Smash Browser

Browser Hijacker
by Violet George
December 16, 2022
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Smash Browser

Smash Browser is a browser hijacker that can infect most popular web browsing applications. Once installed in the system, Smash Browser generally starts making changes to the browser’s settings.

Smash Browser

The reason you are reading this is probably because your Chrome, Firefox or Explorer has greeted you with a strange new homepage or a search engine, while dozens of advertisements, banners and redirect links have started to pop up every time you attempt to search for something on the internet. If that’s the case that got you here, you’ve come to the right place. In this removal guide, we will show you how to identify and manually remove the real source that is causing you the current disturbance.

The Smash Browser virus

The program that is probably generating the advertisements in your browser falls into the browser hijacker category and is called the Smash Browser virus. In the next lines, we will describe the Smash Browser virus specifics and will explain you how to uninstall it and stop such software from sneaking back into your system.

We will also inform you about the possible risks of keeping a browser hijacker like Smash Browser, Vivid Captcha, Captcha Glow on your computer and explain why it is a good idea to uninstall it as soon as possible.

SUMMARY:

NameSmash Browser
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Detection Tool

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Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Smash Browser!

How to remove Smash Browser

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

How to Delete Smash Browser

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

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


    Browser hijackers are software tools commonly used by advertisers and developers to show huge amounts of advertisements, banners, pop-up messages, sponsored links and promotional websites on the user’s screen during their web browsing. Smash Browser is a typical representative and its idea is to generate as many of them as possible. This ad-generating activity is actually a legal one, and despite being referred to as annoying by a lot of web users, it is commonly used by many software developers as a technique for gaining enormous earnings from the displayed ad clicks.
    Every click is converted into revenue through a business model called Pay-Per-Click, and the people who own the browser hijacker take advantage of that. They usually use such software to sponsor the free distribution of their software and cover the costs for that. This technique is called software bundling, and programs like Smash Browser are generally distributed this way. They are placed inside the setup wizard of another free program. Users often download and install the free program on their machine, without specifically noticing the presence of the bundled browser hijacker, which is why such software is generally installed by default, without direct user approval.


    Is Smash Browser a virus?


    The constant flow of ads, pop-ups and banner messages that cannot be removed, as well as the new tabs and the automatic redirects to different pages can make you feel like you have lost control over your computer and some malicious virus has taken over it. Indeed, this aggressive activity can easily be mistaken for a virus such as a Trojan horse or even Ransomware, that’s why a lot of web users may wrongly refer to Smash Browser as a virus initially. However, a browser hijacker cannot be regarded as a direct threat and the primary reason is that, unlike Ransomware or Trojans, this type of software does not contain malicious scripts.
    Still, some users may get really annoyed by its unwanted ad-generating and page-redirecting activities and prefer to have the browser hijacker uninstalled. In fact, deleting this software is a good idea because it can also decrease the risk of clicking on random or misleading ads that might potentially infect you with some virus or land you on some shady web location. So, if you decide to get rid of Smash Browser, the removal guide below will certainly help you. Just make sure you carefully follow the instructions or just use the professional removal tool for best results.


    About the author

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    Violet George

    Violet is an active writer with a passion for all things cyber security. She enjoys helping victims of computer virus infections remove them and successfully deal with the aftermath of the attacks. But most importantly, Violet makes it her priority to spend time educating people on privacy issues and maintaining the safety of their computers. It is her firm belief that by spreading this information, she can empower web users to effectively protect their personal data and their devices from hackers and cybercriminals.

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