Fastblock.me Ads Virus. How to delete?

Written by Valdis Koks

Fastblock.me search hijacker is a type of virus that injects into your computer system, and after that changes the search engine settings in your browser to one which it wants. It likewise makes some unpleasant changes that might provoke personal information leaks, in addition to other malware penetration. In this article, you will read the tutorial of Fastblock.me hijacker removal in various options, and also the method of making your browser just as good as new.

icon hijacker - Do I really need it?

Fastblock.me Info

Name Fastblock.me extension
Type Browser hijacker1
Short Description The unwanted software that amends important browser settings without the user’s permission.
Symptoms The Fastblock.me 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 Fastblock.me hijacker.

The ways of injection of Fastblock.me search hijackers are various. Many of them belong to the malware spreading via the malvertising or evil-minded links of various websites. Frequently, your computer might be infected with this virus through the trojan-downloader, which is used to spread different other malware. There is a solitary kind of this unwanted program – browser plugin that may build into any kind of browser which supports the add-on setup2.

You will not likely mount this plugin by yourself, since their names are highly suspicious, and also the usefulness is very debatable. The “developers” of Fastblock.me hijacker normally state that it can save the .doc/.docx files from the sites already to .pdf format, or to save the entire web site on your disk. It is very tough to imagine if somebody can be needed in such functions in 2024, when the Web access is not time-limited as well as every system is able to start the needed .docx files at Google Docs.

However, besides their uselessness, they may easily be spotted in the Chrome Web Store. Certainly, virus analysts sound the alarm relating to such spam right into the official source of web browser extensions, requiring the Google response – getting rid of these extensions from their place. However, they are still not hurrying to deal with that safety issue.

Icon - Your PC hijacker

Is the Fastblock.me virus?

At the first sight, you may assume that these redirects are only annoying, but not hazardous. Due to this reason a great deal of people are just playing for time rather than eliminating this malware, getting more and more possibilities of being contaminated with numerous other malware, which are far more major than Fastblock.me is.

Besides the modified search engine or search engine result, you can also see different promotions even on those sites that do not have any type of promotions on it by default. And you may unintentionally misclick while turning off the ad, and launch the downloading of an unrecognized file, which may be a virus, or a potentially undesirable program, or even ransomware – whatever the maintainers of this hijacker want.

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

Icon - remove Fastblock.me hijacker

How to remove Fastblock.me?

First, let me say several words about prevention the Fastblock.me virus injection. It is extremely simple to speak about the techniques of protecting your PC from such irritating things as browser hijackers, but it is extremely easy to be caught on this bait even being a skilled user. As it was mentioned above, this malware may hide after the eye-catching (at the first sight) promotion, or in packs with various other adware you may get in dozens of means. But no matter the common complexity of the penetration techniques, it is really easy to stay clear of the Fastblock.me 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.

Preparation before removing Fastblock.me.

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

  • Make certain you have this hands-on tutorial constantly prepared to use.
  • Do a backup of all of your information, including the stored logins, passwords and other credentials. You ought to support your information with a cloud backup solution and make sure your files are secured from any kind of loss, even from one of the most severe infections.
  • Wait until the durable back-up procedure is over.

Step 1: Uninstall Fastblock.me and related software from Windows

Here is a technique in couple of very easy stages that ought to have the ability to uninstall most applications. Either you use Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, 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 Fastblock.me 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 Fastblock.me 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 Fastblock.me. 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.

Step 4: Scan for Fastblock.me 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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