Open Captcha Here Virus

Open Captcha Here

Open Captcha Here is a browser-infecting malware app that aims to put ads on your screen and to earn Pay-Per-View revenue from automatic page-redirects that it triggers in the browser. Open Captcha Here doesn’t seek to harm the system of your PC but it may eventually expose it to more dangerous online threats.

Open Captcha Here
Screenshot of the Open Captcha Here virus

The annoyance brought by the various forms of annoying banners, ads and page-redirects that appear in your browser is not a major problem like an infection with a Trojan Horse or an encryption placed on your files by a Ransomware cryptovirus. However, if there are indeed way too many advertisements on your screen every time you are using your Chrome or Firefox or any other browser that’s on your computer and if those ads do not seem to be limited to any particular sites but are instead appearing all over the place, you may need to read this whole article to learn more about the potential cause of the unwelcome irritation. In most cases, whenever the users are complaining about ads on their screen that no ad-blocker can stop, there are also likely some changes in the browser’s homepage or in its search engine services. This is because, in many instances, the culprit behind the ads is not some site that you go to but a software component that has been added inside your browser without your knowledge.

OpenCaptchaHere.Top

The typical name given to OpenCaptchaHere.Top invasive software components is browser hijackers. The OpenCaptchaHere.Top virus is a whole software category that comprises different apps that can enter the users’ browsers and make them behave oddly and swarm the computer screen with different advertising messages.

Of course, this could be particularly unpleasant to experience since all the ads can make it quite difficult to reach the sites and the information that you’d actually want to get to. And even though this types of apps are not any sort of viruses, they can be a bit challenging to remove for an inexperienced user. Take for example the recently discovered Open Captcha Here, Solid Captcha and New Captcha Here hijackers – if it is in your system, you are likely willing to have it removed but do not know how to uninstall it. Fortunately, the following instructions and the removal tool linked next to them will allow you to get rid of Open Captcha Here with ease.

The safety of your computer depends on you!

No matter how strong your antivirus is and how secure your browser may be, your data could still become the next victim of some insidious Ransomware infection and your computer could still get attacked by some dangerous Trojan Horse or some other malware program, and that is especially true if you aren’t careful with your online habits and activities. The risk of infection further increases

OpenCaptchaHere

if you have some ad-generating app in your browser (such as OpenCaptchaHere) which spams all kinds of obscure advertisements, pop-ups and banners whenever you open the browser. OpenCaptchaHere itself is not a malicious form of software but its ads could not be trusted as you have no control over them and you also have no information about their real source or about what they may redirect you to.

Because of all of this, it is imperative that you uninstall this unreliable application from your computer and remove every change that it may have made to your browser in order to decrease the chances of a potential encounter with unsafe web content.

SUMMARY:

NameOpen Captcha Here
Type Browser Hijacker
Detection Tool

Remove Open Captcha Here Virus

In order to fully remove Open Captcha Here from your computer, you must remove all of the rogue hijacker-related files and settings from your system, not just the potentially unwanted browser extension it may have installed. So, here is a brief explanation of the steps that you need to follow:

  • To begin, look for and uninstall any programs that may have unwittingly introduced the hijacker to your PC.
  • Start looking for suspicious processes in the Task Manager and end any that you find are unwanted/rogue.
  • Check the Startup items list and the Registry for any illegal modifications and revoke those permissions.
  • Finally, delete all traces of Open Captcha Here from your browsers and restart them.

Please read the text below for a more thorough explanation of each step before attempting to remove the program.


Step1

It’s best to use your smartphone or another device to access this removal guide so you can follow the Open Captcha Here removal instructions from there. You can even bookmark the page with these steps in your browser for more convenience.

Next, we highly recommend you to reboot your PC in Safe Mode.

After that, go to the Start Menu, Control Panel, and then choose Uninstall a Program from Programs and Features.

If you don’t see the Control Panel right away, search for it by typing control panel into the search box located just below the Start Menu.

To remove potentially unwanted software, first check for recent installations and then search for any suspicious-looking programs that may be connected to Open Captcha Here. Then right-click on the program you want to uninstall and choose Uninstall from the pop-up menu that appears. When uninstalling software, follow the on-screen instructions to ensure that no data or settings from the application are left on your computer.

Step2

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

Go back to the Start Menu and search for Task Manager. Open the program and have a look at what’s displayed in the Processes tab of the Task Manager window. If you see Open Captcha Here or another process that you think is related to it, right-click on it and choose Open File Location .

malware-start-taskbar

End all processes associated with Open Captcha Here and delete any folders containing hijacker-related files. To find out whether a specific process is hazardous, scan each file in the process’s File Location Folder for malware. We suggest that you use our free malware scanner, which you can find just 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
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    In the event you discover material posted on credible cyber-security sites warning their readers about the process in question, you should probably end the process and all of its files and folders.

    Step3

    Type msconfig in the search field and hit enter. 

    In the System Configuration window, go to the Startup section and uncheck any items that are unfamiliar, suspicious, or from an unknown manufacturer, then click the OK button.

    msconfig_opt

    Step4

    Use the Start Menu search box to look for the following and open the Hosts file:

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

    Copy and paste any suspicious-looking IP addresses that are added at the end of the file (below “Localhost”) in the comments section below this post. We will notify you if any of those IPs are found to be malicious and ask that you remove them from the list.

    hosts_opt (1)

    Again in the Start menu search bar search for Network Connections and open it.

