Pretiumlook Virus

Browser Hijacker
by Lidia Howler
June 16, 2023

Pretiumlook

This page aims to help you remove Pretiumlook Virus. Our removal instructions work for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, as well as every version of Windows.

When you click on Bookmarks or type in a website, the address bar shows Pretiumlook.com site
Screenshot of the address bar shows Pretiumlook.com site

A new source of browsing irritation and obstructiveness has recently been reported to us and we are here to tell you all that you may need to know about it. The unwanted application in question goes under the name of Pretiumlook and is yet another representative of the browser hijacker family. As such, Pretiumlook can silently “invade” the main browser in the system (be it Chrome, Firefox, Explorer or some other browsing program) and introduce unauthorized changes to its settings in order to start promoting third-party ads, banners and pop-ups on its screen. Typically, the changes involve the replacement of the main search engine service in the browser and/or the replacement of the current homepage. After this, you are likely to start experiencing invasive automatic page-redirects to specific websites, sales offers and promotions.

Once inside your computer, Pretiumlook Virus can easily make some potentially unwanted changes to your main browser and expose you to all sorts of third-party ads, links, and pop-ups, the origins of which may not always be reliable. Due to this, we recommend that you stay careful around such applications and uninstall them in case they start messing with your browsing experience.

SUMMARY:

NamePretiumlook
Type Browser Hijacker
Detection Tool

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

How to remove Pretiumlook

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

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

How to Delete Pretiumlook

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

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

    The nature of application, like Pretiumlook, Searchmenow.gg or Pro Captcha Hub is not malicious but its behavior can easily be mistaken for a possible infection with a virus or a malware program from the ranks of Trojans and Ransomware. And, indeed, the users, who have never met a browser hijacker before oftentimes mistake such apps nasty infections because Pretiumlook usually lacks a built-in uninstallation mechanism and its ads, in most of the cases, are ridiculously difficult to remove. The application normally shows lots of sponsored ads, modified search results, pop-ups, ads, banners etc. on the targeted computer and is aimed at redirecting the web searches to certain websites to boost their traffic and generate revenue by doing so. The creators of this browser hijacker use a method known as Pay Per Click to get commissions on every redirect and ad click generated by the invasive app. Therefore, they are more than interested in keeping such software on your system for as long as possible and in redirecting your searches to the pages that bring them revenue. In the removal guide below, however, we will show you how to quickly uninstall Pretiumlook and remove its potentially unwanted changes in order to browse the web in peace.


    Is Pretiumlook a virus?

    Pretiumlook is not some nasty virus, a Ransomware or a Trojan which can infect your computer in full stealth. Yet, this browser hijacker has lots of tricks that allow it to get installed on more computers. It most commonly gets installed into the system without the users’ direct permission thanks to methods such as software bundling, automatic software updates and installs, spam and torrents. The application can typically be found under the advanced or the custom installation settings of a given setup package and is usually labeled as a “recommended” or a “bonus” component added to the main program that you want to install. Selecting the automatic installation option will make the hijacker part of the system alongside the main program of the bundle by default. That’s why, if you want to keep Pretiumlook and similar browser hijackers away, you should always pay attention to the settings of the software you install and manually select your preferences about the bonus components that the setup package may contain.


    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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