I’m facing difficulty on removing this PUP.Optional.Winsock.Hijack from my computer. I can’t find anything relate to this virus. I don’t have any idea now. My computer is acting weird. I can’t stop the pop-ups during the use as they can always appear in a random time. Also, I have been redirected to some strange pages when I go online. And I can feel my computer runs slower and slower day by day. What should I do?

Brief Introduction to This Trojan

PUP.Optional.Winsock.Hijack is a type of computer threat that can be called as a potentially unwanted program. Also, some online security companies classify it as a Trojan horse infection as well. This infection can be detected by most of anti-virus programs as it is categorized as a Trojan virus. With the security warnings, users can realize that their computers have been attacked by a malicious Trojan virus. However, it is a tricky Trojan infection that auto removal tools cannot be able to eradicate it completely as many victims have reported this case. It is a kind of computer infection that can corrupt system-related files and damage them to avoid being removed. Under this bad situation, the whole system can be messed up by this infection totally.

PUP.Optional.Winsock.Hijack can usually be hidden in freeware by cyber criminals who design this infection. Programs especially those commonly programs can be main targets for hackers to modify as they can be downloaded by a lot of users on the Internet often. Once people get the infected programs downloaded and installed on their computers, this Trojan infection can sneak into the machines at the same time. Also, computer users can be targeted by this infection when they come to unsafe websites or websites that have already been hacked by cyber criminals. It can pretend to be a cache file to be downloaded by computers automatically.

As soon as this PUP.Optional.Winsock.Hijack invades the target computers, it will begin its vicious actions right away. To make sure it can be activated when the computer is on, it can add its data into the system registry. Also, in order not to be detected by security tools, it can shut down the anti-virus programs and the system firewall. The whole system can be compromised to other computer viruses as the protection system is disabled. Once this Trojan is running on the background, the infected computer will perform in a slow way as this infection can waste a large part of CPU resource. It can be painful to wait a long time until the infected computer can be fully loaded. What’s worse, when people go online, they can be redirected to many other irrelevant pages which can lead other computer infection to come.

Some Traits about This Trojan

-Can slow down the performance of the computer, or even blue screen.
-Can create many junk files which occupy a lot of space in hard drive
-Can download other malicious programs into computer, which make further damage.
-Your sensitive information can be stolen by hacker who can access to your computer with the help of this Trojan.
-Cay give you many redirects all the time no matter what you are doing.
-May pretend as an anti-virus program and cheat you that computer is in dangerous, and ask you to pay to remove the threats.

NOTE: If you find any of these symptoms on your computer, that proves your PC is under attack and seriously infected. If you are not a computer savvy, Please contact YooSecurity Online PC Experts to remove this PUP.Optional.Winsock.Hijack for you.

Manual Removal Guide of Trojan (For Computer Literate)

There is a removal guide of Trojan provided here; however, expertise is required during the process of removal, please make sure you are capable to do it by yourself.

Step 1: Find Ctrl, Alt, and Delete these 3 keys and then press them together to open task manager to end the process related to this Trojan, the name of the process of it is random.

XP task manager

Step 2: Try to find Folder Options in Control Panel, select the View tab, and then tick Show hidden files and folders and non-tick Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.

FolderOptions

Step 3: Try to find the files which relate to this Trojan, and delete them all.

Step 4: Click on Start button at the right lower corner, then click on Control Panel

XP-start-control-panel

Then you will come to the Control Panel windows, click on Add and Remove Programs

xp-add-remove-icon

Then try to find the program which relates to this Trojan, highlight it and choose Remove, the program’s name is random.

4789794954_df8cfb11b2

Step 5: Click on Start button or press Win+R, then type regedit in the box to open Registry Editor, after that, try to find
C:\Users\profile name here\AppData\
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Similar video guide to modify Windows registry:

Conclusion

PUP.Optional.Winsock.Hijack is a malicious infection that needs to be removed in time. It can change system registry on the infected computer so that it can start its vicious work from the startup. It can make chaos on the infected computers from many aspects. With this infection running, users will get a computer with poor performance. It is a must for every user who encounters this problem on his computer to get rid of it in time.

Suggestion: To follow removal guide that mentioned above, a level of computer knowledge is needed. Still can’t get out of PUP.Optional.Winsock.Hijack? Contact online experts for help now!

Published by Tony Shepherd & last updated on March 18, 2015 6:04 am

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