*Source of claim SH can remove it.
Is Guardian Angel a dangerous software?
Guardian Angel falls in the category of potentially unwanted software that is commonly referred to as a browser hijacker. This kind of software is very intrusive and gets installed into your browser without your knowledge, but it rarely causes harm. The main objective of Guardian Angel is to collect your data in order to flood your browser with intrusive advertisements, the majority of which are scams that lead you to unrelated and possibly unsafe websites. Put another way, you should better uninstall this browser hijacker from your computer, and below we wrote a detailed removal guide to help you out.
Why some people call it “the Guardian Angel Virus”?
When someone is first infected with a browser hijacker, they may call it the “Guardian Angel virus” and think they have a malicious malware infection. This, however, is not at all the case. Sensitive data theft and file encryption are not intended uses for the Guardian Angel virus. Despite that, this software can significantly impair your browsing experience, and lead you to potentially dangerous websites, where you might run into other viruses. This is because the hijacker can display intrusive advertisements to generate pay-per-click income, and turn its sponsored page into the default home page or search engine.
What is Guardian Angel?
If you have to understand what Guardian Angel is, then think of Guardian Angel as a rather aggressive web advertising tool. As we previously mentioned, it won’t corrupt your files, steal your credit card info, or blackmail you. However, its actions might still put your system and privacy at risk. In order to make money for their creators, hijackers like Guardian Angel tend to gather and resell user behavioral data (such as websites visited and bookmarked, social media activities, search queries, etc.).
They also constantly bombard you with Pay-Per-Click adverts in an attempt to increase their profits. Even though none of this poses a direct risk, you never know when you might inadvertently click on a phony advertisement and land on a website that distributes malware or engages in phishing.
Are the Guardian Angel Pop-ups a problem?
The Guardian Angel pop-ups are the main problem with browser hijackers such as this one, since they come in dozens and can compromise your security and privacy. As we previously explained, if you are not careful, it is possible to accidentally click on the wrong advertisement, and land on a fake page that appears to be a well-known website. There, the people running the fake website may prompt you to download some “free software”, or ask for your name, account passwords, and other personal information. If you share it, you could experience financial loss or become the object of blackmail, among other things.
How to deal with Guardian Angel on Chrome?
Seeing Guardian Angel on Chrome or another browser is undoubtedly annoying, and if you have tried to remove it yourself, you are probably pretty irritated by now. The good news is that hijackers are usually easy to remove if you know where to look for them and how to delete them safely. The guide below covers all you need to know to fix the Guardian Angel on Chrome issue. In addition, if the hijacker proves to be more difficult to remove than usual, you can always rely on the removal tool mentioned below to take care of things for you.
Can you trust the Guardian Angel extension?
It’s quite likely that Guardian Angel will appear as your browser’s home page if the Guardian Angel browser hijacker has gained access to your system. It should go without saying that, in light of the above-mentioned concerns, using this extension is not advised. So, please try to stay away from anything that this program prompts you to do or any pop-up messages that it displays. Rather, concentrate on eliminating the browser changer, as this will ultimately lead to the search engine safety as well.
Name | Guardian Angel |
Type | Browser Hijacker |
Detection Tool |
*Source of claim SH can remove it.
Remove Guardian Angel Virus
To try and remove Guardian Angel quickly you can try this:
- Go to your browser’s settings and select More Tools (or Add-ons, depending on your browser).
- Then click on the Extensions tab.
- Look for the Guardian Angel extension (as well as any other unfamiliar ones).
- Remove Guardian Angel by clicking on the Trash Bin icon next to its name.
- Confirm and get rid of Guardian Angel and any other suspicious items.
If this does not work as described please follow our more detailed Guardian Angel removal guide below.
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.
Some of the steps may require you to exit the page. Bookmark it for later reference.
Next, Reboot in Safe Mode (use this guide if you don’t know how to do it).
Uninstall the Guardian Angel app and kill its processes
The first thing you must try to do is look for any sketchy installs on your computer and uninstall anything you think may come from Guardian Angel. After that, you’ll also need to get rid of any processes that may be related to the unwanted app by searching for them in the Task Manager.
Note that sometimes an app, especially a rogue one, may ask you to install something else or keep some of its data (such as settings files) on your PC – never agree to that when trying to delete a potentially rogue software. You need to make sure that everything is removed from your PC to get rid of the malware. Also, if you aren’t allowed to go through with the uninstallation, proceed with the guide, and try again after you’ve completed everything else.
- Uninstalling the rogue app
- Killing any rogue processes
Type Apps & Features in the Start Menu, open the first result, sort the list of apps by date, and look for suspicious recently installed entries.
Click on anything you think could be linked to Guardian Angel, then select uninstall, and follow the prompts to delete the app.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, click More Details (if it’s not already clicked), and look for suspicious entries that may be linked to Guardian Angel.
If you come across a questionable process, right-click it, click Open File Location, scan the files with the free online malware scanner shown below, and then delete anything that gets flagged as a threat.
After that, if the rogue process is still visible in the Task Manager, right-click it again and select End Process.
Undo Guardian Angel changes made to different system settings
It’s possible that Guardian Angel has affected various parts of your system, making changes to their settings. This can enable the malware to stay on the computer or automatically reinstall itself after you’ve seemingly deleted it. Therefore, you need to check the following elements by going to the Start Menu, searching for specific system elements that may have been affected, and pressing Enter to open them and see if anything has been changed there without your approval. Then you must undo any unwanted changes made to these settings in the way shown below:
- DNS
- Hosts
- Startup
- Task
Scheduler - Services
- Registry
Type in Start Menu: View network connections
Right-click on your primary network, go to Properties, and do this:
Type in Start Menu: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Type in the Start Menu: Startup apps
Type in the Start Menu: Task Scheduler
Type in the Start Menu: Services
Type in the Start Menu: Registry Editor
Press Ctrl + F to open the search window
Remove Guardian Angel from your browsers
- Delete Guardian Angel from Chrome
- Delete Guardian Angel from Firefox
- Delete Guardian Angel from Edge
- Go to the Chrome menu > More tools > Extensions, and toggle off and Remove any unwanted extensions.
- Next, in the Chrome Menu, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Clear browsing data > Advanced. Tick everything except Passwords and click OK.
- Go to Privacy & Security > Site Settings > Notifications and delete any suspicious sites that are allowed to send you notifications. Do the same in Site Settings > Pop-ups and redirects.
- Go to Appearance and if there’s a suspicious URL in the Custom web address field, delete it.
- irefox menu, go to Add-ons and themes > Extensions, toggle off any questionable extensions, click their three-dots menu, and click Remove.
- Open Settings from the Firefox menu, go to Privacy & Security > Clear Data, and click Clear.
- Scroll down to Permissions, click Settings on each permission, and delete from it any questionable sites.
- Go to the Home tab, see if there’s a suspicious URL in the Homepage and new windows field, and delete it.
- Open the browser menu, go to Extensions, click Manage Extensions, and Disable and Remove any rogue items.
- From the browser menu, click Settings > Privacy, searches, and services > Choose what to clear, check all boxes except Passwords, and click Clear now.
- Go to the Cookies and site permissions tab, check each type of permission for permitted rogue sites, and delete them.
- Open the Start, home, and new tabs section, and if there’s a rogue URL under Home button, delete it.
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