Relevant Knowledge Virus

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Relevant Knowledge

Relevant Knowledge is a potentially unwanted browser extension used for collecting browsing data from a big number of users for research purposes. Relevant Knowledge is developed by TMGR Inc. and it is not a damaging app but could still lead to potential browsing issues.

The goal of the Relevant Knowledge app, according to its developers, is to gather information from your browser and the browsers of millions of other users in order to help researchers gain a better understanding of different online trends and patterns. At first, this may seem like an innocent enough purpose that shouldn’t raise any concern but there have been many reports over the years from both users and security specialists that there are certain traits that this software possesses that make it potentially unwanted. Among the issues associated with Relevant Knowledge are the sneaky ways it tends to get installed, the unwanted changes it may make in the browser, and the obstructive pop-up messages and ads that may start appearing on your screen after this app gets installed on your browser.

One other problem that many who have Relevant Knowledge on their computers struggle with is its removal. It seems that deleting this software is more difficult than it should be which is yet another reason to categorize it as potentially unwanted. The good news is that here, on this page, you can find a helpful guide with detailed instructions on how to delete this undesirable browser add-on as well as a powerful removal tool that can take care of the Relevant Knowledge uninstallation in a matter of minutes.

The Relevant Knowledge virus

The Relevant Knowledge virus is not a real virus but a browser add-on that most people deem unwanted due to its data-collecting actions. The Relevant Knowledge virus is not a direct threat to the system but it is still not a very good idea to let it stay attached to your browser.

Nowadays, the term “virus” is used to refer to almost any type of unwanted or potentially hazardous software even if it isn’t an actual direct threat to the user’s computer. Such is the case with Relevant Knowledge. That said, even if this adware app isn’t on the same level as Trojans, Rootkits, Ransomware, or Spyware in terms of how dangerous it is, as you can see there are still plenty of reasons to delete it from your computer, which is what we will now show you how to do.

Is Relevant Knowledge a virus?

Relevant Knowledge is not a virus but its presence on the computer can still be regarded as potentially unwanted. While Relevant Knowledge cannot harm any part of your system, the changes it may introduce to the browser could expose your PC to real viruses.

It is, for example, possible that this app introduces additional undesirable extensions to the browser that may not be particularly secure and that could get exploited by hackers, thus making your computer an easy target for threats such as Trojans, Spyware, Rootkits, Ransomware, and others.

Additionally, changes in your browser’s starting page or search engine may also occur as a direct or indirect result of the presence of Relevant Knowledge on the computer and this could additionally put your system at risk. For instance, if some rogue extension replaces your default search engine with some unreliable one, the results you may get when you look something up on the Internet may link you to unsafe pages filled with malware and phishing content.

Last but not least, the fact that aggressive and obstructive ads may start showing up on your screen while browsing if you have Relevant Knowledge is one additional factor that increases the risk of malware infections.

All in all, though Relevant Knowledge itself is a legitimate add-on for browsers, it’s still preferable if you do not allow it to stay attached to your browser for long.

What is Relevant Knowledge?

Relevant Knowledge is a browser add-on that security researchers categorize as adware due to its tendency to collect browsing data and later use it for displaying targeted ads. Relevant Knowledge does not seek to harm your system but its ads may sometimes be unsafe.

A major concern that security specialists have regarding this potentially unwanted software is that it is capable of collecting all sorts of data from the user’s browser and then transmitting it to third-parties who could use it in different ways. To be fair, there’s a detailed Privacy Policy on the official website of Relevant Knowledge where you can find information about how data collected from your browser might be used. According to the Privacy Policy of Relevant Knowledge, the data gathered from your browser and computer would be used for large-scale online research to “help companies understand digital content trends and patterns”. However, there’s always the possibility that the companies that your data gets sold to by Relevant Knowledge could, in turn, resell it to other third parties who could use it in less transparent and harmless ways. 

In general, allowing sites, services, and apps to gather data from your browser when that is not necessary is inadvisable and there’s little to no reason to make an exception for Relevant Knowledge. According to the people behind this app, if you agree to have your data collected by it, you’d be granted access to useful free software. Of course, if you are interested in this offering and would like to use the software provided by Relevant Knowledge for free, you are free to do so and that should technically not put your system in any direct danger. Still, our advice is to refrain from doing that and uninstall this adware/potentially unwanted app from your browser if it’s currently there.

Relevant Knowledge – should I remove it?

