Feed.sportssearchdirect.com Virus Removal Guide

Written by Valdis Koks

Feed.sportssearchdirect.com search hijacker is a kind of virus that squeezes into your system, and then changes the search engine configurations in your browser to one which it is paid for. It likewise makes different unwanted changes that may trigger personal data leaks, in addition to other malware penetration. In this post, you will read the tutorial of Feed.sportssearchdirect.com hijacker removal in several techniques, and additionally the solution of making your web browser as good as new.

icon hijacker - Do I really need it?

Feed.sportssearchdirect.com info

Name Feed.sportssearchdirect.com extension
Type Browser hijacker1
Short Description The unwanted software that amends important browser settings without the user’s permission.
Symptoms The Feed.sportssearchdirect.com hijacker replaces the browser parameters set by the users and replaces these settings with its own values.
Distribution Method Bundling with Freeware or Shareware, misleading pop-up ads produced by adware.
Detection Tool Inspect If Your System Has Been Affected by the Feed.sportssearchdirect.com hijacker.

The methods of injection of Feed.sportssearchdirect.com search hijackers are diverse. Many of them come from the malware spreading through the malvertising or malicious web links of various web sites. Sometimes, your personal computer might be infected with this malware through the trojan-downloader, which is put to use to spread various other malware. There is a solitary form of this undesirable program – web browser plugin that might build right into any kind of web browser which supports the add-on setup2.

You will not likely install this plugin on your own, because their names are pretty suspicious, and also the usefulness is extremely debatable. The “developers” of Feed.sportssearchdirect.com hijacker generally state that it can save the .doc/.docx files from the websites already to .pdf format, or to save the whole site on your disk. It is really hard to imagine if somebody can be needed in such features in 2022, when the Internet access is not time-limited as well as every system is able to open the needed .docx files at Google Docs.

However, besides their impracticality, they may effortlessly be located in the Chrome Web Store. Certainly, virus experts sound the alarm about such spam into the official source of web browser extensions, requiring the Google response – removing these extensions from their site. However, they are still not hurrying to take care of that protection issue.

Icon - Your PC hijacker

Is the Feed.sportssearchdirect.com virus?

At the first blush, you can think that these redirects are only aggravating, but not hazardous. Due to this factor a great deal of users are simply playing for time as opposed to getting rid of this malware, getting more and more possibilities of being contaminated with various other infections, which are much more severe than Feed.sportssearchdirect.com is.

Besides the altered search engine or search engine result, you may also see different promotions even on those websites that do not have any type of ads on it by default. And you may just misclick while closing the advertisement, and initiate the downloading of an unidentified file, which can be a virus, or a potentially unwanted application, and even ransomware – whatever the maintainers of this hijacker desire.

If your browser is damaged because of the Azorult trojan activity, the system may start malfunctioning in the near future – this symptome is among the most usual in case of trojan infiltration.

Icon - remove Feed.sportssearchdirect.com hijacker

How to remove Feed.sportssearchdirect.com?

First, let me say several words about prevention the Feed.sportssearchdirect.com malware penetration. It is really simple to speak about the options of shielding your personal computer from such annoying items as browser hijackers, but it is really easy to be caught on this lure even being an experienced user. As it was specified above, this unwanted program can hide after the attractive (at the first sight) promotion, or in packs with various other adware you may get in dozens of ways. However, regardless of the common complexity of the injection techniques, it is really easy to stay away from the Feed.sportssearchdirect.com hijacker presence in your system:

  • Do not follow the dubious links;
  • Restrict the usage of pseudo-free software (one which is offered as free, but has an additional unwanted programs in its pack);
  • Leave the habit of clicking advertisements on the web. If you need to buy something, it is better to google it;
  • Avoid downloading the files from dubious sources, like forums or file sharing websites.
Feed.sportssearchdirect.com may remain persistent on your system and may re-infect it. We recommend you to download Trojan Remover and run free scan to get rid of all infected files on your device. This saves you a lot of time and efforts compared to the manual malware removal.

Preparation before removing Feed.sportssearchdirect.com.

Before starting the actual uninstall procedure, we recommend that you do the following introductory milestones.

  • Ensure you have this manual tutorial always prepared to make use of.
  • Do a back-up of all of your data, including the stored logins, passwords as well as various other credentials. You need to support your info with a cloud back-up service and also make sure your files are protected from any type of sort of loss, even from the most severe infections.
  • Wait until the long-lasting back-up procedure is over.

