How to remove the Initial Site 123 Virus

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Welcome to our Initial Site 123 Virus removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.

In the text below we are going to discuss the potential origin of your current potentially unpleasant browsing experience. What you should blame for the never-ending flow of pop-ups and banners, for the quick and unwanted redirecting to many unfamiliar web pages and for the latest substitutions of  your usual browser homepages, is Initial Site 123 Virus. The characteristics of this program put it in the browser hijacker category. Being a part of this software family, it may affect every most commonly used search engine that you could have installed on your computer – Firefox, Chrome, Opera and/ or Explorer.

Are browser hijackers actual viruses?

This is possibly the basic question that comes to your mind – whether your PC has been infected with a virus and is this the reason why your browses have been affected in such a noticeable way? Nonetheless, the news here is not that bad! You are not dealing with malware in this case; you are just experiencing a marketing-driven program that could be able to make your search engine behave in different from the usual ways. Such a changed behavior of your browser may include the aforementioned alterations in terms of generated ads, redirecting to unknown pages and setting new homepages. If you had been infected with malicious programs, the consequences for you could have been completely different and so much more horrid. It is possible that some of your data might have been locked up and you would have had to pay a ransom to restore it. Probably the infection with an actual virus would have resulted in a complete crash of your PC or the destruction of some files. Here, you shouldn’t worry about such effects as Initial Site 123 Virus doesn’t possess any of them.

Why do some experts classify  Initial Site 123 Virus as potentially unwanted?

There are users who may consider the way this program spreads and the way it functions not quite decent. That has led to the classification of Initial Site 123 Virus as a potentially undesired software product. However, we are going to thoroughly discuss its features in order to inform you about everything that Initial Site 123 Virus may do in details.

Potential sources

Browser hijackers could most often be found inside program bundles. Still, they may be present in email attachments, torrents, shareware websites, pages that stream videos and movies, as well as spam emails. If Initial Site 123 Virus has come to you as a component of a bundle, you need to know that these software combinations are legal and programmers create them in order to increase their earnings by being paid for every single advertisement that gets generated later.

The installation of such a hijacker

Maybe it is exactly the methods of installation that make this type of software appear as shady as it does. You  are probably aware of the fact that to simply download a bundle is one thing, however, to get it installed on your system and allow it integrate itself into your mostly used browsers is a totally different one. In fact, most of the affected users allow this program to get inside their machines themselves by being rather careless when it comes to the installation features of a given wizard. Initial Site 123 Virus typically enters your system and you are completely clueless about that if you tend to select the quick, default or automatic installation features. An important safety tip: learn to use the more time-consuming but apparently nerve-saving installation options if you want to avoid Adware, browser hijackers, Ransomware, Trojans and other harmless or harmful online annoyances. These options are often referred to as advanced or customized.

Some more possible unpleasant effects that might result from the installation of Initial Site 123 Virus on your PC

In some rarer cases, Initial Site 123 Virus may result in some more quite undesired effects. For example, the intense generation of banners, pop-up and box ads might lead to quite a slowdown of your entire machine. What’s more, some of the redirecting that Initial Site 123 Virus could be the reason for may send you to places on the web, which may possibly contain malware {even  the worst type – Ransomware, has been mentioned}. Despite all these, nothing about this software is a sure sign of any malicious features, and the distraction may be the only quite negative effects of Initial Site 123 Virus that you might become a victim of.

Initial Site 123 Virus’s removal – an easy or not that easy task?

Fortunately, as far as we know, you are very likely to remove Initial Site 123 Virus only by using the instructions in the removal guide we have assembled for you. At times, under specific circumstances, some more professional tips or help might be necessary in your case. Let’s hope it is not the situation in your particular case and the advice in this article will be what you need to fight this hijacker.

SUMMARY:

Name Initial Site 123
Type Browser Hijacker
Danger Level Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms Only occurring inside your browser apps: many popping up ads; many redirecting processes and substituted default search engines/homepages.
Distribution Method Various possibilities: from bundles to torrents; from spam to infected websites.

Initial Site 123 Virus Removal

I – Safe mode and revealing hidden files

  1. Boot your PC into Safe Mode /link/
  2. Reveal hidden files and folders /link/

II – Uninstallation

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  1. Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
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  2. Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
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  3. Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall

If you are unable to spot Initial Site 123 Virus, search for any unrecognized programs that you do not remember installing on your PC – the unwanted software might disguise itself by going under a different name.

III – Cleaning all your browsers

  1. Go to your browser’s icon, right-click on it and select Properties.
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  2. Go to the Shortcut tab and in the Target make sure to delete anything written after “.exe”.
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  3. Now, open your browser and follow the instructions below depending on whether you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE.
  • Chrome users:
  1. Go to your browser’s main menu located in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
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  2. Scroll down, click on Show Advanced Settings and then select Clear browsing data. Just to be sure, tick everything and clear the data.
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  3. Now, in the left pane, go to Extensions and look through all extensions that are integrated within your browser. If you notice any suspicious add-on, disable it and then remove it.
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  • Firefox users:
  1. Similarly to Chrome, go to the main menu and select Add-ons and then Extensions.
  2. Remove any suspicious browser extensions that you may have even if they do not have the name Initial Site 123 Virus on them.
  • IE users:
  1. Go to Tools and select Manage add-ons.
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  2. Click on all add-on types from the left pane and check if there is anything suspicious in the right panel. In case you find anything shade, make sure to remove it.

IV – Removing Shady processes

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  1. Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
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  2. Thoroughly look through all processes. The name Initial Site 123 Virus might not be there, but if you notice any shady looking process that consumes high amounts of memory it might be ran by the unwanted program.
  3. If you spot the process ran by Initial Site 123 Virus, right-click on it, open its file location and delete everything in there. Then go back to the Task Manager and end the process.
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V – DNS check

  1. In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
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  2. Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
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  3. Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
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  4. If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
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  5. Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
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  6. Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.

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