You should remove Relevant Knowledge if you want to prevent it from freely collecting data from your browser. Another reason you should remove Relevant Knowledge is that its presence in the browser could pave the way for attacks from malicious threats like Trojans or Ransomware.

According to the website of Relevant Knowledge, removing this app from the browser should be relatively easy. However, many users have reported having problems with deleting this app and so you may need extra help when you try to uninstall it. Therefore, we suggest visiting the guide that we’ve shared below this article and completing its removal instructions.

The Relevant Knowledge app

The Relevant Knowledge app is an adware extension compatible with different browsers known for collecting telemetry data from the browser and transmitting it to third-parties. The Relevant Knowledge app is usually bundled with other software in order to get distributed more effectively.

The file-bundling distribution method used by Relevant Knowledge is the reason why most users don’t realize how they got this unwanted app. Usually, this adware is inserted into the installer of another program – typically one that is free or cheap. The user can leave out the adware from the installation of the main program but in most cases, the option to do that would be hidden behind the Advanced or Custom setup settings. Since people usually don’t check those settings, bundled potentially unwanted apps like Relevant Knowledge are more often than not allowed to get installed on the computer.

SUMMARY:

*Source of claim SH can remove it.

Relevant Knowledge Virus Removal

The Relevant Knowledge virus removal can sometimes be completed by simply removing the unwanted software from the Control Panel of your PC:

1. First, you need to go to the Control Panel from the Start Menu.
2. Then open Uninstall a Program and find Relevant Knowledge or any other program that may be linked to it in the shown list.
3. If Relevant Knowledge is in that list, or you find another suspicious item, select it and then click on the Uninstall option at the top.
4. To complete the Relevant Knowledge Removal, follow the steps in the uninstaller and make sure that everything (including personalized settings) gets deleted.
   

Detailed instructions for removing Relevant Knowledge

Completing the quick removal steps we’ve shown above could work in some instances and rid you of the unwanted software. However, in other cases, the adware app may still be in your browser and system even after you’ve tried to uninstall it from the Control Panel. In such situations, we advise our readers to complete the more complex and detailed steps from below as this may be necessary to fully eliminate the adware.

*Source of claim SH can remove it.

Quit the adware process

1. Go to the Task Manager tool by pressing together Ctrl, Shift, and Delete in that order.
2. Click on Processes, look for the adware process in the shown list.
   • Note that the process name may be something totally different from Relevant Knowledge so you will likely have to rely on your personal judgment to figure out which process must be disabled.
   • Potential red flags that may indicate a given process is unwanted are high use of RAM and CPU and an unusual name that doesn’t look familiar or related to any of the regular programs that are in the system.
   • Looking up the name of a process that looks suspicious on Google or another reliable search engine can reveal more information about it and let you know if it might be related to Relevant Knowledge.
3. If you think you’ve found the unwanted process, select it with the right button of your mouse and click on the first option from the menu (Open File Location).
   
4. Use the free scanner below to check the files located in the folder that opens for traces of malicious code.
   
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5. If even a single file gets flagged as a possible threat, this means that the process it is related to must be stopped, so return to the Task Manager, right-click on the suspected process, and quit it by selecting the End Process option.
   
6. Next, delete the location folder with all the files that are in it.
7. If one or more of the files from that folder cannot be deleted, delete the rest and move on to the next steps. After you complete them, try to delete the location folder again.

Safe Mode

Having your PC in Safe Mode is usually recommended when troubleshooting software-related problems so boot your PC into Safe Mode. If you are not sure how this is done, follow the linked page and you will be taken to a guide with instructions that will help you.

Clear unwanted Startup items

1. Go to the System Configuration settings by typing msconfig under the Start Menu and then opening the first item.
2. In the Startup tab, look for items that seem linked to Relevant Knowledge and if you find any, remove the tick from the checkbox in front of them.
3. Do the same with any other questionable or unknown entries.
4. Click on OK.
   

Clean the Hosts file

1. Copy the following line and paste it in the Start Menu search bar: notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts.
2. Select the first file shown in the results.
3. If there are any lines of text (strange IPs and program rules) written at the bottom of the notepad file, right below Localhost, copy those lines and send them to use in the comments.
   • It is possible that the lines you may send us have been placed there by the Relevant Knowledge adware in order for it to gain persistence in the system and more control over the browser so we must check them to see if that really is the case.
4. After we determine whether the lines of text that you’ve sent us are from the adware, we will tell you if you need to do anything about them.
5. If the text in your Localhost is from the adware, you should delete it and then press Ctrl and S from the keyboard to save the changes.

