VeriWinkle.com Browser Hijacker Virus Removal Guide

VeriWinkle.com is a browser redirect program that attempts to pass as a search engine. This is the method con artists often use when developing their next creation – there’re literally hundreds of threats of this type lurking on the Internet. The reason for this is that there’s no need to change something if it works and brings revenue. Bringing the money to people behind it is the main purpose of this malware and this happens at your expense. VeriWinkle.com might not seem dangerous at first, but you start seeing its true colors as soon as it’s successful in making its way inside your system.

Even surfing the Internet turns into a chore, as there’re constant redirects to veriwinkle.com and this address is also set as your homepage and New Tab page. Forget about using other search engines as normal – sponsored links are mostly given to you in return for your queries and you risk having your computer attacked with more threats if you click on them. Every site that you go to is flooded with advertisements, thanks to the technology called “virtual layer” and your CPU and RAM are overloaded as a result. This leads to slowdowns and crashes, and you being unable to have even the most basic of things done.

Even worse, your personal data is collected and transferred to third parties, including phone numbers, passwords, and credit card details and you risk having your online accounts, bank accounts, and digital wallets infiltrated because of that. To prevent this from happening and stop cybercriminals from taking advantage of you, limit your visits to shady sources, don’t install browser extensions or plugins offered by them, try only downloading files and torrents from sites that can be trusted, and choose a Custom method when putting new software on the PC. Doing all that should be enough to keep browser redirect programs like VeriWinkle.com at bay.

Common symptoms of VeriWinkle.com browser hijacker

• VeriWinkle.com hijacker may change your default browser homepage, default search engine, new tab pages, bookmarks and browser settings
• Multiple redirects to suspicious third-party websites
• VeriWinkle.com may modify browser security settings
• You’re getting pop-up ads or banner ads while surfing even trusted websites
• VeriWinkle.com may modify your browser shortcuts
• You’re not able to manually undo changes made by VeriWinkle.com
• Your browser is slowing down or even crushing
• VeriWinkle.com may disable browser updates
• You may discover suspicious browser toolbars, expansions or plug-ins
• You can’t launch some of legitimate programs (e.g. Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office)
• Your Internet connection is slowing
• Unwanted free games can be installed on your computer without your permission
• Sluggish PC performance, system errors and crushes

Potential sources of VeriWinkle.com threat

• “Bundling” to freeware or sharefree software, including video and audio converters, video players and video streaming programs, download helpers etc.
• Malicious browser expansions and toolbars
• Compromised websites which offer different digital downloads or infect victims’ computers with malware and adware
• Fake alerts claiming that you need to update a software, Flash Player, Java, FLV Player or your browser
• Malicious attachments and download links in unknown emails
• Downloads from P2P-networks, torrent-trackers and sharing resources

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Remove VeriWinkle.com from your PC

You can easily remove VeriWinkle.com browser hijacker from your system using one of the effective anti-malware tools listed below, or you can follow our detailed step-by-step manual removal guide.

Part 1. Remove VeriWinkle.com Automatically

Restart your computer in Safe Mode with Networking. You can find step-by-step instruction here on our website – “How to start Windows in Safe Mode with Networking”.

If you have an antivirus software running on your computer, please check for its updates and scan your system. If the problem still persists, download and install one of the recommended anti-malware tools to automatically remove VeriWinkle.com and other malware threats from your PC.

Download and install one of the recommended anti-malware tools to automatically remove VeriWinkle.com and other malware threats from your PC.

Quick Removal with Plumbytes Anti-Malware

1. You should download Plumbytes Anti-Malware installer to scan your computer for any malware or adware that might infected your computer. Plumbytes Anti-Malware is a trusted software that can detect and remove most of security threats, including adware, ransomware, PUPs, trojans, worms and rootkits.

DOWNLOAD PLUMBYTES ANTI-MALWARE

2. Double-click the downloaded “antimalwaresetup.exe” installation file to launch it.

3. Click “Install” button to start the installation process. The setup wizard will automatically start to download necessary program files to your computer. Once download completed, Plumbytes Anti-Malware will be automatically installed on your computer. The entire installation process takes only 2-3 minutes.

4. Once installed, Plumbytes Anti-Malware will automatically update its antivirus signatures database and then start smart system scan to detect all malware, adware, spyware and other security threats.

5. You will see the detailed list of security threats and potentially unwanted applications detected on your PC. Click “Remove Selected” button to clear your PC from malicious files, adware and potentially unwanted applications.

If you want to purchase Plumbytes Anti-Malware license key, you can apply PLUMNGZ250 coupon code in order to get a 50% discount.

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Double-Check Your PC with SpyHunter 4 Anti-Malware

6. You can double-check your computer with SpyHunter 4 Anti-Malware in order to remove any leftover malware and adware traces. SpyHunter is considered as one of the best and most effective anti-malware tools today. Click the button below to download SpyHunter installation package.

