potential disturbance that they may bring.
SUMMARY:
Remove Goldensmith Virus
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
To remove Goldensmith, you should go into the Extensions settings of each of your browsers and delete any items there that could be linked to Goldensmith.
- Start with the main browser – open it, click the menu, go to Extensions (or Add-ons).
- Search the list of extensions for items that may need to be deleted – unknown, and suspicious ones that have likely been placed there by the hijacker.
- If you find one or more potentially unwanted browser extensions, uninstall them.
- Lastly, remember to check the rest of your browser (provided that there are other browsers in the system).
If those short quick steps didn’t help and Goldensmith is still messing with your browser, you should try the more advanced steps that are available below.
Extended Guide
Before you start completing the advanced steps below, we suggest that you bookmark this page so that you don’t lose it since you will need to close the browser and restart the system at certain points during this guide.
Step 1
To remove parasite on your own, you may have to meddle with system files and registries. If you were to do this, you need to be extremely careful, because you may damage your system.
If you want to avoid the risk, we recommend downloading SpyHunter
a professional malware removal tool.
More information on SpyHunter, steps to uninstall, EULA, Threat Assessment Criteria, and Privacy Policy.
First, open the Control Panel of your PC from the Start Menu and select the option called Uninstall a Program. Look what items are installed on your computer close to the time you first started noticing Goldensmith symptoms and if any of those programs seem unwanted or are unfamiliar to you, select their entries from the list, click the Uninstallation button, and complete the removal process. If the uninstaller asks whether you’d prefer to keep any settings or other temporary data related to the program, choose not to do that.
Step 2
WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!
*Read more details in the first ad on this page, EULA, Privacy Policy, and full terms for Free Remover.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc and look at the items listed in the Processes tab of the Task Manager app. See what processes are using the largest amounts of RAM and CPU and look at their names – if any of them seem unusual and unfamiliar, look up the process(es) name(es) and see whether there are any reports on the Internet that suggest the process in question is unwanted/malicious. If you find any such reports, open the File Location of the process (right-click the process then click on Open File Location) and use our powerful online scanner below to test the files you see in that folder:
If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, you should quit the suspected process and then delete its folder along with all files contained in it. In some cases, changes in your system made by the hijacker may prevent you from doing this, in which case you should try to delete as many of the files within the location folder and then move on to the next steps. Later, once all other steps have been completed, you must not forget to try to delete the location folder of the suspected process.
Important: If there are reports from reputable sources on the Internet that suggest the process in question is malicious, you should quit that process and delete its folder and files even if no malware was detected during the scan.
Step 3
To prevent any malicious processes that may still be running on your computer from interrupting you during the next steps, we strongly recommend booting into Safe Mode – follow the link to find instructions on how to do it.
Step 4
Copy the following line of text, press WinKey + R, paste the copied line in the search field, and hit Enter.
- notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts
Check the bottom of the text in the notepad file – if there are IP addresses or other strange text written there (below Localhost) post it in the comments. We will tell you if there’s anything that needs to be done about those IPs after we have a look at them.
Type mscofig in the Run box that you opened, press Enter, and go into the Startup tab. There, remove the ticks from the boxes in front of Startup items that you do not recognize and that look questionable and then click on OK to save the changes.
Lastly, type ncpa.cpl in Run, press Enter, right-click the icon of your network (the one that is being used right now) and open its Properties. In the list of items, find and select Internet Protocol Version 4, select the next Properties button, and select Obtain DNS Server Automatically if the option isn’t already selected. Then open the Advanced settings and there, in the DNS section, delete any IP entries that may be shown in the list.
Step 5
Warning!: Before you begin the completion of this step, be warned that you must only delete items in the Registry of your computer if you are certain that they must be removed. If the wrong item is deleted, this could cause further problems for your system. Therefore, we suggest that, when in doubt, you consult our team by writing us a comment, and we will make sure to tell you what you must do about the Registry item or items you are uncertain about.
Open Run again (WinKey + R), type regedit in it, press Enter, and select Yes when Windows requests your permission to start the Registry Editor.
When you are in the Registry Editor, press the Ctrl and F keys together and then type the name of the hijacker in the Registry search box. Click Find Next and delete the first item that you find (if such an item is found). Rinse and repeat this process until you are no longer getting results from the search.
Next, visit the following three directories from the left panel of the Registry:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory.
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main
In them, look for suspiciously-named keys (folders) – for example, ones with names that are significantly longer than the rest and/or that have odd and seemingly random combinations of numbers and letters as their names. If there are any items that fit this description, delete them.
Step 6
The last important thing you must do is once again try to clean each browser on your computer from anything that may be related to Goldensmith. To do this, right-click on the icon of the browser, go to Properties > Shortcut, delete everything written after “.exe” in the Target field, and click OK.
After that, start the browsing program, click on the icon of its menu (on most browsers it is in the top-right corner; if you are using Opera, the menu is in the top-left).
Select the Extensions (or Add-ons) option from the menu. If you are in Chrome, you must click More Tools and there you will find the Extensions button.
When you get to the Extensions page of your browser, look for items that seem unreliable and potentially connected to Goldensmith. If you notice such items, disable them and then delete them from the browser.
The next thing you muse do is open Settings (or Options) from the browser menu.
Go to Privacy and Security and there look for an option labeled Clear browsing data (or another similar option) and click it. In the Microsoft Edge browser, that option would be labeled Choose what to clear.
In the next window, check all of the options listed there except the Passwords one and then click Clear Data/Clear Now to launch the action and wait for it to complete.
What to do if Goldensmith is still on the PC
If the problem with Goldensmith persists, you may need to try a professional malware-deletion program to take care of this hijacker. Unfortunately, it is possible that there may be hidden malware on your computer that is allowing Goldensmith to remain in the system. If that’s the case, it’s best to use a specialized program to check your computer and clean it. The recommended tool that you can find on this page is perfect for the job as it will quickly find and delete all unwanted data located on your computer, and it will also protect the system against future threats.
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