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iStartSurf is a browser hijacker, which is promoted via other free downloads, and once installed it will change your browser homepage to iStartSurf.com and default search engine tosearch.yahoo.com.
This in itself is not considered malicious as there are many legitimate programs that change these settings as well. What is considered malicious, though, is that it will also append the argument http://iStartSurf.com to random Windows shortcuts on your desktop and your Windows Start Menu.

The iStartSurf.com homepage will display advertisements and sponsored links in your search results, and may collect search terms from your search queries. The iStartSurf.com hijack is used to boost advertising revenue, as in the use of blackhat SEO, to inflate a site’s page ranking in search results.

How to remove iStartSurf.com  (Virus Removal Guide)

STEP 1 : Uninstall iStartSurf malicious programs from your computer

1. To uninstall a program from Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, click the “Start” button, then click on the “Control Panel” menu option.
   
   If you are using Windows 8, simply drag your mouse pointer to the right edge of the screen, select Search from the list and search for “control panel” .Or you can right-click on a bottom left hot corner (formerly known as the Start button) and select Control Panel from there.
   
2. When the “Control Panel” window opens click on the “Uninstall a program” option under “Programs” category. This option is shown by the arrow in the image below. If you are using the “Classic View” of the Control Panel, then you would double-click on the “Programs and Features” icon instead.
   
3. When the “Programs and Features” or the “Uninstall a Program” screen is displayed, scroll through the list of currently installed programs and uninstall iStartSurf uninstaller,iStartSurf NewTab, Wsys Control  WPM17.8.0.3159, Extended Protection, IePluginService,SupTab and any other recently installed unknown program from your computer.
   To view the most recently installed programs, you can click on the “Installed On” column to sort your program by the installation date. Scroll though the list, and uninstall any unwanted or unknown programs.
   
   Depending on what program has installed the iStartSurf.com adware infection, the above program may have a different name or not be installed on your computer. If you cannot find any unwanted or unknown programs on your machine, then you can proceed with the next step.

STEP 2: Remove iStartSurf.com virus from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome

Remove iStartSurf.com virus from Internet Explorer

1. Open Internet Explorer, click on the “gear icon”  in the upper right part of your browser, then click again on Internet Options.
   
2. In the “Internet Options” dialog box, click on the “Advanced” tab, then click on the “Reset” button.
   
3. In the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” section, select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click on “Reset” button.
   
4. When Internet Explorer has completed its task, click on the “Close” button in the confirmation dialogue box. You will now  need to close your browser, and then you can open Internet Explorer again.
   

Remove iStartSurf.com virus from Mozilla Firefox

1. In the upper-right corner of the Firefox window, click the Firefox menu button (), then click on the “Help” () button.
   
2. From the Help menu, choose Troubleshooting Information.
   If you’re unable to access the Help menu, type about:support in your address bar to bring up the Troubleshooting information page.
   
3. Click the “Reset Firefox” button in the upper-right corner of the “Troubleshooting Information” page.
   
4. To continue, click on the “Reset Firefox” button in the new confirmation window that opens.
   
5. Firefox will close itself and will revert to its default settings. When it’s done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click on the “Finish“.

Remove iStartSurf.com virus from Google Chrome

1. Remove iStartSurf.com extensions from Google Chrome.
   Click on the “Chrome menu button” ()  on the browser toolbar, select “Tools“, and then click on “Extensions“.
   
   In the Extensions tab, remove iStartSurf NewTab, Extended Protection 1.9, Lightning Newtab  and any other unknown extensions by clicking the trash can  icon.
   Basically, if you have not installed a Chrome extension, you should remove it from your web browser.
   
2. Set Google Chrome default search engine from Yahoo Search to Google.
   Click the Chrome menu   button, then select Settings and click on Manage search engines in the Search section.
   In the Search Engines dialog that appears, select Google and click the Make Default button that appears in the row.
   
   Search for Yahoo Search in the Search Engines list, and click the X button that appears at the end of the row.
   
3. Change Google Chrome homepage from iStartSurf.com to its default.
   iStartSurf has modified your Google settings to open their webpage whenever you start your browser, so we will need to revert this change.
   Click the Chrome menu   button, then select Settings and click on One the New Tab page in the On Startup section.
   

