Hiddengram Malware

Browser Hijacker
by Violet George
April 1, 2023

Hiddengram

Hiddengram is a program that falls into the software class of browser hijackers. As such, Hiddengram has the capacity to take over your main browsing program and cause it to display various advertisements on your screen.

Hiddengram
Hiddengram Chrome Extension Malware

For instance, if you have noticed that Hiddengram is on your computer, then you’ve probably also come to notice many more banners and popup windows on the websites you visit. Furthermore, you might have also been puzzled at certain changes made to your Chrome, Firefox or other favorite browsing program’s appearance.

Typically these changes include a new homepage, as well as often even a new default search engine. Moreover, that search engine may likely spam your search results with sponsored ones that may not even be all that relevant to your searches.

All of this is due to the simple fact that browser hijackers like Hiddengram, Lookaside.fbsbx.com, Mintnav are designed to generate profit for their developers. And they can do that via all these numerous forms of advertising.

Hiddengram for Chrome

Usually software like Hiddengram for Chrome works on the basis of such remuneration schemes as Pay Per View and Pay Per Click, which are pretty much self-explanatory. But that should also tell you why the said banners and popups tend to be so invasive and heavily mess with your overall browsing experience.

Hiddengram Malware

You may have already tried to take care of matters on your own and delete the Hiddengram Malware only to find that it has reinstated itself in your browsing app. Many users often even resort to reinstalling their web browsers hoping that that will somehow also eliminate the Hiddengram Malware. Alas, things aren’t all that simple.

SUMMARY:

NameHiddengram
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Detection Tool

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

How to remove Hiddengram Malware

  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 Hiddengram in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select Hiddengram from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

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

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

How to Delete Hiddengram

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the Hiddengram process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete Hiddengram
  • 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 “Hiddengram” 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.
    Full ScanUpload New File
    Drag and Drop File Here To Scan
    Drag and Drop File Here To Scan
    Loading
    Analyzing 0 s
    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.
    • 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 Hiddengram

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for Hiddengram in there
    4. Uninstall Hiddengram from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Hiddengram-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 Hiddengram 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

    How to remove Hiddengram?

    The developers of hijackers like Hiddengram are obviously not interested in you getting rid of their little cash cows. And so they simply “forget” to include an uninstallation option that would make it easy for users to delete the unwanted software. What’s more, if you try locating and removing the separate components of the hijacker from your PC and happen to miss one, that component may be enough to allow the hijacker to reinstall itself.
    Therefore, you may require the help of a specialized removal guide. It’s free to use and it will walk you through the process or finding and deleting Hiddengram in a matter of minutes. But if you’ve had enough of rummaging through your OS, then we also have a professional removal tool available below that can handle the whole process automatically.


    What is Hiddengram?

    Note that removing Hiddengram isn’t only a matter of returning to a care-free, undistracted browsing experience. Browser hijackers are actually associated with a range of safety concerns, even though they aren’t the same thing as malware of computer viruses.
    However, their ads could potentially link to unsafe web locations. And as a result, you always run the risk of coming face to face with threats such as ransomware, spyware, Trojan horse viruses, etc. So in order to reduce this risk, it’s recommended that you remove the browser hijacker from your system at your earliest convenience.


    About the author

    blank

    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.

    View all posts

    Leave a Comment