Shaggyselectmast
Shaggyselectmast is an aggressive app that places ads and forces automatic page-redirects in the browsers of Windows computers. Shaggyselectmast is commonly found attached to Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers tampering with the settings of their homepage and search engine.
Many users ask us how serious an infection with a browser hijacker such as Shaggyselectmast could be. Luckily, this type of software is not designed to do harm to the computers and is usually not related to criminal schemes or malicious activities. What it does, however, is it spams the screen with pay-per-click links, ads, and pop-ups and it also generates web traffic for its partnering sites.
There could be several reasons why you may experience automatic page-redirects and generation of aggressive advertisements inside browsers like Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox but one of the most common ones is the presence of a browser hijacker application inside your system. Now, the browser hijackers may have a name that initially sounds as scary as Ransomware or Trojan Horses, but the truth is that the apps of the browser hijacker type are not some sort of computer viruses. Instead, they are some rather aggressive (but mostly harmless) online advertising tools used for on-screen promotion of different third-party ads, pop-ups, banners, and sponsored links and even search engines and homepage addresses.
SUMMARY:
| Name | Shaggyselectmast |
| Type | Browser Hijacker |
| Danger Level | Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk) |
| Symptoms | Pesky ads and banners covering your screen and random page-redirects landing you on unknown sites are commonly-encountered symptoms. |
| Distribution Method | The ways these apps get distributed normally include the use of some sort of installation bundle or package as some other program as the main one in the setup. |
| Detection Tool | Some threats reinstall themselves if you don't delete their core files. We recommend downloading SpyHunter to remove harmful programs for you. This may save you hours and ensure you don't harm your system by deleting the wrong files. |
Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Shaggyselectmast!
How to remove Shaggyselectmast
- First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
- Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find Shaggyselectmast in the programs list that would show up.
- Select Shaggyselectmast from the list and click on Uninstall.
- Follow the steps in the removal wizard.
Read more…
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 Shaggyselectmast.
- If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Shaggyselectmast.
- 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 Shaggyselectmast from Chrome
- Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
- Go to more tools
- Now select extensions
- Remove the Shaggyselectmast extension
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- 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 Shaggyselectmast 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 Shaggyselectmast on FF/Edge/etc.
- Open the browser and select the menu icon.
- From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
- Look for the Shaggyselectmast extension
- Get rid of Shaggyselectmast by removing it from extensions
Read more…
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 “Shaggyselectmast” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.
How to Delete Shaggyselectmast
- Open task manager
- Look for the Shaggyselectmast process
- Select it and click on End task
- Open the file location to delete Shaggyselectmast
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- 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 “Shaggyselectmast” 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 accuracyThis 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.
Drag and Drop File Here To Scan
Analyzing 0 sEach file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracyThis scanner is based on VirusTotal's API. By submitting data to it, you agree to their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and to the sharing of your sample submission with the security community. Please do not submit files with personal information if you do not want them to be shared. - 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 Shaggyselectmast
- Click on the home button
- Search for Startup Apps
- Look for Shaggyselectmast in there
- Uninstall Shaggyselectmast from Startup Apps by turning it off
Read more…
- Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Shaggyselectmast-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 Shaggyselectmast 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 Shaggyselectmast?
These pieces of software are widely distributed all over the Internet with the help of software bundles, ads, free downloads, ad-supported sites, automatic installation managers, torrents and other methods of software distribution. However, most commonly, they become part of the system due to the users’ carelessness during the setup process of new software. Shaggyselectmast is very similar (in fact almost identical) to others like Total ReCaptcha, Searchesmia. Therefore, they are programmed to initiate automatic page-redirects and to generate sponsored search results, which can lead directly to these websites. They easily integrate with any browser and hijack their search engine tool or homepage domain by replacing them with sponsored ones. In this case, you start seeing modified search results which automatically redirect to specific links and landing pages, regardless of what you are actually trying to load.
Is Shaggyselectmast dangerous?
Generally, the presence of such software in the system is not fatal but, as you can see, it can be very annoying. That’s why, in the next lines, we will show you how to remove a browser hijacker and uninstall all of the changes it may have imposed on your browsing program. In fact, what we have prepared is a detailed removal guide, specifically dedicated to a recently reported browser hijacker called the Shaggyselectmast virus. In case this is the program that is causing you browsing disturbances, we suggest you pay close attention to the next steps or use the suggested removal tool to safely remove it.
How serious is the browser hijacker infection?
Compared to what a real malware such as a Ransomware or a Trojan Horse could do, this is definitely not something destructive or highly dangerous and yet, on the other hand, it still has the potential to cause browsing irritation and disturbance which cannot be easily ignored. That’s why the removal guide above is written to help the users remove the Shaggyselectmast virus from their machines and to uninstall all the related components which are causing redirects and sponsored ads positioning on their screen. If the manual steps shown there seem too long and difficult to follow, there is a faster method which involves the use of a specialized removal tool for automatic assistance, which you can also find here.
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