DOWNLOAD SPYHUNTER ANTI-MALWARE

7. Double-click the downloaded “SpyHunter-Installer.exe” file to start the installation process.

8. When the installation starts, the Setup Wizard will offer a few options and settings that you may want to configure. We recommend just clicking “Next” button to accept the default application settings. You can check out our detailed SpyHunter 4 Anti-Malware Setup & User Guide which can help you to go through the installation process and provide important information about malware scans and program settings.

9. Once the installation completed, SpyHunter 4 will automatically update antivirus database and latest virus definitions. Next, SpyHunter 4 Quick Scan will automatically check your computer for any malware, adware, spyware and other security threats.

10. You will see the detailed list of viruses and potentially unwanted applications detected on your PC. Click “Next” button to clear your PC from malicious files, adware and PUPs.

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Alternate Recommended Anti-Malware Tools

The following awesome full-scale anti-malware products also have proved their effectiveness against all types of malware and adware. However, some of these anti-malware programs don’t provide a free trial version, and you’ll have to purchase a license key in order to clean your computer from the detected malware and PUPs.

1. HitmanPro.Alert – Download | Our Review – 30-Day Free Trial

2. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – Download | Our Review – 14-Day Free Trial

3. Emsisoft Anti-Malware – Download | Our Review – 30-Day Free Trial

4. WiperSoft Antispyware – Download | Our Review

5. OSHI Defender AntiMalware – Download | Our Review

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Part 2. Remove VeriWinkle.com Manually (Removal Guide)

Notice: Manual removal guide is recommended to experienced computer users. Incorrect modifications introduced into the Windows operating system, Windows Registry or browser settings may result in serious system fails or software errors.

We’ve created this step-by-step removal guide to help you manually remove VeriWinkle.com and other similar security threats from your computer. Please carefully follow all the steps listed in the instruction below. We’ve attached detailed screenshots and video guides for your convenience. If you have any questions or issues, please contact us via email, create a public forum question or contact us using online contact form. Please add your comments and suggestions to this guide below.

Remove Unwanted Programs from Windows

• Tab menu:
• STEP 1: Remove Unwanted Programs in Control Panel
• STEP 2: Clean Windows Registry
• STEP 3: Remove Malware from Task Scheduler

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STEP 1: Remove Unwanted Programs in Control Panel

You can easily uninstall potentially unwanted applications using “Programs and Features” tool in the Windows Control Panel.

Press Windows + R keys and type appwiz.cpl into the Open: field. Click OK button.

Guide for Windows 10, 8, 8.1 and 7 versions

Click Uninstall a program link in the Programs section.

Sort the installed programs by “Installed On” date to find recently installed applications. Select the entry for the program you want to remove and click Uninstall button.

Confirm the removal and wait until the program is finished uninstalling.

Guide for Windows XP

Go to Add or Remove Programs tool in the Control Panel.

Sort the installed programs by Date Last Used to find recently installed applications. Select the entry for the program you want to uninstall and click Remove button.

Click Remove button to confirm the removal. Wait until the program is finished uninstalling.

STEP 2: Clean Windows Registry

It’s strongly recommended to clean your Windows Registry in order to remove all entries and registry keys associated with malware or adware. Windows Registry contains all the settings and information for the software applications and user accounts in your Windows operating system. You need to launch Registry Editor utility to make changes to registry.

Apart from this manual instruction, you can try to use the CCleaner Professional program which described below in our guide. This effective program helps to clean and fix Windows Registry.

Guide for Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7 and XP versions

Press Windows + R and type Run regedit or regedit.exe into the Open: search field. Click OK button or press Enter key.

Click Yes button in the User Account Control window to allow the Registry Editor to make changes.

When you open the Registry Editor for the first time, you’ll see a treeview on the left-hand side that contains all of the registry keys with values and data on the right-hand side.

Once Registry Editor is opened, you need to find and remove registry keys and values created by malware or adware.

Press Ctrl + F (or go to Menu –> Edit –> Find) to open the Find bar.

Look up the name of the malware or adware affecting your PC and type it into “Find what:” text box. Check all checkboxes and then click Find Next button.

Right-click on the located registry entry and click Delete from the context menu. Repeat this process for each of the registry entries associated with malware.

Click Yes button in the confirmation window.

Click button, go to Power icon and click Restart.

STEP 3: Remove Malware from Task Scheduler

Among a wide variety of adware viruses there are some unwanted programs which don’t change the settings of your browser (home page, search engine etc.), don’t add malicious extensions and don’t appear in browser shortcuts or Windows Registry. However, this fact does not prevent such unwanted applications from showing you tons of pop-up ads, launching your web browser without your consent and redirecting you to unknown third-party websites. The most interesting thing about this type of malware is that these PUPs typically aren’t detected by anti-virus and anti-adware tools through adding some special instructions (“tasks”) in the Task Scheduler of your Windows operating system. So, you should manually find and delete all the tasks created by the malware.

