Web Navigator Browser Virus

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Web navigator browser

Web navigator browser is a Windows browser hijacker that seeks to promote certain sites inside the users’ browsers through aggressive page redirects. If Web navigator browser has entered your computer and gotten installed in the browser, it is essential that you uninstall it because this app may not be safe.

web navigator browser(Webnavigatorbrowser.exe)
The Webnavigatorbrowser.exe Virus will display pop up windows and ads

Generally, the applications of the browser hijacker family like Yourniceposts, Ad.mrtnsvr.com, Suftoajachi are known as advertising tools, the main purpose of which is to promote various sites and the products and services offered by said sites. This can also be said about Webnavigatorbrowser.exe – it is, first and foremost, an app used for online marketing. It is programmed to get installed in the browser similarly to a browser add-on and to change the settings of the search engine and/or replace the starting page and the new-tab page. Those changes allow the hijacker to begin spamming the affected Chrome, Edge, or Firefox browser with page redirect links, advertising banners, pop-up messages, and other similar forms of obnoxious advertisements. On the surface, though those activities could certainly be extremely irritating, they aren’t going to directly harm your computer. But if this is the case, why is Webnavigatorbrowser.exe still regarded as a potentially unsafe app?

What is Web navigator browser?

Web navigator browser is a tool for ad distribution and site-advertising that will change the settings of the main browser on your computer and then flood it with ads. Web navigator browser could potentially put unsafe ads on your screen and that’s why you must remove it.

As we already established, Webnavigatorbrowser.exe is unlikely to harm your computer – after all, this is not its purpose and its creators would not benefit from causing any damage or corruption to your system or data. However, it is possible that the same may not be said about the people whose sites are getting promoted by the hijacker app.

You see, as long as it brings them profit, the creators of advertising apps like Webnavigatorbrowser.exe aren’t particularly concerned with how safe or reliable the content their hijackers advertise is. This, of course, means that it is perfectly possible that some of the sites that Webnavigatorbrowser.exe and other hijackers promote could be potentially unsafe.

The Web navigator browser Virus

The Web navigator browser virus is a potentially unsafe piece of software that may redirect your browser to hazardous sites with harmful content. To keep your PC safe, removing the Web navigator browser virus is highly recommended and should not be postponed in time.

For example, if you have the Web navigator browser virus in your browser, you may suddenly find yourself getting redirected to a fake website that pretends to be a legitimate one but is instead a phishing page that tries to acquire your credit or debit card numbers and then drain your banking account. Another possibility is if you get linked to a site that offers downloadable content at a lower-than-normal price but the software that can be downloaded is loaded with malware threats such as Ransomware, Rootkits, Worms, and Trojan horse viruses.

Webnavigatorbrowser.exe
The Webnavigatorbrowser.exe directory

Webnavigatorbrowser.exe

Webnavigatorbrowser.exe is an unsafe file that infects browsers like Chrome and Firefox and tries to turn them into site-advertising platforms. Webnavigatorbrowser.exe shouldn’t be kept in your PC because of the risk of getting targeted by more harmful malware like Trojans or Ransomware.

Of course, there could also be legitimate sites that get promoted by hijackers and you may even land on interesting offers that you may want to spend your money on. Nevertheless, the fact that there’s still a chance that some of the sudden page redirects caused by Webnavigatorbrowser.exe and other similar apps could land you on harmful and illegal sites and indirectly get you infected with Ransomware, Spyware, Trojans, and other viruses means that it is always better to simply uninstall the intrusive advertising app.

To help you with that, we have prepared some removal steps that you will find in the next lines and which you are encouraged to follow if you think (or know) that Webnavigatorbrowser.exe is presently attached to your browser.

SUMMARY:

NameWebnavigatorbrowser.exe
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Danger LevelMedium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
SymptomsThe main symptoms are changes in the homepage and the new-tab page of the browser and a replacement of the default search engine tool.
Distribution MethodA hijacker can be distributed as a spam email attachment, as an optional feature added to the installer of another program, as a fake update, as well as in many other ways.
Detection Tool

How to delete Web navigator browser Virus

To try and remove Webnavigatorbrowser.exe quickly you can try this:

  1. Go to your browser’s settings and select More Tools (or Add-ons, depending on your browser).
  2. Then click on the Extensions tab.
  3. Look for the Webnavigatorbrowser.exe extension (as well as any other unfamiliar ones).
  4. Remove Webnavigatorbrowser.exe by clicking on the Trash Bin icon next to its name.
  5. Confirm and get rid of Webnavigatorbrowser.exe and any other suspicious items.

