Steady Captcha Virus

Steady Captcha

Steady Captcha is a program that is recognized as a browser hijacker because it can mess with the settings of your web browser and automatically redirect you to supported sites. Although not identical to computer viruses, Steady Captcha can be a source of distracting online commercials and should be removed from the system.

The online advertising industry is a big business and with the increased usage of digital devices, the users’ screen becomes a very sweet advertising spot to place various commercial messages on. As you browse the web, you will normally notice that the pages that you visit support various pop-up messages, banner ads and click prompts. Such advertisements, however, are not that engaging and marketers sometimes rely on programs known as browser hijackers in order to make users engage with specific ads and to get them to click on them. Steady Captcha is a browser hijacker representative that does just that and employs different tactics to place its ads on users’ screens. On this page, you will find more information about its activities and the methods to remove it from popular web browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Edge in case that it is causing you disturbance.

The SteadyCaptcha.Live Virus

Generally, the SteadyCaptcha.live virus is not a malicious program and does not have the malicious features of a Ransomware virus, a Trojan horse or spyware infection. However, the The SteadyCaptcha.live virus can sometimes redirect users to sketchy websites or pages full of annoying advertisements when they aren’t careful what they click on.

In addition to this, such a browser hijacker can alter the main browser’s search engine and/or homepage and install some ad-supporting components, toolbars, and buttons which the users have not approved. Thus, such software is considered potentially unwanted and users seek to uninstall it to avoid web browsing interruptions and unauthorized changes to their browser’s preferences.

The most common method of distribution of browser hijackers is the so-called software bundling method. When users don’t carefully configure the settings of a given setup package that they run, they may download and install a program like Steady Captcha or PushyCaptcha.live on the computer along with the main software that they desire. This is because such programs are often included as a bonus or a free add-on to the main software and if not removed manually, are set to get installed by default.

Most of the users faced with a browser hijacker like Steady Captcha are primarily negatively affected by its operation since the application interrupts their normal web browsing activity and may often cause the affected browser to crash, freeze or become unresponsive to their searches. The good news is that such programs can quickly be uninstalled from the system and are unlikely to leave any negative consequences when compared with security hazards from the rank of Ransomware viruses and Trojans. If you have never done that before, you can uninstall the browser hijacker with a professional program like the one on this page or use the manual instructions in the removal guide below.

SUMMARY:

Remove Steady Captcha Virus

To remove Steady Captcha from your browser and PC, the most important thing is to delete unwanted components from the browser.

1. Enter the main browser, open its menu, and select the Extensions page.
2. Look for installed extensions that haven’t been added to the browser by you or ones that generally seem unwanted.
3. Disable the questionable extensions, and then uninstall them by selecting their Remove buttons.
4. To completely remove Steady Captcha, be sure to check every browser on your PC and delete any unwanted extensions that might be there.

Often deleting the Steady Captcha extension from all browsers is enough to take care of the hijacker issue. If, however, the problem persists, and you are still getting bothered when using your browser, please proceed to the extended guide instructions we’ve posted below.

Extended Guide

Step 1

We suggest that you either open this page on your phone and look at it from there or bookmark it to be able to find it more easily later – this is because you will have to quit the browser and restart your computer during different sections of the guide.

Step 2

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

Hijacker software is mostly delivered to the computer through the file-bundling technique. In other words, it is very likely that you’ve recently installed another program that has had Steady Captcha attached to it without your knowledge.

For that reason, you must go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Uninstall a program and look for recently added programs that may have gotten the hijacker on your computer. If you find such an entry in the list, select it, click Uninstall from the top, and complete the on-screen steps. If the uninstallation wizard offers to keep your custom settings for the program, deny that offer.

Step 3

Go to the Start Menu, type Task Manager, open the app, and go to Processes. If the hijacker is still in the system, there should be a process listed in the Task Manager’s Processes tab that is run by the unwanted software. Look for ones that are using up big amounts of memory and processing power. The name of the process will probably not be Steady Captcha – it could be virtually anything so use your common sense to single out potential suspects.

If you suspect a process, look it up and see what comes up. In most cases, you will find out from the search results if the process is malicious/unwanted. If that turns out to be the case, right-click on the process, access its File Location folder, and scan all files there using the following malware scanner:

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If results of the scan warn you about malware, first Quit/End the unwanted process, and then delete the location folder where its files are stored. If this action is prohibited at the moment, try to delete as many files as you are allowed to from within the folder and move on with the guide.

