What is PUP.Optional.WebSearchInfo and what damages can it do if the computer has been infected by it? There have been great amount of computer users who are suffering from the trouble brought by this PUP virus. The matter mostly happens to computer that have windows operating system. This infection is a nightmare to Internet users all over the world. People are seeking for efficient ways to get rid of it eagerly. How to remove it completely?

Information about PUP.Optional.WebSearchInfo

PUP.Optional.WebSearchInfo, which is torturing so many people all around the world is a member comes from the potentially unwanted programs. It can be dealt with as a Trojan virus since it resembles a Trojan infection so much. There is lot information we can get from its name. It is a well-designed virus, some people also call it a script, by cyber criminals to trace browser activities on a target computers to collect users habits, search queries and the popularity of search engines. It will analyze on those data it gets from the system activities and beware what it needs then take advantages of them. It can tell what search queries you recently use and what kind of browsers and search engines you are using on the infected computer. By further tracing, it is able to know some of your accounts on specific web sites such as your email address, Facebook accounts or bank info.

By collecting regular using habits of computer users, this PUP virus sends the information to remote third parties and those people are who often run unsafe web sites or own rogue programs. They will develop their fake products by perfecting them according to what they have got from the infected computers. This PUP virus is a tool used and spread by them to weaken the system detection ability on the infected computer and once PUP.Optional.WebSearchInfo has made the system vulnerable enough they send out popping ups to attract users to click on and if you do that by mistake your computer is going to the invaded by other products– the viruses or threats from them. The infected computer will be slowed down greatly due to too many plug-ins, program installation and browser hijacker redirection. The longer this virus stays in the system the serious problems you may have following by it.

Note: Manual Removal requires expertise and it is for advanced users, if you don’t have much experience in dealing with redirect virus.
Contact YooSecurity Online PC Experts for removal assistance.

Symptoms of Similar Trojan Infection :

– This virus can escape from most antivirus protection and get itself installed on computers especially with Windows operating systems.
– It can cause constant stuck or even blue screens on the infected computers.
– Computer users will experience constant security pop ups on the computers which may not truly represent the status of the PCs.
– Certain malware or spyware may be prompted by these fake security pop ups which will end up scamming money.
– Sensitive data like privacy can also be stolen and taken advantages by cyber criminals.

Manual Removal Step by Step Instructions

Up till now, there is not a perfect antivirus that can detect this pesky Trojan virus or delete it completely. PUP.Optional.WebSearchInfo has been updated by remote and backstage cyber criminals and is able to escape from the scan of any anti-virus programs thus it is hard to be removed or even found. The most effective way is to remove it manually. The following instructions need quite level of computer expertise. If you don’t know how to that correctly, please contact with YooSecurity online support now!

Step A: Check on your start menu if there are any programs that you are not familiar with. The strange ones will often related to the virus process as it can start automatically with the windows. You can press on Windows key or just click on the start menu to view it. Please notice that you need to click on All Programs to have an overall check on it.

start button
Step B: To remove the Trojan the first thing we need to do is to end its process thus we will not get the error message when we delete its files. To do that, open Windows Task Manager to end process related to this Trojan infection. You can press Ctrl+Alt+Del keys at the same time to pull up Window Task Manager; go to Processes tab on top and scroll down the list to find.

windows task manager

Step C: Always any virus files will be hidden files. So we need to show hidden files before we are going to delete them. Open Control Panel from Start menu and search for Folder Options (As an easy way you can open a folder and hold Alt key and tap on T, O key one by one and folder option window will pops up). Go to Folder Options window, under View tab, tick Show hidden files and folders and non-tick Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click Apply and then hit OK.

folder options

After we can see hidden folders and files we can go to system files and delete the infected files. The path of the virus often can be found from the antivirus which detects it.

program data

Step D: After we delete the virus files from system data we get to remove the registry of the virus from registry editor to prevent it from coming back. You can get Registry Editor by pressing Windows+R keys to pull up Run box and type in regedit to open Registry Editor.

Run box

The following is how Windows Registry Editor looks like.

Registry Editor

Step E: Delete all these associated files and registry entries with this Trojan virus from Registry Editor. The registry files are listed randomly. Besides, you need to delete the infection files of the redirect virus from your system files to prevent it from coming back. Those files are named randomly also but may be different on different operating systems.

Video on How to Modify or Change Windows Registry Safely:

To Conclude Shortly:

PUP.Optional.WebSearchInfo, often taken as a Trojan infection to computers, is a potentially unwanted program which can be caught by visiting some unknown or unsafe web sites, installing freeware or rogue programs from the internet. It is a script created by hackers to collect user database from random computer users. It can cause privacy revealing and loss of critical system files by making chaos in the system. This virus not only replicate itself to eat the free capacity of the hard drive but also erase important system data randomly to make the system or other programs stuck from time to time. It is headache to net users nowadays for it is possible to be detected but almost impossible to remove. Reputable antivirus software let us down when it comes to this PUP virus. They cannot delete it completely.  The reason is that this virus has been updated in time and the antivirus needs time to react the newer viruses. It is highly recommended to get rid of this virus in time in order to save your computer.

Published by Tony Shepherd & last updated on January 11, 2014 6:06 am

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