Great Captcha Snow Virus

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*Source of claim SH can remove it.

Great Captcha Snow

Great Captcha Snow is an unwanted software that researchers categorized as a browser hijacker. Great Captcha Snow will sudden page-redirects in browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Edge, and also tamper with the settings of the affected browser, change its starting page and search engine, and add unwanted extensions.

Great Captcha Snow 1024x661
The Great Captcha Snow Virus will display pop up ads and notifications

You might not know it, but browser hijackers are actually one of the most common and widespread types of unwanted software and although they are not as dangerous or as problematic as virus and malware programs like Trojans and ransomware, they are still a major software issue not due to their levels of danger but due to their ability to irritate users and constantly nag them with their obnoxious and never-ending streams of advertisements. At first glance, this might not sound like much but wait until a hijacker latches onto your Chrome, Firefox or Opera browsers and starts bombarding them with all kinds of intrusive advertising banners, pop-ups, flashy box messages and page redirects to different sites (Herofherlittl.com, Just cool captcha) that are mostly filled with even more ads and questionable online requests.

Not only that, but a hijacker could also introduce different changes to the search engine, the homepage or to the toolbar of your browsers. Supposedly, these changes are introduced to help you browse with greater safety or to make your browser better optimized. However, the real purpose of the different modifications that a browser hijacker app is likely to make to your browser is to facilitate the main task of the undesirable app, namely, its advertising activities. With all that in mind, it should be rather obvious that a browser hijacker is likely not a form of software that you’d want to have on your computer and yet, a lot of customers are struggling with such obnoxious software pieces on a daily basis without being able to definitively get rid of the annoyance.

Greatcaptchasnow.top

Here, we will give you an example with the recently released Greatcaptchasnow.top application which is yet another addition to the already vast browser hijacker family. Since it’s likely that most of you are here because of this particular hijacker anyway, we have decided to show our readers how they can effectively eliminate the irritating Greatcaptchasnow.top from their homes in a matter of minutes without the need to bring their PC or laptop to a trained professional.

Of course, if you would still prefer to use a IT specialist’s help to get rid of the hijacker, you are free to do so but since you are on this page, it’s safe to assume that you’d first rather try uninstall Great Captcha Snow yourself.

As you can see from the steps provided to you in our guide manual, uninstalling and fully getting rid of a hijacker app like Great Captcha Snow is not the simplest of tasks. Still, it’s certainly something that most users should be able to achieve on their own as long as they closely follow the instructions from this page. That said, it’s possible that in some rare occasions, the guide might not fully work or that some of you might prefer a quicker and a more automated method of taking care of the hijacker “invasion”. For such cases, we have put inside our removal manual a trusted and highly-effective removal program that can make work of any hijacker or any similar undesirable app (as well as of even actual malware programs). So, go ahead and choose the method that suits you best and get rid of the frustrating and invasive Great Captcha Snow hijacker.

How harmful is Great Captcha Snow?

We said at the start of this write-up that hijackers are different from threatening virus programs like, for example, ransomware infections, Trojan horse viruses, rootkits and any other similar category of actual malware. Despite that, you must still be cautious around any hijacker as they could sometimes present you with unreliable and misleading ads and page-redirect you to all kinds of shady online addresses. Of course, this would inevitably put your PC at a considerable risk of getting targeted by a wide variety of viruses and malware programs – something that you certainly don’t want to experience!

SUMMARY:

NameGreat Captcha Snow
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Detection Tool

*Source of claim SH can remove it.

Remove Great Captcha Snow Virus

Users who are unfamiliar with browser hijackers may find it difficult to recover from thе effects of a program like Great Captcha Snow, but we hope that the short, easy-to-follow steps below might assist you to remove it:

  • If the browser has been hijacked, start by opening it and clicking on its main menu icon.
  • Then, choose More Tools (or Add-ons).
  • You’ll next need to find the Extensions tab and open it.
  • The browser will provide a list of all the extensions that are currently installed. Search for and delete the Great Captcha Snow extension by clicking the Remove/Trash Bin next to it.
  • If you do not find Great Captcha Snow, but you think the surfing experience is being compromised by other extensions, you may safely delete them.
  • Then, see how the browser acts after all this by opening a new tab and surfing for a while.