After you are finished with all of the remaining steps, make sure to try once more to delete the location folder from this step.

Step 4

Get your PC into Safe Mode – it is possible that you may not have found and stopped all/any hijacker processes during the previous steps but when in Safe Mode any such processes wouldn’t be allowed to run and potentially obstruct your removal attempts.

Step 5

You must now see if Steady Captcha has made changes in the Hosts file of your computer. To access the Hosts file, go to your Start Menu, paste the following line in it, and open the file that appears in the results:

• notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts

Look what’s at the bottom of the Hosts file text, the last line is Localhost, then the hijacker hasn’t made any modifications there. If, however, there are any IP addresses and program rules below that, then this might be the work of Steady Captcha. We will be able to tell you for sure only once we view what’s written below Localhost in your Hosts file, so send us everything written there, and we will make sure to reply to your comment, telling you if anything needs to be done.

Step 6

You should also check what software starts automatically on startup and disable anything linked to the hijacker. To do that, type system configuration in the Start Menu, start the app of the same name, and select the Startup tab. In it, disable anything that you don’t recognize or that may be related to Steady Captcha and then click on OK.

Step 7

Go to the Control Panel again and this time select Network and Internet. From there, go to the Network and Sharing Center where you should see what Internet network you are currently connected to. Click on the name of that network, then go to its Properties, select Internet Protocol Version 4, and click Properties again.

In the next window, enable the Obtain an IP automatically option and go to Advanced. In Advanced, select DNS from the top and if there are any servers listed in that tab, delete them. Once you are finished, click OK on everything.

Step 8

This step requires you to access the Registry Editor and find and delete from it anything hijacker-related. While doing this, it’s possible that you may also end up deleting items that you aren’t supposed to. Many of the items in the Registry represent important system settings, so they shouldn’t be tampered with or else there could be unforeseen consequences for the system. Therefore, we strongly recommend requesting our assistance if you don’t know whether a given Registry item needs to be deleted. You can use the comment section down below to contact us.

To start the Registry Editor, simply type regedit below the Start Menu and when an icon labelled regedit.exe shows up – open it. Before the Editor appears, you will be asked to allow it to make system changes – select Yes.

Next, once you are in the Editor, press Ctrl + F to evoke the Registry search and then search for the name of the hijacker. Whatever result shows up – delete it and do the search again. Do this until all items related to Steady Captcha are gone.

Lastly, find these folders in the left panel of the Registry Editor:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory. 
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main

In them, look for subfolders with really long names that seem like a bunch of letters and numbers put together in a random order. If you see anything like this, delete it. If, however, you are uncertain, remember to ask us in the comments.

Step 9

This final step will require you to clean your browsers once more. Even if you did this at the start, it is important to check each of your browsers one more time.

Start by right-clicking on the main browser’s icon and opening its Properties. Select the tab labelled Shortcut, click in the Target text box, and see what’s at the end of the text there. If anything is written after “.exe”, you should delete it and then click on OK.

The next thing to do is open that browser and check the Extensions section one more time. In most browsers, you’d have to click on the main browser menu which is usually located in the top right or left corner and from there select the Extensions/Add-ons button. In Chrome, users must first go to More Tools and there they will see the Extensions option.

Again, if there’s anything you deem unwanted on that page, Disable it and then Uninstall it.

After taking care of the extensions, select the menu again and go to Options/Settings.

There you should see a settings section named Security and Privacy or something close to that – click on it, find the Clear browsing data button and select that. On the Microsoft Edge browser, that button is labeled Choose what to clear.

In the pop-up window that appears, you must opt to clear all data by checking each box. The only box we recommend leaving unchecked is the one for your Passwords. Begin the data deletion by selecting Clear Now and wait patiently (without quitting the browser) for the process to complete.

What to do if Steady Captcha is still on the PC

Though rarely, it is still possible that these steps may not be enough to delete the hijacker. In such cases, we recommend the powerful malware-deletion tool that you will find on the current page. It will find and delete all Steady Captcha-related data in no time and will also keep you protected in the future.