Cool Web Search Virus

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Cool Web Search

Cool Web Search is a browser-redirecting application that will cover your browser tabs with ads and open new ones in attempts to page-redirect you to promoted sites. Cool Web Search will also manipulate the results of your search engine and replace the starting page address without your approval.

If you have never had a close encounter with a similar application in the past, then you might be afraid that Cool Web Search could damage your computer, steal your data, or corrupt your software. However, the truth about browser-hijacking apps like Lookaside.fbsbx.com, Main Captcha Top is that, in most cases, the worst they could do is slow-down the browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari, etc.) and cause uncontrolled ad-generation in it that can heavily obstruct your browsing sessions. Even if browser hijacker apps are oftentimes seen as malware, they are different from dangerous and harmful threats like Trojan Horse viruses, Spyware hacker tools, Phishing viruses, or Ransomware. The main goal of a browser hijacker is to get you to click on its ads and visit the sites that it promotes as this earns revenue for the creators of the unwanted app. However, when it comes to actual damaging abilities, most representatives of this software category don’t have any. This is not to say that you should treat Cool Web Search as a perfectly safe app for your browser but, at the very least, there is no need to be overly worried that something bad might happen to your computer.

Why it’s still important to uninstall Cool Web Search ASAP

Security researchers warn users against applications of the browser hijacker category, saying that these apps might still indirectly expose the computer to danger if the user isn’t careful. The problem here are the uncontrolled ads that pop-up on the screen and link the user to all kinds of online addresses, some of which may be potentially unsafe. In many cases, a hijacker may even show you misleading adverts that seem to be promoting one thing but end up redirecting you to a site that offers a totally different type of product. Worse yet, you may eventually end up on a phishing site or on a site that contains disguised Trojans or Ransomware cryptoviruses. Although this is not all that common and it is certainly not the aim of the browser hijacker to expose you to danger, the fact that it is still a real possibility shouldn’t be ignored. 

CoolWebSearch

Obviously, the best way to keep your system safe and to prevent any security issues is to fully uninstall the CoolWebSearch browser hijacker from your computer. However, this is not as easy as it may seem and it may require you to go through some system settings that have been changed by the hijacker and restore them to their normal state before you can remove CoolWebSearch.

The good news is that we can help you here by showing you the exact locations in your system where Cool Web Search has likely left traces of itself so that you can remove them and, by doing so, prevent the undesirable app from coming back to your browser after you remove it.

SUMMARY:

Remove Cool Web Search Virus 

To try and remove Cool Web Search quickly you can try this:

1. Go to your browser’s settings and select More Tools (or Add-ons, depending on your browser).
2. Then click on the Extensions tab.
3. Look for the Cool Web Search extension (as well as any other unfamiliar ones).
4. Remove Cool Web Search by clicking on the Trash Bin icon next to its name.
5. Confirm and get rid of Cool Web Search and any other suspicious items.

If this does not work as described please follow our more detailed Cool Web Search 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 will likely require you to exit the page. Bookmark it for later reference.

Reboot in Safe Mode (use this guide if you don’t know how to do it).

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

We get asked this a lot, so we are putting it here: Removing a malware manually may take hours and damage your system in the process. We recommend downloading SpyHunter to see if it can detect the malware for you.

 *Read more details in the first ad on this page, EULA, Privacy Policy, and full terms for Free Remover.

Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC at the same time and go to the Processes Tab (the “Details” Tab on Win 8 and 10). Try to determine which processes are dangerous. 

Right click on each of them and select Open File Location. Then scan the files with our free online virus scanner:

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After you open their folder, end the processes that are infected, then delete their folders. 

Note: If you are sure something is part of the infection – delete it, even if the scanner doesn’t flag it. No anti-virus program can detect all infections. 

Hold together the Start Key and R. Type appwiz.cpl –> OK.

You are now in the Control Panel. Look for suspicious entries. Uninstall it/them.

Type msconfig in the search field and hit enter. A window will pop-up:

Startup —> Uncheck entries that have “Unknown” as Manufacturer or otherwise look suspicious.

Hold the Start Key and R –  copy + paste the following and click OK:

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

A new file will open. If you are hacked, there will be a bunch of other IPs connected to you at the bottom. Look at the image below:

If there are suspicious IPs below “Localhost” – write to us in the comments.

Open the start menu and search for Network Connections (On Windows 10 you just write it after clicking the Windows button), press enter.

1. Right-click on the Network Adapter you are using —> Properties —> Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP), click  Properties.
2. The DNS line should be set to Obtain DNS server automatically. If it is not, set it yourself.
3. Click on Advanced —> the DNS tab. Remove everything here (if there is something) —> OK.

• After you complete this step, the threat will be gone from your browsers. Finish the next step as well or it may reappear on a system reboot.

Right click on the browser’s shortcut —> Properties.

NOTE: We are showing Google Chrome, but you can do this for Firefox and IE (or Edge).

Properties —–> Shortcut. In Target, remove everything after .exe.

  Remove Cool Web Search from Internet Explorer:

Open IE, click   —–> Manage Add-ons.

Find the threat —> Disable. Go to  —–> Internet Options —> change the URL to whatever you use (if hijacked) —> Apply.

 Remove Cool Web Search from Firefox:

Open Firefox, click    ——-> Add-ons —-> Extensions.

Remove Cool Web Search from Chrome:

Close Chrome. Navigate to:

 C:/Users/!!!!USER NAME!!!!/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data. There is a Folder called “Default” inside:

Rename it to Backup Default. Restart Chrome.

Type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter.

Inside, press CTRL and F together and type the threat’s Name. Right click and delete any entries you find with a similar name. If they don’t show up this way, go manually to these directories and delete/uninstall them:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—–Random Directory. It could be any one of them – ask us if you can’t discern which ones are malicious.
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—-Windows—CurrentVersion—Run– Random
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—Internet Explorer—-Main—- Random

If the guide doesn’t help, download the anti-virus program we recommended or try our free online virus scanner. Also, you can always ask us in the comments for help!