Great Captcha Now Virus

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Great Captcha Now

Great Captcha Now is a rogue application that infiltrates Chrome, Firefox, and other popular browsers, introducing to them unwanted changes and rerouting the user’s browser to obscure sites. Great Captcha Now is mainly distributed using software bundles and disguised permission notifications shown by fake webpages.

Great Captcha Now

Many web users have recently been reporting that their browser has been taken over by an annoying application called Great Captcha Now. Great Captcha Now pretty much resembles a normal browser extension but its behavior is quite different. Instead of offering some actual functionality, Great Captcha Now tends to change the browser homepage or search engine and initiate automatic page redirects to different sites filled with pop-ups and banners.

GreatCaptchaNow.top

It is very likely that, if you have GreatCaptchaNow.top in your Chrome, Firefox or Edge browser, you will be subjected to an aggressive online advertising campaign, typically related to pay-per-click remuneration models and sponsored ads positioning. With GreatCaptchaNow.top your browsing sessions may frequently be interrupted by different messages that might be prompting you to click on a given offer, download some software or purchase and test a product or a service.

In some instances, if you are not careful and get tricked into clicking on some of the links, you may not even realize how you may land on some shady web location or get exposed to direct security hazards. And while this is definitely not the goal of an application like Great Captcha Now or Great Captcha Snow, keeping it on your computer and letting it redirect you to different third-party sites can definitely increase the chances of accidentally coming across real virus threats including Trojans, ransomware or spyware.

That’s why it is generally advisable if you remove and uninstall the browser hijacker from your system. If you don’t know how to do that, in the removal guide below we have posted manual instructions that can help you. There is also a professional removal tool for those of you who may find it difficult to complete all the steps in the guide on their own.

If you are wondering how you may have ended up with a piece of software like Great Captcha Now on your PC, then you probably need a better understanding of the most common distribution methods that the browser hijackers use. Generally, most malicious pieces of software such as ransomware, spyware or Trojans can infect the system in stealth, without your knowledge.

Great Captcha Now, however, is not a virus and it normally cannot infect your system on its own. The most probable way you can end up with it is if you download it and install it (without realizing it) alongside some other software, an update or a browser add-on. Usually, the hijacker is attached as a free or a bonus component to the main installation package of different games, free tools, optimizers, document readers and similar helpful software. If not specifically disabled from the Advanced or the Custom setup menu, the advertising software typically gets installed by default when the setup process completes.

That’s why, if you really want to ensure that your computer doesn’t get invaded by similar nagging software, you should always pay close attention when performing software installations and manually remove any pre-selected free or bonus components that can make changes to your browser and its settings. Otherwise, if you miss these customization steps, you may need to uninstall the unwanted software later, with the help of a removal guide like the one above.

SUMMARY:

NameGreat Captcha Now
Type Browser Hijacker
Detection Tool

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Remove Great Captcha Now Virus

Great Captcha Now is a browser hijacker that is difficult to uninstall from a computer, although the following steps have reportedly worked for some people:

  • Firstly, open the browser in question, click on its main menu button, and select More Tools (or Add-ons) from the drop-down list.
  • Next, locate the “Extensions” tab and click on it.
  • You will see all the extensions currently installed in the browser
  • Search for Great Captcha Now or other potentially unwanted or oddly-named extensions.
  • These extensions can be removed by clicking on the Remove/Trash Bin icon next to them.
  • If you have any extensions installed that you rarely or never use, consider removing them as well.
  • After that, start a new search session in your browser to get a feel for how it works.

If you’re still having problems with Great Captcha Now-powered redirections or annoying pop-up advertisements despite following these instructions, you may want to look at the more extensive steps in the guide below for help in removing the hijacker’s remnants.


Step1

The first step is to save this page with instructions on how to remove Great Captcha Now as a bookmark.

The next step is a system reboot in Safe Mode, after which you must return to this page and complete the rest of the guide. To restart your computer in Safe Mode, click the link with instructions. Afterwards, return to this removal guide and go to step two.

Step2

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

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If Great Captcha Now is on your system, there could be one or more processes associated with the page redirection and ad generation activities undertaken by the hijacker. For this reason, in order to successfully delete this program, it is required to locate and stop these processes.

To do so, press CTRL, SHIFT, and ESC simultaneously on the keyboard. You can search for hijacker-related processes in the Task Manager’s Processes tab.