Guide for Windows 10, 8, 8.1 and 7 versions

First, press Windows + R keys to open the Run Dialog Box. Type taskschd.msc command and click OK button or press Enter key.

You will see a Task Scheduler window.

Expand the tree in the left hand pane and left-click the Task Scheduler Library.

Go to the list of files and tasks in the central pane of Task Scheduler window. Left-click the first task in the list to check its properties. Below you will see general properties of this task.

Next, go to the Actions tab. Check out the information in Start a program line. If you find something like “C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe hxxp://website” or “C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe website” in the Details, immediately delete this task from Task Scheduler.

In order to eliminate the malicious task, right-click the task and select Delete option.

Click Yes button in the confirmation window.

Go through the remaining tasks the same way. Remove the suspicious tasks from your Task Scheduler.

Notice: If you aren’t sure that “C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe hxxp://website” or “C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe website” can be malicious or not, you can check the status of the website on our website or using search engine.

Once you finished the cleaning process, simply exit Task Scheduler window.

To Tab Menu

Remove VeriWinkle.com from Web Browsers

If your default homepage or search engine page has been changed without your permission, or you’re having problems with multiple redirects or annoying pop-up and context ads, your PC is infected by browser hijacker or adware. We strongly recommend you to restore your browser to default settings and clean your browser shortcuts. This step-bystep guide will help you to get rid of any browser hijacker or adware (including malicious browser extensions, plug-ins or toolbars).

Part 3. Useful Free Utilities for Our Manual Guide

The following small and free applications can help you to execute some of the important tasks which are described in our manual malware removal guide.

RKill – Stops Malicious Processes

If you can’t manually find and terminate malicious processes in the Task Manager, you can download a free Rkill utility by BleepingComputer that stops known malware and adware processes so that your anti-malware software can normally start and run, and remove all traces of malware infections. RKill doesn’t delete any system files, this application only stops a malicious running process. Once RKill finished its execution, you should immediately scan your computer with one of the anti-malware tools listed above.

DOWNLOAD RKILL

To Tab Menu

CCleaner Professional – Cleans Windows Registry 

CCleaner is an award-winning PC optimization tool that allows to fix Windows Registry errors, clean your computer from unused system and browser files, erase cookies and your browsing history and significantly improve your computer’s overall speed and performance. CCleaner Professional comes with a free 14-day trial version.

DOWNLOAD CCLEANER PROFESSIONAL

To Tab Menu

Shortcut Cleaner – Cleans Hijacked Browser Shortcuts

If you can’t manually fix your hijacked brower shortcuts, you can download a free Shortcut Cleaner program by BleepingComputer that checks your Windows shortcuts and cleans them so that your browser doesn’t redirect to unwanted websites or display pop-up ads. Shortcut Cleaner is also able to clean hijacked Windows registry entries associated with known browser hijackers.

DOWNLOAD SHORTCUT CLEANER

To Tab Menu

Part 4. How to Prevent Browser Hijacking?

If you want to prevent further irritating browser redirects and adware infections,
please read and follow the common PC security tips below. These general tips will help
to protect your computer against most adware, spyware and malware threats.

Follow These Simple Security Tips

• Most of browser hijackers typically come bundled with legitimate software. Carefully read all the fine print about what you might be installing with the downloaded software. Opt out of installing the unwanted bundled freeware;
• Always select Custom/Advanced option for the type of installation, carefully check every installation step and pay attention to checkboxes;
• Don’t click on suspicious pop-up ads and banner ads;
• Keep your web browser up to date;
• Protect your web browser with a strong password;
• Keep browser extensions and plug-ins up to date;
• Install trusted antivirus and firewall software. Set up daily automatic updates of antivirus databases;
• Keep the automatic updates of your operating system on;
• Avoid suspicious and untrustworthy websites;
• Avoid unexpected and spam emails. Don’t open attachments from strange-looking unknown emails and don’t click any links in such messages;
• Always scan all downloaded files for malware. Check files on your USB flash-drives or external HDDs.

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(Optional) Use Adblock Plus Extension

If you’re tired of intrusive adware infections, we recommend to install a free Adblock Plus extension for your browser. This small and effective tool can help you forget about annoying ads and browser hijackers.

Adblock Plus is a popular FREE open-source ad-blocking browser extension. About 20 million PC users use Adblock Plus on a daily basis. Adblock Plus does a great job filtering out online ads, including pop-ups, banners, browser redirects, adware and more. Adblock Plus also blocks most tracking tools which usually track your surfing activity and browsing history during each browsing session.

Just visit https://adblockplus.org/ website and click “Install” button. Once you install Adblock Plus for your favorite browser, you can customize this extension to fit your personal browsing needs.