Restore the DNS Settings of your preferred network

1. Type network connections in the search bar of the Start Menu hit Enter, and right-click on the icon of the network that you are currently connected to.
   
2. Open its Properties, select the item labeled Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP), and then select the Properties button.
3. Check the status of the Obtain DNS servers automatically option and enable it if it’s not enabled.
4. Select Advanced and go to the DNS tab.
5. There, remove any items that you may find in the DNS server addresses list.
6. Exit all open windows by clicking on OK on all of them to save any changes you may have made.
   

Clean the Registry Editor

IMPORTANT!: In this step, you will need to make changes in the system’s Registry by deleting items from it that may be related to Relevant Knowledge. Since there are a lot of system settings stored in the Registry, you must be particularly careful with what you are deleting, otherwise, you may end up causing system problems. Because of that, only delete Registry items if you are confident they must be removed. If you are uncertain about anything, first ask us in the comments below about what to do and only then choose what action to take.

*Source of claim SH can remove it.

1. Press Winkey (the button with the Windows logo) and R from the keyboard, type regedit, and hit Enter.
2. Click on Yes to give the Registry Editor permission to make system changes and to open the tool.
3. When in the Registry Editor, go to its Edit menu, then click on Find, and type Relevant Knowledge in the box.
   
4. Press Enter or click on Find Next to search for adware items in the Registry and if an item is found, delete it.
5. Keep repeating the search and deleting what gets found until all Relevant Knowledge items in the Registry have been deleted.
6. Expand the folders in the left panel to go to the following three directories:
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/
7. See if you can spot any questionable-looking items/folders in those directories that have names that seem out of place and delete if you find anything like that.
   • An example of a suspicious item you may find in those Registry directories is a subfolder with a very long name that is composed of randomized numbers and/or letters.
   • We once again remind you to consult our team through the comments whether a certain item should be removed.

Clean the browsers

Below we have shown how our readers can clean some of the most popular browsers, namely Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. If you have another browser that needs cleaning, know that the method of doing that would be nearly identical to the instructions below. Still, if you need any help, you can always leave us a comment with your request for assistance.

Instructions for Chrome

1. Start the browser, click on the three-dot menu, go to More Tools, and open the Extensions section.
2. Find extensions related to Relevant Knowledge or other questionable items that you don’t recognize or use or that haven’t been added by you to the browser.
3. Disable the suspicious entries by clicking on the toggle button below them.
4. Remove the disabled extensions by selecting Remove.
   
5. Open the browser menu again, click on Settings, and in the small search box on that page type new tab.
6. Look at the current new-tab address for Google Chrome and if that address seems related to Relevant Knowledge, replace it with another address that you want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

Instructions for Firefox

1. Click on the menu icon in Firefox (three lines below the X button), and open the Add-ons options.
2. Like with Google Chrome, find anything that has not been added to the browser by you and that may be related to Relevant Knowledge, disable it, and then remove it.
3. From the Firefox menu, go to Options, select the Home options from the left, and check the homepage and the new-tab page addresses.
4. If those addresses have been changed by the adware without your approval, change them back to what they were before you got Relevant Knowledge on your PC.

Instructions for Edge

1. Start Microsoft Edge, select the browser menu, and open Extensions.
2. Disable and then delete all suspicious, unwanted, or unfamiliar items you may find there.
3. Go to Settings from the Edge menu and select the Appearance settings.
4. Restore your regular new-tab page address if the latter has been replaced by the adware.

Try to uninstall the adware again

If there are still signs of the presence of Relevant Knowledge on the computer, go to the Control Panel as explained at the start of the guide and attempt to uninstall it from there again. Also, remember to visit the location folder of the adware process(es) like we showed you earlier and delete that folder if you didn’t manage to do that before.

Final Notes

In case you are still unable to remove Relevant Knowledge from the computer even after completing all of the steps shown here, a removal option that we highly recommend is the specialized anti-malware tool that can be found on this page. Not only can it take care of your adware problem in a matter of minutes but it can also make sure that your system stays protected from both unwanted software components like Relevant Knowledge and from all kinds of more hazardous and damaging threats, including viruses, Trojan Horses, Rootkits, Spyware, and more.