This happened to all of us at one time or another: We type in a word on Google but we end up at  another site that was not in anyway related to what  we wanted to search. What happened and who’s fault was it?

Google techies explain this as a browser hijack. Sometimes called  malware, a browser hijack changes your computer’s browser settings so you end up on websites you have no plan of browsing. Browser bandits change your computer’s default search pages or home pages into their customers’ own pages. Their customers pay them to do that for traffic, of course. The most rabid form of a browser hijack is taking you to a pornographic site. You notice that porno pop up windows open a lot faster than ordinary ones? And you can’t shut them just like that.  When you browse and you mistakenly key in a wrong URL, chances are you’ll get there pretty fast. Common browser hijack with poor coding can crash your browser, if not hang your computer.

Errors shown by a browser hijack

You’ll notice these errors

• Your Internet explorer cannot open any web page
• Any filename.exe becomes invalid for Win32 application
• Your setup gets corrupted (in which case you need a new copy of the program)

Symptoms of a browser hijack

A browser hijack happens before you can even wink. So you don’t get surprised,  you should watch out for:

• a “new” desktop background
• a “new” homepage
• your browser slows down
• your registry files gets corrupted
• your messengers get contaminated by attached emails.

How to escape a browser hijack

• Click the “Home” button of your internet explorer and go to “Remove”. It will remove, for example, www.Goggle.hr from your homepage.
• Type in Google.com and make it your homepage.
• Click the checkbox that says “use this webpage as your homepage”.

To find your Google bar: where your toolbar would have been, right lick an empty area and choose Goggle from the list. If you don’t see Google,  install http://toolbar.google.com

Another way of fixing Google redirect

• First, select “To show your hidden devices” from hardware device  manager. You can find it on your Windows Control Panel.
• Look for “TDSserv.sys” then right click “Disable.”
• Skip “Uninstall” on the browser: highjack reappears when you restart the computer.
• Reboot your PC.
• Then update your antivirus software: the Google redirect virus won’t appear anymore.

In browsing, be on the lookout for suspicious looking sites (and there are lots of them!). You can’t afford to get another virus, so always scan your system and keep your security tool on guard all the time.   Let’s face it: your antivirus software may not work well some times, so have a back up software.

Keep in mind that  Google has nothing to do with a browser hijack. It’s those traffic hungry site owners. The worst this could lead to is getting your personal information hacked. Finally, enough of those adult sites, please.

After all these attempts, if you still can’t still seem to be able to fix your problem, we suggest you hire professional IT services and get the job done by an expert.