This website Www.step-congrats.com always pops up many ads, software downloading message and fake application update message banner to block me to do any other tasks on my computer, which is very annoying. And now this wired website becomes my homepage and the search tool Yahoo also is gone, which I don’t where I can find them back, because when I go back to the internet settings and want to reset back, but it doesn’t change back. How does that happen? I know my computer is infected with some kind of redirect infection, but don’t figure out the way to get rid of it. Please help me!!

Description of Www.step-congrats.com Hijacker

Www.step-congrats.com is sorted to be malicious redirect infection and can be also treated as a platform to promote different kinds of products and malware.  It is inserted into those free softwares your download from unlicensed resource as an extension, and when you download the software, then it will be also installed with this software into your computer. However, you will never know that the download could bring you such annoying hijacker because this hijacker pop-up won’t even inform you its oncoming installation.  Therefore, you are strongly advised to select custom installation instead of the default option for installing the software you want. In this way, you will know clearly what additional applications try to install into your computer, and also you can block it to access your computer by unmarking some hey options. On the other hands, this hijacker is also distributed via malicious websites, and when PC users visit randomly those webpages, this redirect infection or other threats will drop on the computer and infect internet browser, besides, this hijacker also can be spread through spam email attachments or strange files from strangers and so on. Once Www.step-congrats.com hijacker is arrived it can modify your browser settings and cause a lot of troubles to interrupt your browsing activities. Please keep a good habit online to prevent infections from accessing your machine.

This hijacker Www.step-congrats.com changes the homepage and your favorite search tool totally and cannot allow you to change any setting back to block you trying remove it from the Internet browser. Whenever you surf on the internet, this hijacker brings you constant pop-up ads on your screen, and closing those ads don’t stop it from continuing popping up. Most ads are about  applications downloading, which mainly attract you to download some application it mentioned, but actually these apps are mostly useless or even harmful like rogue antivirus program. Commercial ads offering good deals and coupons are also including. Beside, fake message banners are displayed frequently (eg. Your computer is at risk! or You won the prize!). Those ads are designed to trick inexperienced users into clicking and installing unwanted programs and other malware on the targeted machine. Once you click on those stuff things, the malware or unwanted programs or extensions come, but at the beginning, they may not bring huge damages into your machine, and gradually this Www.step-congrats.com hijacker or other malwares will do further harm to corrupt system, which will severely degrade performance of your computer. For example, computer will run slower suddenly and even get stuck to death or get a blue screen of death. Programs especially large on often get frozen, and you cannot access the Internet or internet browser often get stuck or crash down frequently and so on.

Main Traits of Www.step-congrats.com Hijacker

-Can change your homepage or the default search engine to Www.step-congrats.com and it totally prevents you from changing them back

-Can always redirect you to other websites

-Can pop up various advertisements and sponsored links randomly to interrupt your online activities

-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.

-Can collect and send data concerning your search history and other browsing activities.

-Your sensitive information can be tracked and stolen by hacker who can access to your computer with the help of this browser hijacker.

NOTE: If you find any of these symptoms on your computer, that proves your PC is under attack and seriously infected with Www.step-congrats.com hijacker. If you are not a computer savvy, Please contact YooSecurity Online PC Experts to remove this browser hijacker virus for you.

The Screenshot of Www.step-congrats.com Hijacker

Step-congrats.com-screenshot

Manual Removal Guide of Browser Hijacker (For Computer Literate)

There is a removal guide of Www.step-congrats.com hijacker 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 hijacker, 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: 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 Www.step-congrats.com hijacker, highlight it and choose Remove, the program’s name is random.

4789794954_df8cfb11b2

Step4: Change your homepage in your browser (Take Internet Explorer as an Example)

From the Navigation toolbar in Internet Explorer, click Tools and select Internet Options.

IE tools

Then type the URL you want into the Home page box and then click OK

IE8-Internet-Options

Similar video on browser hijacker removal:

Conclusion:

Www.step-congrats.com hijacker is a harmful redirect infection to the computer. It changes the homepage and search engine totally and prevents online users from changing back, redirects them to its URL or other malicious websites, steals their personal data and displays endless pop-ups on the screen to prevent them from getting online normally and smoothly. Don’t think this redirect infection is not as harmful as those stubborn viruses like Trojan horse, ransomware, worms, since this redirect can also bring those harmful viruses to infect the computer, which will greatly slow down PC and make it run as a snail and further harm to mess up system files and damage system severely.

Suggestion: To follow removal guide that mentioned above, a level of computer knowledge is needed. Still can’t get out of Www.step-congrats.com hijacker? Contact online experts for help now!

Published by Tony Shepherd & last updated on January 19, 2015 1:03 pm

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