As soon as you isolate such a process, right-click on it and select Open File Location from the quick menu.

malware-start-taskbar

Next, scan the files of that process with the scanner provided below:

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    If any of the scanned files turn out to be harmful, go to the Processes tab, right-click on the relevant process, and select End Process to stop it instantly. Then, remove the dangerous file from its File location.

    Step3

    Once you’ve done that, press the Windows key and R on your keyboard at the same time. You’ll see a Run dialog box. Type appwiz.cpl in the text field and click OK:

    appwiz

    A list of installed programs will appear on the screen in a Control Panel window. Look through the list and uninstall any programs that you suspect are connected to Great Captcha Now or may have been used to install the hijacker. Pay attention to programs with strange names or apps that were installed at the same time as the hijacker. If you need to explore these apps online, do so and then Uninstall those that appear to be part of the hijacking problem.

    Once you’ve finished removing the unwanted programs, go to the Windows Search field, type msconfig in the search field and click on the System Configuration icon:

    msconfig_opt

    In the Startup tab, look for items that aren’t associated with any of the default programs that Windows launches when it boots. If you identify startup items that you feel were introduced by Great Captcha Now, uncheck their checkmarks. Once you’ve finished, click OK to save your changes.

    Step4

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    For hijackers, the Hosts file is an easy target for making changes. You should, therefore, open your computer’s Hosts file and look for alterations that were made without your consent. Use the Windows and R key combination to launch a Run box and copy and paste the following line into it, then press OK:

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

    In the text, look for suspicious-looking IP addresses under Localhost to see if any changes have been made.

    hosts_opt (1)

    Please send us a comment with a copy of anything that you believe could be dangerous so that we can check into it and get back to you.

    The next step is to open Network Connections, which you may find by typing it in the Windows Search field, and then follow the steps below.

    • Open the Properties window by right-clicking on your current network adapter.
    • Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP) and click the Properties button at the bottom.
    • Choose the Obtain DNS server address automatically option and then click “Advanced” to see more options.
    • Delete all the rogue DNS addresses in the DNS tab of the new window that appears. In the end, you click OK to save all of your changes and exit the window.
    DNS

    Step5

    Great Captcha Now should be gone if you carefully follow the instructions above. In this extra step, though, we’ll teach you how to make sure it doesn’t come back after a reboot. Even if you don’t use all the browsers installed on your computer, you should still apply the following to all of them:

    Right-click the browser shortcut icon and select Properties from the menu that appears.

    browser-hijacker-taskbar-properties

    Select Shortcut from the tabs at the top. In Target, remove everything after .exe.

    Browser Hijacker Removal Instructions

    ie9-10_512x512  Remove Great Captcha Now from Internet Explorer:

    When you open Internet Explorer, click the Gear icon and then click Manage Add-ons in the upper right corner.

    pic 3

    Disable the Great Captcha Now extension if you find it. After that, go to IE GEAR —–> Internet Options —and replace the sponsored URL to an address that you trust, then click —> Apply.

    firefox-512 Remove Great Captcha Now from Firefox:

    With Firefox started, click  mozilla menu  and navigate to Add-ons —-> Extensions.

    pic 6

    Disable and remove Great Captcha Now and any other questionable-looking extensions that you don’t normally use.

    chrome-logo-transparent-backgroundRemove Great Captcha Now from Chrome:

    Chrome should be closed in order for you to navigate to the following location:

     C:/Users/!!!!USER NAME!!!!/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data. 

    Find the Default folder and change its name to Backup Default, then start Chrome.

    Rename the Folder to Backup Default

    Step6

    Great Captcha Now may also add entries to the Registry that can help it remain on the system. You will learn how to find and remove hijacker-related registry entries in this last step.

    The Registry Editor can be opened by typing Regedit into the Windows search field and pressing Enter on the keyboard.

    To search for Great Captcha Now-related entries, you can hold down CTRL and F and open a Find window inside the Registry Editor. Then, type the name of the browser hijacker and click Find Next. If anything with that name appears in the search results, delete it.

    You can also search the Registry by navigating to each of the following folders from the left panel:

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—–Random Directory.
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—-Windows—CurrentVersion—Run– Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—Internet Explorer—-Main—- Random

    Attention! Be cautious about deleting registry entries while trying to remove the browser hijacker, and don’t delete anything unless you are certain they are associated with Great Captcha Now The general stability and functionality of your system can be seriously harmed by any incorrect deletions or alterations. For optimal results, please consider using a professional removal tool or a free online virus scanner, such as the one on this page, in order to avoid any potential harm.

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    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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