If your browser continues to get spam pop-ups and alerts even after you’ve gotten rid of all of the extensions you believe to be hijacker-related, then you may need to check for and delete any additional components that might have been installed on your system with the help of the more detailed steps below:


Step1

To start, save this page using your browser’s bookmark icon to ensure you don’t lose the removal instructions. This will be useful when you need to go back to the guide after a system restart.

Next, we suggest that you reboot your PC in Safe Mode in order to perform the next Great Captcha Snow removal steps smoothly (please click this link for more instructions).

When the computer reboots, safely move to the next step of our Great Captcha Snow removal guide.

Step2

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

*Source of claim SH can remove it.

In this step, you need to identify what sort of background processes Great Captcha Snow is running and shut them off.

Use the CTRL, SHIFT, and ESC key combination, and then click on the Processes tab in the Task Manager window that appears (the “Details” Tab for Windows 8 and 10).

Right-click on any hijacker-related process to open its file location.

malware-start-taskbar

After you do this, you can check the files of that process for hijacker-related code by using the sophisticated online virus scanner you’ll find below:

Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy
This 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.
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Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy
    This 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.

    Based on the results of the scan, you may need to end the process and then remove the folders containing the hijacker-related files.

    Step3

    To remove Great Captcha Snow from your list of installed applications, open your Control Panel and navigate to Programs >>Uninstall a Program.

    Next, check the list of the applications installed on your computer and seek recent additions. If you see Great Captcha Snow in the list, uninstall it. If you think that any of the newly installed applications have been bundled with the hijacker, you should uninstall them as well.

    Once you are finished, click on the Start menu, located at the bottom left of the screen. Use the keyboard to type msconfig into the search box and press Enter. Once you do it, you should see a System Configuration window. Click on the Startup tab to see whether Great Captcha Snow has made any entries in the list of startup items.

    msconfig_opt

    Remove the checkmark from the startup items that you believe have something to do with the browser hijacker, and click OK to apply the change in the settings.

    Step4

    *Source of claim SH can remove it.

    The next thing you may need to do is examine your computer’s Hosts file for any suspicious changes, such as unfamiliar IP addresses.

    You may do this more quickly by using the Windows+R keyboard shortcut and pasting the line below into the Run dialog box:

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

    Once you’ve done that, click OK and scroll down to Localhost in the Hosts file that pops up. There, you should see if any odd IP addresses have been added at the bottom.

    hosts_opt (1)

    If you see anything out of the ordinary, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments section below, and we’ll assist you.

    Next, open Network Connections (by searching for it in the Start menu’s search box) and continue with the following instructions:

    1. Right-click on the currently-used network adapter and choose Properties.
    2. Go to Properties after that, choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP), and then highlight it with the mouse.
    3. Set the DNS to Obtain DNS server automatically, then click on Advanced.
    4. Inside the Advanced window, open the DNS tab. Then make sure that you remove everything that has been added there and click —> OK.
    DNS

    Step5

    Here’s how to reverse any changes that may have been made to your web browsers. All browsers installed on your computer should be subjected to the steps listed below, whether or not you are using them frequently.

    To open your internet browser, locate the shortcut icon and right-click on it.

    Select Properties when you see the pop-up that presents you with options.

    browser-hijacker-taskbar-properties

    Note: Google Chrome is shown in the example images below, but the same directions apply to Firefox and Internet Explorer (or Edge).

    Go to the Properties window and click Shortcut. Next, in Target, be sure to delete anything that may have been put after .exe and click “OK” once you are done.

    Browser Hijacker Removal Instructions

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

    With IE launched, you will need to choose Manage Add-ons from the gear icon in the upper right of your browser window.

    pic 3

    Look for and Disable the browser hijacker in the Add-ons list.

    In the next step, click again the gear icon IE GEAR and select Internet Options. Make sure you check the home page address and change the URL if you don’t like it. Type in your desired home page URL and click “Apply.”

    firefox-512 Remove Great Captcha Snow from Firefox:

    Open Firefox and click on the Firefox menu icon in the upper right.

