NewsCrawler.com

If all of a sudden your default homepage was changed to NewsCrawler.com, then you seriously have a problem. Your computer has been breached by a browser hijacker, and the chances are you helped it do it! Now, you may not have been aware of the fact the program you installed was a malicious computer infection, but even so without your permission, NewsCrawler.com would not have been able to access your PC. Now, it is up to you to remove it. You may need to acquire a computer security tool of your choice to get rid of any other potential threats that might be residing on your system at the moment.

The reason we are talking about other threats here is that NewsCrawler.com often comes bundled with freeware and adware applications. Users download such programs when they visit file-sharing websites, online arcade gaming pages, and other sites that thrive on third-party advertising. Whenever you are about to download something from a third-party source, you need to keep in mind that the third-party installer may carry more than just one setup file, and you could end up installing multiple applications, most of which you neither need nor want. Consequently, NewsCrawler.com could be one of them.

On the other hand, software packages are just one of the many distribution methods this browser hijacker could employ. For example, it could also be downloaded individually from its official website. You can access it easily via newscrawler.com. The website gives an impression that this program is user-friendly and highly useful. The information provided on the site claims that the NewsCrawler application is “your personalized newspaper.” With it you can “define your topics of interest,” “filter your news,” keep the information about current weather at your fingertips, and access social networks without the need to log into them separately.

This would mean that the modification of your browser settings is the side effect of having this application on your PC. However, it is not something to be ignored because our tests show that NewsCrawler.com is based on the same template as the Qone8 group infections. The Qone8 family of browser hijackers is a notorious group of computer security threats that resist being removed and expose users to unreliable third-party content. NewsCrawler.com exhibits similar qualities in a way that it is rather hard to remove it from your browser unless you change your shortcut target manually. This means that the browser hijacker does not want to be removed.

This infection needs to collect as much money for its creators as possible. It does that by displaying commercial third-party content when you browse the web. The content is customized according to your likes and preferences, thus increasing the chances that you might click any of the ads. Needless to say, you should never click anything provided by NewsCrawler.com. For one, you would help the people behind get rich via the pay-per-click system. And second, in the worst case scenario, you might end up getting redirected to a malware-related website.

You most certainly would not want that, so remove NewsCrawler.com right now and safeguard your PC from similar intruders by investing in a powerful antispyware application. If you have any questions or need any recommendations, please do not hesitate to leave us a comment.

How to Remove NewsCrawler.com

Windows 10, Windows 8 & Windows 8.1

1. Right-click the Windows icon.
2. Click Control Panel on the drop-down menu.
3. Select Uninstall a program and remove NewsCrawler.

Windows Vista & Windows 7

1. Open the Start menu and select Control Panel.
2. Go to Uninstall a program and remove NewsCrawler.

Windows XP

1. Open Start menu button and open Control Panel.
2. Access Add or remove programs and uninstall NewsCrawler.

Restore Your Browser Settings to Default

Modify Target Shortcut

1. Right-click your browser’s shortcut.
2. Choose Properties and open the Shortcut tab.
3. Go to the Target line.
4. Remove everything that is OUTSIDE of the quotation marks.
5. Click OK.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Alt+H and select Troubleshooting information.
2. Click Refresh Firefox on the new tab.
3. Press Refresh Firefox again to confirm.
4. Click Finish.

Google Chrome

1. Press Alt+F and open Settings.
2. Click Show advanced settings at the bottom of the page.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and click Reset settings.
4. Click Reset on the confirmation box.

Internet Explorer

1. Press Alt+T and go to Internet options.
2. Open the Advanced tab and press Reset.
3. Select Delete personal settings and click Reset.
4. Click Close.