Step 1: Uninstall Feed.sportssearchdirect.com and related software from Windows

Right here is a technique in couple of simple steps that must be able to uninstall most applications. Either you use Windows 11/10 or 7, these milestones will work well. Moving the app or its folder to the Trash can be a very wrong idea. In case you do that, remnants of the app may remain, and that can cause the unstable performance of your system, malfunctions with the file type associations and other unpleasant behavior. The effective solution to get an app off your device is to remove it manually. To do that:

1. Keep holding the Windows Logo Button and “R” on your keyboard. A Pop-up window will soon arrive.

Windows keyboard R

2. In the field that appeared, type in “appwiz.cpl” -1  and choose OK – 2.

Run appwiz.cpl

 

3. This will open a window with all the apps available on the device. Choose the app that you want to get rid of, then choose “Uninstall

Follow the steps above and you will successfully get rid of most unwanted apps.

Step 2: Get rid of Feed.sportssearchdirect.com from all your available browsers.

Mozilla FirefoxGoogle ChromeInternet ExplorerMicrosoft Edge

1. Launch Mozilla Firefox. Go to its menu window

2. Choose the “Add-ons” icon in the menu.

3. Find the unwanted extension and select “Remove

Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Remove

4. Upon deleting the extension, reload Mozilla Firefox, closing it with the help of a red “X” button in the upper right corner and start it again.

1. Launch Google Chrome and go to its drop menu

Google Chrome drop menu click

2. Click on “Tools” and then in the extended menu select “Extensions

Google Chrome Tools select Extensions

3. In the “Extensions” menu find the unwanted extension and apply the “Remove” button related to it.

Google Chrome Extensions Remove

4. As soon as the extension is deleted, reload Google Chrome by closing it by means of the red “X” button at the top right corner and launch it again.

1. Launch Internet Explorer

2. Click on the gear icon marked ‘Tools’ to open the drop menu and choose ‘Manage Add-ons’

Manage-add-ons

3. In the “Manage Add-ons” window, locate the extension you want to delete and then click “Remove”. A pop-up window will come up to inform you that you are about to delete the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and choose “Remove”.

Internet Explorer extension removal

4. Once the unwanted extension is deleted, reload Internet Explorer by shutting it down from the red “X” button located at the top right corner and launch it again.

1. Launch Edge

2. Access the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.

3. From the drop menu choose “Extensions”.

Microsoft Edge menu Extensions

4. Locate the suspected dangerous extension you want to delete and then click on the Remove button.

Microsoft Edge Extensions Remove

Step 3: Clean any registries that could be added by Feed.sportssearchdirect.com on your device.

The usually attacked registries of Windows machines are the following:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

You can access them by going to the Windows registry editor and getting rid of any values added by Feed.sportssearchdirect.com. Follow the steps below:

  1. Start the Run Window command once again, type “regedit” and click OK.Window command regedit
  2. As soon as you open it, you can freely go to the Run and RunOnce keys, whose locations are displayed above.Window command Run and RunOnce keys
  3. You can delete the value of the virus by right-clicking on it and deleting it.Window command regedit delete the value virus

Tip: To locate a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and select “Modify” to find which file it is set to run. If this is the malware file location, delete the value.

IMPORTANT!
Before starting “Step 4”, please boot back into Normal modein case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use Loaris Trojan Remover successfully.

 

Step 4: Scan for Feed.sportssearchdirect.com with Loaris Trojan Remover

1. Click on the “Download” button to proceed to Loaris Trojan Remover download.

It is recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by Trojan Remover. Click on the corresponding links to check License AgreementPrivacy Policy.

2. Click “Install” to start.

Loaris Trojan Remover Install

There were 4 scan types suggested:

  • Standard Scan.
  • Full Scan.
  • Custom Scan.
  • Removable Scan.

 

3. After the installed has finished, click on the ‘Scan’ tab. Click on ‘Full Scan’.

Loaris Trojan Remover Full Scan

4. Once the scanning is started, Loaris will initiate the thorough analysis of your device and may soon identify specific threats currently slowing down the performance of your system. Make sure to wait until the scanning is completed to let the software fully evaluate the safety of your workstation.

Loaris Trojan Remover - scan in process

5. After Loaris Trojan Remover has finished scanning your PC for any files of the associated threat and found them, you can try to get them removed automatically and permanently by clicking on the ‘Apply’ button. There were options to move the files to quarantine, ignore or delete them.

Loaris Trojan Remover - show viruses

If any threats have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart your PC.

 

  1. About browser hijackers on Wikipedia
  2. Possible danger of free browser extensions

About the author

Valdis Koks

Security engineer, reverse engineering and memory forensics

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