STEP 3: Clean up the various Windows shortcuts that have been hijacked by iStartSurf.com virus

1. Search for your browser shortcut (Desktop, Taskbar or Start Menu Shortcut), then right click on it and select Properties.
   
   To view the Properties menu for the browser shortcuts pinned to your Task Bar, right-click on the browser shortcut from the Taskbar, then right-click again on the browser icon as see in the below image. Alternatively, you can just Unpin the browser shortcut from your task bar, then you can add it back after you have removed the “iStartSurf.com” argument from the original browser shortcut.
   
2. In the Shortcut tab, in the Target field, remove the http://iStartSurf.com argument. Basically, there should be only the path to browser executable file. Nothing more.
   These are the default shortcut path that should be in your Target box, if the iStartSurf.comargument is there, then you should remove it.

   If you are using this browser:	In the Target field you should have:
   Internet Explorer	“C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe”
   Chrome	“C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” for Windows 32 bit OR “C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” for Windows 64-bit
   Firefox	“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” for Windows 32-bit OR “C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” for Windows 64-bit

   

STEP 4: Remove iStartSurf.com browser hijacker with AdwCleaner

1. You can download AdwCleaner utility from the below link.
   ADWCLEANER DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a new web page from where you can download AdwCleaner)
2. Before starting AdwCleaner, close all open programs and internet browsers, then double-click on the AdwCleaner icon.
   
   If Windows prompts you as to whether or not you wish to run AdwCleaner, please allow it to run.
3. When the AdwCleaner program will open, click on the “Scan” button as shown below.
   
   AdwCleaner will now start to search for the “iStartSurf.com” malicious files that may be installed on your computer.
4. To remove the “iStartSurf.com” malicious files that were detected in the previous step, please click on the “Clean” button.
   
5. AdwCleaner will now prompt you to save any open files or documents, as the program will need to reboot the computer. Please do so and then click on the OK button.
   

STEP 5: Remove iStartSurf.com virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free

1. You can download download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from the below link.
   MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a new web page from where you can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free)
2. Once downloaded, close all programs, then double-click on the icon on your desktop named “mbam-setup-consumer-2.00.xx” to start the installation of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
   
    You may be presented with a User Account Control dialog asking you if you want to run this file. If this happens, you should click “Yes” to continue with the installation.
3. When the installation begins, you will see the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Setup Wizardwhich will guide you through the installation process.
   
   To install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on your machine, keep following the prompts by clicking the “Next” button.
   
4. Once installed, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program, and that a scan has never been run on your system. To start a system scan you can click on the “Fix Now” button.
   
   Alternatively, you can click on the “Scan” tab and select “Threat Scan“, then click on the“Scan Now” button.
   
5. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will now check for updates, and if there are any, you will need to click on the “Update Now” button.
   
6. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will now start scanning your computer for the iStartSurf.com virus. When Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is scanning it will look like the image below.
   
7. When the scan has completed, you will now be presented with a screen showing you the malware infections that Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware has detected. To remove the malicious programs that Malwarebytes Anti-malware has found, click on the “Quarantine All” button, and then click on the “Apply Now” button.
   
   Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.
8. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will now quarantine all the malicious files and registry keys that it has found. When removing the files, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot your computer, please allow it to do so.
   
   After your computer will restart, you should open Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and perform another “Threat Scan” scan to verify that there are no remaining threats

STEP 6: Double check for the iStartSurf.com infection with HitmanPro

1. You can download HitmanPro from the below link:
   HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a new web page from where you can download HitmanPro)
2. Double-click on the file named “HitmanPro.exe” (for 32-bit versions of Windows) or “HitmanPro_x64.exe” (for 64-bit versions of Windows). When the program starts you will be presented with the start screen as shown below.
   
   Click on the “Next” button, to install HitmanPro on your computer.
   
3. HitmanPro will now begin to scan your computer for iStartSurf.com malicious files.
   
4. When it has finished it will display a list of all the malware that the program found as shown in the image below. Click on the “Next” button, to remove iStartSurf.com malware.
   
5. Click on the “Activate free license” button to begin the free 30 days trial, and remove all the malicious files from your computer.