The article is designed to educate users about Google redirect virus and help them get rid of it using simple, reliable method(s). It is to be noted that success or failure of method(s) explained in the article entirely depends on how correctly you follow the instructions.

Are you being redirected to advertisement or other fake websites or is it that you don’t see the desired search results after you tried searching anything in the Google search engine. If yes, then you are hit by the dangerous Google redirect virus. The virus hijacks your web browser and manipulates the Google search results that only take you to the advertisement or fake malicious websites. Once you know the virus has hit your browser, you should immediately take steps to remove the virus from your computer. Sooner is better, later will be dangerous. Below are the simple instructions that will help you taking this virus off your system immediately and safely.

Instructions:

Click on the Start menu and go to Run. Type ‘C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts’ (without quotes and as it is) in the box and hit Enter on the keyboard. When the etc window opens up, locate and double click on the file named ‘Hosts‘ and open it in a Notepad or WordPad (choose from the list of options). When the file opens, it will read something like ‘# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp. # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name’.

Are you worried about surfing the web and stumbling onto a page that contains Malware? Who doesn’t? Wikipedia defines Malware as:

“A portmanteau from the words malicious and software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.”

Let me tell you of 2 very easy ways to check a site before you visit it.

Option 1: Click on my website link at the bottom of this article and look in the left hand menu and click on the link that says “check any site for malware instantly” to use Google’s Safe Browsing Diagnostic Tool. It includes a small Bookmarklet you can add to your browser just by dragging it into your browser’s toolbar area.

Option 2:

Step 1: Open a new Tab in your browser

Step 2: Copy and paste the URL i have specified on the same page as instructed above into your address bar. This will open a Diagnostics page with the following info in the report. I have used my site as an example. What is the current listing status for christianhoughonline.com?

This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Google has not visited this site within the past 90 days.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, christianhoughonline.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

Data recovery is the term used to describe the process of extracting data from a storage device. By storage device I am referring not just to the obvious devices such as an internal hard drive, external hard drive, memory sticks, discs and other forms of electronic data storage typically associated with computers, but also the not so obvious devices such as the hard drive in your sky box or the hard drive in your camcorder.

An example where data recovery would be needed is that you have an external hard drive connected to your PC to store your music library and you are in the process of downloading an album – Then the power goes off! Power cut! Your album was half way through its download and you are left with half of a data file. To add to your disappointment or only having half an album, the half will not play as it did not finish being written and has become corrupt!

Another example could be you are at your daughters wedding with your camcorder. Capturing the special day first hand ready to burn to DVDs and send off to all the distant relatives, when the battery dies! So you haven’t managed to get the whole ceremony and the bit that you did record has not been written correctly, become corrupt and will not play!

Just so you really get the picture, I’ll give a third example; Your toddler walks off with your USB memory stick and then comes back looking very pleased with himself as he has placed it straight into the toilet – Disappointed doesn’t do it justice – I know what this feels like…

All three of these examples leave you pretty gutted and data recovery becomes your next course of action!