Weknow.ac Pop-up Virus Removal Guide

Written by Valdis Koks

How dangerous is Weknow.ac? Does Weknow.ac redirect your browser to shady websites? How did Weknow.ac end up on your PC?

Weknow.ac shows up whenever you attempt to open a new tab in your internet browser. The appearance of the web page is the proof of a severe web browser hijacker to be currently enabled in your device as well as in your web browser experiencing the aforesaid issues. The developers of the Weknow.ac web browser modifier belong to specific marketing firms that aim to advertise details product and services via the hijacker. Nevertheless, this is carried out in an absolutely illegal method, isn’t it? As an example, Weknow.ac amends the new tab window, home page on startup as well as the default search engine value for all your readily available internet browsers, without asking about your personal opinion concerning such adjustments. Furthermore, the hijacker infuses its own toolbar, plus the expansion (add-on) may be contributed to the browser.

Name Weknow.ac extension
Type Browser hijacker
Short Description The unwanted software that amends important browser settings without the user’s permission.
Symptoms The Weknow.ac 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 Weknow.ac hijacker.

Icon - Your PC hijacker

Weknow.ac – How Did It End Up on Your PC?

 

Weknow.ac describes many misleading techniques to inject its codes into the system. Commonly its invasion takes place as a result of the customers downloading and mounting some cost-free applications. The information about Weknow.ac may be hidden by the installer, or supplied in the small-print type.

Weknow.ac can also be advertised via deceptive pop-ups suggesting the people to download and install the essential web browser upgrade, or Video Player, or any other uncertain software program whatsoever. Actually, there is no need whatsoever for you to perform such updates. However, when the people incorrectly agree with such propositions, they instantly wind up setting up scrap software application, whereas Weknow.ac might be just one of lots of various other suspicious utilities.

As soon as Weknow.ac is effectively allowed, it transforms crucial web browser settings, for example:

  • default home page on startup;
  • new tab value;
  • default search provider.

Whenever the certain search query is sent, the query is rerouted with third-party websites not actually acquainted to the user, whereas the search engine result are eventually provided by Yahoo Browse, Bing Look or some other pseudo search engine. Despite the fact that these two providers are definitely legitimate, they are not related to the programmers of Weknow.ac. The hijacker just swipes the search data as well as additionally adds a great deal of its very own funded web links that may eventually lead the users to various other dubious sources online.

In addition, Weknow.ac is involved in permanently tracking your browsing practices. It collects your individual information and also routinely transfers this definitely exclusive as well as private information to third-party business in an absolutely unlawful way.

Icon - remove hijacker for good

How to remove Weknow.ac for good?

 

Even though it is not an issue whatsoever to deactivate the Weknow.ac expansion by hand, there is still a fantastic requirement for you to describe the automatic examination of your device with the reputable protection software program. Your computer could be in addition infected with some other malicious programs as a result of setting up some bundle. For this reason, we strongly suggest you to scan your system with the tried and tested anti-virus software a minimum of to check the existing status of your workstation and discover various other risks that may be in location. Nevertheless, you are the very first welcome to try our hand-operated referrals assessed listed below.

Weknow.ac 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 Weknow.ac.

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

  • Ensure you have this hand-operated tutorial constantly all set to make use of.
  • Carry out a backup of all of your data, including the kept logins, passwords and various other credentials. You ought to support your details with a cloud backup service as well as make sure your files are safeguarded from any type of loss, also from one of the most severe infections.
  • Wait until the lasting backup process mores than.

Step 1: Uninstall Weknow.ac and related software from Windows

Below is a method in couple of easy landmarks that must have the ability 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 Weknow.ac 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 Weknow.ac 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 Weknow.ac. 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 Weknow.ac 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.

 

About the author

Valdis Koks

Security engineer, reverse engineering and memory forensics

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