Pogothere.xyz Virus

Browser Hijacker
March 6, 2023
by Brandon Skies
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Pogothere.xyz

Pogothere.xyz is a rogue app that will attach itself to any browser on your system (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.), modify its settings, and spam it with aggressive ads. Pogothere.xyz is typically not harmful, but its ads could serve as a gateway for more serious malware.

Pogothere.xyz

There are some pretty obvious and hard-to-miss symptoms that would be present on your system if a hijacker has managed to get itself attached to any of your browser. On such symptom is the replacement of the starting page of the browser and/or of its default search engine. In many cases, the new search engine may not even be a real one, but rather a fake page that redirects you to Bing or Yahoo every time you attempt to perform an online search. Another common symptom are the frequent automatic page-redirects and pop-ups ads that get generated in the browser irrespective of what site you’re currently on. Furthermore, unfamiliar and unwanted add-ons may get attached to your browser without your informed permission. Because of all the changes and the ad-generating activity in the browser, your PC may become slower and even experience freezes and errors.

All of those symptoms may seem disconcerting, but the good news is that a hijacker like Pogothere.xyz and New.lightfoot.top doesn’t put your system or data under any direct threat. That said, it’s still definitely not an app that you’d want to keep on your computer as there are certain security risks associated with it. For this reason, the hijacker needs to be removed as soon as possible in order to ensure the safety of your computer and your virtual privacy.

SUMMARY:

NamePogothere.xyz
Type Adware/Browser Hijacker
Detection Tool

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

*Source of claim SH can remove it.

Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Pogothere.xyz!

How to remove Pogothere.xyz

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

How to Delete Pogothere.xyz

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

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

    What are the dangers associated with Pogothere.xyz?

    The main purpose of Pogothere.xyz and other apps of its type is to make money through ads, by employing the well-known Pay-Per-Click ad Pay-Per-View models. To generate as much advertising revenue as possible through those models, Pogothere.xyz needs to show large numbers of ads and cause frequent page-redirects, which explains its rather invasive and aggressive behavior. The changes in the browser, too, are made to facilitate the advertising activities of the hijacker. 
    However, while all this may make the app annoying and unpleasant, the real security issue stems from the nature of the content that often gets promoted by hijackers. You see, there’s usually hardly any control over what gets advertised – it could be legitimate sites, but it could also be rogue pages with phishing elements embedded in it, or even malware-distributing sites filled with disguised Ransomware, Trojan Horse, and Spyware downloads. While you can try to avoid clicking on the spammed ads and immediately close any sites you may get redirected to, this is not a sustainable way of keeping your PC safe. 
    The only real solution to the Pogothere.xyz problem is to fully eliminate the rogue software and all data and settings related to it. Below, there’s a helpful guide that will show you the steps required to manually get rid of the hijacker, and there you will also find a professional removal software that specializes in eliminating undesirable hijackers and other forms of PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) that may not get detected by conventional antivirus programs. We recommend using both methods to ensure that the browser hijacker on your computer gets fully removed.

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    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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