Suspicious Extension Chrome

Another quick method of restoring the normal state of your browser that could sometimes work against hijackers is to deny the permissions that certain sites may have gained inside the browser. To do this, follow the next instructions:

  1. Go to the browser’s Settings and type permissions in the search bar inside the settings page.
  2. Among the different permissions settings, find the one labeled Notifications and select it.
    Opera Notifications3
  3. Scroll down to see what sites are allowed to show notifications inside the browser and if any of the listed sites are suspicious and could be linked to the hijacker, select the three-dotted icon next to the site and then click on Block.
    Opera Notifications
    Opera Notifications2
  4. Now scroll to the top of the Notifications settings and off the option labeled Sites can ask to send notifications. This will prohibit sites from requesting permissions to show unwanted notifications in your browser.
    Opera Notifications4

Note that the above instructions are for Chromium-based browsers. Nevertheless, these steps are nearly identical for other browsers too so it shouldn’t be too difficult to complete them even if your browser isn’t Chromium-based.

If the instructions so far didn’t manage to remove the hijacker from your PC, then you should proceed with the more advanced steps from this guide and complete them to rid your computer of the unwanted software.


Safe Mode

Before you begin troubleshooting this software problem, we suggest you start your PC in Safe Mode because this will keep any processes, programs, or apps that may be interfere with your work from loading. This is because, in Safe Mode, only the most essential system processes are permitted to operate. For those of our readers who are do not know how they could enable Safe Mode, this link will land you on a page with helpful instructions on the topic.

Step1

Now that you have Safe Mode enabled on your PC, it is time to open the Task Manager through the Ctrl + Shift + Tab keyboard combination and look at the processes in the Processes tab. What you should be looking for in there is a process that could be related to Webnavigatorbrowser.exe. Note that this doesn’t mean you should necessarily find a process that has the same name (although this is very possible). In some cases, unwanted software and malware would give their processes names that won’t raise the user’s suspicion so you must be observant and willing to do your own research on any processes you think might be linked to the hijacker. One potential red flag is if a given process is consuming lots of resources without being related to an app or a program that is currently running on the computer. If you think you have found a suspicious item in the Task Manager, first look up its name online because it is fairly possible that you are looking at a legitimate system process that isn’t related to the hijacker. If your research confirmed that the suspicious process isn’t related to the system, do the following:

Right-click on the process you consider connected to Webnavigatorbrowser.exe and select the Open File Location option. Each and every file from the folder that opens must be scanned – we suggest you use our free online scanner that you will see right below to scan the files in question. If malware gets detected in any of them, return to the Task Manager, right-click again on the questionable process and select the End Process Tree option.

malware-start-taskbar Ending webnavigatorbrowser.exe

After the process has been “killed”, go to the folder where its files are contained and delete that folder with everything that’s inside of it. Again, you must be sure that this isn’t related to an important system process which is why you must not forget to look up the process before you kill it and delete its files.

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    Step2

    Now open the Control Panel from the Start Menu and go to Uninstall a Program. In the list of programs that shows up on the screen, you must find Webnavigatorbrowser.exe and uninstall it. Again, the hijacker may not have the Webnavigatorbrowser.exe in the Uninstall a Program list so you must use your own discretion to determine which item from the list must be uninstalled. It could help if you sort the list by date by clicking on the Installed On button so that the most recent entries are listed towards the top of the list. Look at the installation dates and try to remember when the problems with the hijacker started. The programs or apps that have been installed right before your browser got hijacked are most likely to be linked to the Webnavigatorbrowser.exe hijacker. If you think you have found the app responsible for the browsing issues you are dealing with, select it and use the Uninstall button at the top of the list to access its uninstallation wizard. If there are different uninstallation steps you must go through, complete them until the app/program gets uninstalled.

