Guesswhatnews Virus

Guesswhatnews

Guesswhatnews is an application that is used to reroute user traffic to predetermined websites and to fill the web browser’s screen with intrusive pay-per-click commercials. In general, Guesswhatnews is not a malicious program but its presence in the system can lead to unwanted browser changes and web surfing disturbance.

Guesswhatnews

Perhaps you found our article on Guesswhatnews while you were looking for ways to uninstall this program from your computer. The probable reason is Guesswhatnews may have changed the original homepage or it may have made your browser forward you to different websites each time you try to open a new page. Furthermore, this software may have even started producing annoying pop-up ads and banners that interrupt your online activity. That’s why, on this page, we have published a guide that can help you remove Guesswhatnews and learn some fundamental information about this type of software.

SUMMARY:

NameGuesswhatnews
Type Adware/Browser Hijacker
Danger LevelMedium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms It is very easy to detect a browser hijacker in your system since this software will introduce some visible changes to your main browser.
Distribution MethodBrowser hijackers are typically distributed for free in free download packages or in a bundle with other applications.
Detection Tool

Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Guesswhatnews!

How to remove Guesswhatnews

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

How to Delete Guesswhatnews

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

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for Guesswhatnews in there
    4. Uninstall Guesswhatnews from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Guesswhatnews. racing-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 Guesswhatnews 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
    Guesswhatnews – a threat or not?

    In contrast to what many people may think, Guesswhatnews is not a virus, a Trojan, Ransomware or some other type of malware. This is a browser-hijacking piece of software that can irritate you with its aggressive online advertising activities. What is common for most browser hijackers is that they are likely scheduled to update your homepage, show irritating advertisements on your screen and redirect you to different web sites that promote particular products and services. The software could also monitor your history of surfing and evaluate your preferences and search terms in order to customize its advertising campaign so that it suits your tastes fairly well. So far, none of the activities that a program like Guesswhatnews or Captcha Fine Live can perform can cause direct damage to a computer.
    Yet, the browser hijacker can be accused of redirecting users to places on the Internet that may not be really safe. For instance, it is perfectly possible that you may be forwarded to a phishing page or a link that may contain Ransomware, Trojans or some other viruses. This is not the rule but it may happen since you have no control over the pages and the links that are shown on your screen.That’s why it is a good idea not to trust everything that programs like Guesswhatnews display and to try to limit your interaction with the numerous banner notifications and click-prompts that you may get.

    What about uninstalling Guesswhatnews and preventing browser hijackers in the future?

    We can recommend that you use our removal guide at the end of this article to clean your hijacked browser and to restore its settings. The steps there have been tested and should help you remove Guesswhatnews without any serious issues. If you have no time to follow the manual guide or you want to clean your system professionally, however, it is best to use a removal tool like the one on this page.
    Regarding future prevention, try to keep away from sketchy web content and stick to reputed websites. Don’t download and install software from freeware sites, torrents, spam messages or dubious e-mail attachments as these may often contain browser hijackers and even some hidden malware. Also, although you have heard this many times, we will repeat that there are anti-malware tools that help prevent all kinds of infections. You can buy a high-quality one, upgrade it and keep your device safe.


    About the author

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    Lidia Howler

    Lidia is a web content creator with years of experience in the cyber-security sector. She helps readers with articles on malware removal and online security. Her strive for simplicity and well-researched information provides users with easy-to-follow It-related tips and step-by-step tutorials.

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