Qone8 virus - How to remove

Qone8 virus is a browser hijacker that is added to browsers while you are installing some free applications from the Internet. The program can be bundled with various video players, PDF creators and similar programs. Once inside, the program changes your browser settings, which subsequently cause replacing of your homepage and default search provider to qone8.com.

We consider Qone8 semi-malicious because of the way it is distributed. Quite often you get this infection by downloading free and legitimate software from semi-fake download sites that re-pack software or provide infected downloaders. These downloaders install garbage software together with the one you wanted. Typically, it is a search hijacker like Qone8 and some sort of scammy registry cleaner.

Qone8 virus is typically added to Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. It can affect one of these browsers or all of them at the same time. Once inside, the program will cause many redirections every time you browser the Internet. Although qone8.com looks like a regular search provider, when you try to make a search using it, you will see that the search tool lists many sponsored links in your search results.

First of all, it is very annoying to have all these changes made without your permission. Second, your Internet browsing experience is no longer a fluent one because of many interruptions into your browsing sessions. Most importantly, Qone8 virus can redirect you to various compromised websites full of malware and similar infections, and it can track your browsing habits and violate your privacy.

It is highly recommended to remove Qone8 virus from your system once you notice the changes made to your browser. Go to Start -> Control Panel, click on “Uninstall Program” on Programs area. Look for anything related to Qone8 virus on a list of programs and click on Uninstall/Change button next to it. You might have to remove other applications, that prevent search engine changes in your browser. Spyhunter is able to identify them in most of the cases. After that, you will have to reset Qone8 search engine settings in your browser. Depending on what browser you are using, follow the instructions below:

For IE:

• Open IE and go to ‘Tools‘ → ”Manage Add-ons’.
• Choose ‘Toolbars and Extensions’ and uninstall everything related to Qone8 from the list.
• Choose ‘Search Providers’ → choose the search engine you used before and make it your default search provider. Additionally, select ‘Web Search’, click ‘Disable suggestions’ to disable it.
• Go ‘Tools’ → ‘Internet Options’ and select ‘General’ tab. Click ‘Use default’ or enter your own website name, google.com or other. Finally, click ‘OK’ to save the changes.

For Mozilla Firefox:

• Open Mozilla Firefox, go ‘Tools’ → ‘Add-ons’.
• Choose ‘Extensions’ → Qone8 and click ‘Uninstall’.
• Go ‘Tools’ → ‘Options’. Finally, reset the startup homepage or change it to google.com.
• Enter “about:config” in url bar. This will open settings page
• Type “Keyword.url” in the search box. Right click it & reset it.
• Type “browser.search.defaultengine” in the search box. Right click it & reset it.
• Type “browser.search.selectedengine” in the search box. Right click it & reset it.
• Search for ‘browser.newtab.url’. Right-click and reset. This will make sure that the search page won’t launch on each new tab.

For Google Chrome:

• Click on the icon ‘Customize and control Google Chrome’, select ‘Options’.
• Choose ‘Basic’ Options and change Google Chrome homepage to google.com or any other browser and then click the ‘Manage search engines…’ button.
• Choose ‘Google’ and make it your default search engine.
• Delete Qone8 from the list.

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