    Uninstalling webnavigatorbrowser.exe

    IMPORTANT!: If during the uninstallation you get this next message (or something similar) on your screen, select the NO option. Clicking on Yes would most likely result in the hijacker returning to the browser or another similar unwanted app taking its place after the uninstallation is completed. 

    virus-removal1

    Step3

    The next step is to clean the startup items of your computer and to do that you must open the System Configuration tool. Simply search for it in the Start Menu search field and open the first item that gets found. In System Configuration, select the Startup tab and see what items are in the list that gets shown. Any of them that have “Unknown” listed as manufacturer or that look suspicious and you think could be linked to the hijacker must be disabled.

    msconfig_opt

    To disable a startup item, simply uncheck its checkbox and then click on Save.

    Step4

    In this step, you must check the Hosts file of your computer – a file that often gets hijacked by malware and junkware apps. To access it, copy this line: notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts, and paste it in the Start Menu search box. Open the item that gets shown in the search results and then explore the notepad that gets opened. Look towards its bottom where it says Localhost. If the file has been hijacked, there would be strange IP addresses below Localhost. However, not all IPs listed there are indication that the file has been modified by malware/junkware (sometimes normal programs modify this file too so that they could function normally). Therefore, its best if you copy the IPs you see under Localhost and send them to use in the comments section. We will have a look at them and tell you if they are likely from the browser hijacker and reply to your comment. 

    hosts_opt (1)

    If we tell you that the IPs in your Hosts file are likely linked to Webnavigatorbrowser.exe, go back to the file and delete those IPs. Make sure that, after deleting the suspicious addresses, you Save the changes to the Hosts file by pressing Ctrl + S.

    Step5

    Search for Network Connections in the Start Menu and click on the Network Connections icon. Look at the different networks shown in the folder that opens and right-click on the one you are currently using. Select Properties, then Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP), and then Properties again. In that window, the Obtain DNS server automatically option should be checked so if it isn’t, check it and then go to Advanced. in the Advanced settings, select the DNS tab and if there are any items listed under DNS server addresses, delete them by selecting them one by one and clicking on the Remove option. After you’ve done everything, select Ok on all the open windows.

    For this next step, type Network Connections in the Start Menu and click on the first icon. Then select the Internet connection that you are using at the moment, right-click on it, and go to Properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 (ICP/IP) > Properties. In there, make sure that the Obtain DNS server automatically option is checked and then select Advanced. Open the DNS tab and remove any entries listed below DNS server addresses by selecting them and clicking on Remove. After you are done with everything, click OK on all opened windows and proceed with the final step.

    DNS

    Step6

    IMPORTANT!: In the last step from this guide, you will be required to delete items from your system’s Registry. If you do everything correctly, there shouldn’t be any problems but since the Registry of your computer contains many sensitive and important system settings, you must be sure that what you are about to delete isn’t an important system-related setting. Therefore, if you aren’t certain about a given item and don’t know whether you should delete it, it’s advisable that you first tell us in the comments about the item in question and we will get back to you with a reply where we will inform you about whether you should delete it or leave it as it is.

    Now, onto the actual step, search for regedit in the Start Menu and select the regedit.exe icon. Windows will ask you if you are certain you want to allow this app to introduce changes to the system – click Yes to open the Registry Editor.

    In the Editor, press the Ctrl + F keys at the same time and in the search box that shows up, type the hijacker’s name (in this case, Webnavigatorbrowser) and then click on the Find Next option. If an item gets found, select it, press the Del key from your keyboard, and confirm the deletion by clicking on Yes. Then click on Find Next again, delete the next item, and keep repeating the process until nothing more that has the name of the hijacker remains.

    Next, manually find these next locations in the Editor and look for any folders in them that have odd and unusual names that stick out from the other items and look suspicious. An example of a suspicious Registry folder in those locations would be one that has a long name that is comprised of seemingly random letters and/or numbers. If you see any such folders, delete them too but only if you are sure that they aren’t supposed to be in there. Again, if you are uncertain about any given Registry folder, tell us in the comments about it and wait for our answer before you decide to delete it.

    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/*Suspicious Folder*
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/ *Suspicious Folder*
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/*Suspicious Folder*

    About the author

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    Brandon Skies

    Brandon is a researcher and content creator in the fields of cyber-security and virtual privacy. Years of experience enable him to provide readers with important information and adequate solutions for the latest software and malware problems.

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