    From the left side, open Extensions. If you believe that any extensions are changing your browser, use the “Remove” button next to them to remove them and ensure that your browser works as expected once you have finished.

    pic 6

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

    To delete Great Captcha Snow from Google Chrome, shut your browser first.

    In that case, go to this address:

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

    Rename the Folder to Backup Default

    You should choose the folder called “Default” and rename it “Backup Default.”

    Restart Chrome and see if it runs without any hijacking.

    Step6

    Browser hijackers may sometimes alter the registry to assist them in remaining installed. So, in the sixth step of this guide, we will demonstrate how to find and erase hijacker-related items in the system’s registry.

    For starters, use the Start menu’s search box to type Regedit and then hit the Enter key. Registry Editor will be shown on your screen instantly. If you press CTRL+F simultaneously, you may use the Find window to search for the hijacker by name. Look for any matches in the registry and remove any items you find.

    If the search results are empty, go to the following three places using the left panel of the Editor:

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—–Random Directory. If you cannot decide which is the hijacker directory, feel free to write us in the comments.
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—-Windows—CurrentVersion—Run– Random.
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—Internet Explorer—-Main—- Random.

    Check for items with names that seem odd in each of the directories above. You have to be careful if you find files and directories that are associated with Great Captcha Snow, since they must be deleted properly.

    Attention! When you are not quite positive that the files and folders that you have found in the registry belong to the browser hijacker, don’t remove them. Instead, use the robust malware-removal tool we’ve linked to on this page, our free online virus scanner, or a program of your choice to delete any hijacker-related files and prevent unintentional system damage.


    What is Great Captcha Snow?

    Great Captcha Snow is a type of undesirable advertising software/malware that can collect telemetry data from the users’ browsers and then show seemingly relevant ads. The ads of Great Captcha Snow can oftentimes be misleading, and this software may also introduce unwanted changes to your browser.

    While this rogue software isn’t exactly a virus, it’s still something that you shouldn’t allow to be on your computer due to the different problems it may cause. For most users, the main issue with Great Captcha Snow is the sudden page-redirects that it causes and the ads it keeps displaying inside the browser. However, this is actually the less problematic side of this type of software. As we already said, a browser-hijacking app like this one will likely extract data from your browsers – this data would normally be used for more accurate targeted ads, but it could also fall into the hands of third-parties. Who/What those parties are and what they may do with your data is up to anyone’s guess – for all you know, your information may be obtained by hackers and scammers who can then target you.


    How dangerous is Great Captcha Snow?

    Great Captcha Snow is a potentially dangerous app – though it possesses no damaging abilities, it can significantly decrease the overall safety of your computer. What usually makes Great Captcha Snow dangerous is the risk of your system getting exposed to Viruses, Trojans, Ransomware, etc. due to the hijacker’s ads.

    Not all promotional content you encounter online is safe and redirects to reliable sites and pages, and this is especially true about the ads, banners, and page-redirects that come from software like Great Captcha Snow. It’s strongly advised that you do not click or otherwise interact with any content that appears on your screen out of nowhere while Great Captcha Snow is still in the system. Note that hijackers like it can use tactics of intimidation and persuasion to get you to click on, subscribe to, or download what they are supposed to promote.

    The best thing you can do if a hijacker such as Great Captcha Snow is in your system is to ignore any aggressive promotional content that gets shown on your screen and instead focus your efforts on eradicating the source of that content, namely the browser hijacker.


    How to remove Great Captcha Snow?

    To remove Great Captcha Snow, you need to clean not only your browser but also your entire system. Search for rogue programs, processes, data, and settings and delete them to fully remove Great Captcha Snow from your PC and make sure it doesn’t return on its own.

    The main steps that you need to complete to ensure that the hijacker is gone are the following:

    1. Start by using the Uninstall a Program section in the Control Panel to identify and delete any potentially rogue program that may have caused the hijacker infection.
    2. Next, with the help of the Task Manager tool, try to single out any rogue hijacker processes, end them, and delete their location folders.
    3. Check system settings, such as the Hosts file, the network DNS settings, and the Registry, that get commonly targeted by hijackers and restore them if any unwanted changes have been made to them.
    4. Last but not least, ensure that there are no rogue extensions in any of your browsers and then delete the browsers’ temporary data.


    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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