    1. With a right-click on the Network Adapter you are using access the pop-up menu and select —> Properties
    2. Next, highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP) and click the new  Properties button at the bottom.
    3. Ensure that the DNS line is set to Obtain DNS server automatically and select the Advanced button.
    4. If you notice anything listed in the DNS tab’s server address field, delete it and click the OK button.
    DNS

    Step5

    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:

    In this step, you will need to start the Registry Editor and check for Open Captcha Here-related entries in it. To do that, go to the Start menu search bar, type Regedit in it and hit the Enter key from the keyboard. Keep in mind that to launch regedit.exe, you’ll need to have the Admin privileges granted by Windows.

    With Ctrl + F open a Find box in the Registry Editor and use it to search for Open Captcha Here in the registry. Delete the first entry that is found, then repeat the search and remove the next item until no more results for Open Captcha Here are found.

    Next, locate the following directories in the Registry Editor’s left-hand window.

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—–Random Directory. Ask us in the comments if you can’t decide which directory is malicious.
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—-Windows—CurrentVersion—Run– Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—Internet Explorer—-Main—- Random

    Look for subfolders (also known as keys) that have lengthy and random-looking names. Only delete the entries that you are 100% sure belong to the browser hijacker and avoid making any other changes in the registry.

    Step6

    Finally, let’s remove traces of Open Captcha Here from your browser.

    For that, right-click on the browser’s main icon, then choose Properties, then the Shortcut tab.

    browser-hijacker-taskbar-properties

    Then, remove everything that has been added after “.exe” in the Target text field.

    Browser Hijacker Removal Instructions

    Click Ok at the end.

    Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to open your default browser, go to the Tools menu, and choose Extensions (or Add-ons). Most browsers’ primary menu is located in the upper-right corner. Opera’s main menu may be seen in the upper-left corner of the screen.

    If you’re using Chrome, go to More Tools from the Chrome menu and choose Extensions from the drop-down menu. Look for anything suspicious in the Extensions/Add-ons area, such as anything linked to Open Captcha Here or unknown extensions. If you come across any of these, be sure to deactivate them first before deleting them. Sometimes, deactivating an extension is required in order to properly remove it.

    Now go to the browser’s Settings (or Options) menu and choose Privacy/Privacy and Security.

    The next step is to click on the Clear browsing data or Clear data option. Then, decide on what you want to remove. If the window that appears has an Advanced tab, click on it and check each box, leaving just the one for your Passwords unchecked before clicking the Clear/Clear data button.

    Once you’ve cleaned out your primary browser, you’ll need to do the same thing for any additional browsers you may have installed on your computer.

    If the issue with Open Captcha Here persists, please let us know in the comments. You may also want to consider downloading the anti-virus program we recommend or try our free online virus scanner to check any suspicious-looking files for traces of the browser hijacker.

    What is Open Captcha Here?

    Open Captcha Here is a potentially unwanted browser extension that aims to market different sites and products by forcing your browser to page-redirect you to them. Open Captcha Here is known for introducing unauthorized changes in the browser and collecting browsing data without permission.

    The end goal of this, and many other similar apps, is to generate income for its developers through the Pay-Per-View and/or Pay-Per-Click remuneration models. Those models enable Open Captcha Here to make small amounts of money from each click that its ads receive from users and each user visit to a site that it is promoting. Once the hijacker gets installed onto a large enough number of computers, the cumulative amount of money gained from its ads and redirects can become quite substantial.

    To make it more likely that users would interact with the ads and visit the marketed sites, most hijackers aim to tailor their ads in accordance with each individual user’s supposed preferences, hence the data-collecting activities that Open Captcha Here is likely to perform in your browser.

    How dangerous is Open Captcha Here?

    Open Captcha Here is potentially dangerous, considering its ability to automatically reroute your browser to sites you know nothing about that might not be safe. Another dangerous factor related to Open Captcha Here is that the data it collects may eventually be sold to anonymous third parties with unclear intentions.

    It’s true that a simple browser hijacker like Open Captcha Here cannot be compared to a malicious malware program such as a Trojan Horse or Ransomware in terms of how potentially harmful it could be. However, there’s a reason why the browser hijacker category, as a whole, is seen as potentially unwanted and dangerous. As we said, you can never know what type of site awaits you on the other side of one of the hijacker’s ads. Additionally, in many cases, you may not even have a choice whether to visit a certain site promoted by the hijacker, as the latter may automatically redirect you to it. This could, obviously, put your system and virtual privacy in serious danger. And if that is not enough, it must also be said that your data may be resold to hackers and scammers, making you an easy target for them.

    How to remove Open Captcha Here?

    To remove Open Captcha Here, you will need to carefully look through your system and eradicate any rogue software, settings, and data. Next, to remove Open Captcha Here, you should also delete the cache, cookies, and history of every browser you have and also clean them from unwanted extensions.

    Here is a brief outline of the removal process of Open Captcha Here:
    1. You must first start by visiting the Programs and Features section in the Control Panel, and uninstall from it any newly-installed program that you think may be linked to Open Captcha Here.
    2. Next, use the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to access the Task Manager, then check the Processes tab, and there quit any process that you think has been launched by the hijacker.
    3. You must restore the settings of your system that may have been touched by Open Captcha Here. Those include the Startup items, the DNS settings, the Registry, and the Hosts file.
    4. Finally, it is time to clean your browsers by deleting from them any unknown or unwanted extensions and then clearing the browsing data so that there’s nothing left from Open Captcha Here.


    About the author

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    Brandon Skies

    Brandon is a researcher and content creator in the fields of cyber-security and virtual privacy. Years of experience enable him to provide readers with important information and adequate solutions for the latest software and malware problems.

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