Faststartpage.com Removal Guide

Faststartpage.com is an irritating browser hijacker which takes over users’ web browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome) the second it sneaks onto the computer successfully. Unlike those ordinary browser hijackers, it does not alter browsers’ settings. Instead, it targets web browsers’ shortcuts. It hijacks them all immediately after the successful entrance. Instead of "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" (if a shortcut of Internet Explorer is opened), users will see such or similar data in the Target line: %Homedrive%:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Browsers\exe.xoferif.bat. This modification is made so that Faststartpage.com would be opened for users when they launch any of their web browsers. Since this browser hijacker does not directly change the settings of users’ browsers, it is, unfortunately, not so easy to remove this computer infection. Even if it is true, the information you will find provided in this article will help you to a great extent to manually erase Faststartpage.com, so continue reading!

Faststartpage.com hijacks web browsers’ shortcuts the first thing it enters computers not without reason, of course. It does that to point browsers to batch files located in the %APPDATA%\Browsers. These files are extremely important for this browser hijacker because without them it could not work properly. To find out more about the role of these .bat files, specialists working at 411-spyware.com have decided to look inside these files. They have made an interesting finding – these batch files contain obfuscated commands which force web browsers to open specific pages. In this case, Faststartpage.com is opened for users. Users usually do not see this URL in the address bar because Faststartpage.com immediately redirects to a third-party page http://net-quick.com/ivi/, which, at first glance, looks like a reputable search provider. We can assure you that it is far from being a decent search tool. More likely, it is used as a medium for showing advertisements. Undoubtedly, somebody gets revenue for users’ clicks on these commercials. You will definitely not be one of them. According to security specialists, users can only install malicious software on their PCs by clicking on ads they find on this page opened for them. Last but not least, users might also experience security-related problems, e.g. personal information about them might be stolen and then sold to third parties if they do not do anything to stop redirections to http://net-quick.com/ivi/ and do not ignore the commercial content they see.

There are no doubts that Faststartpage.com is one of these browser hijackers that illegally enter computers. Research has clearly shown that it is mainly spread in bundled malicious installers. As the word “bundled” shows, it is not a single item that arrives on users’ computers. In most cases, the Faststartpage.com browser hijacker is installed together with other applications. Some of them might be quite decent, e.g. free applications, whereas others might be classified as malware too. Therefore, it is not enough to delete the Faststartpage.com browser hijacker – users need to find and remove those other threats too. Do not forget that bundling is only one of the ways browser hijackers are distributed. It has been found that they might also pretend to be useful software and wait for victims on file-sharing websites. On top of that, a really bad application actively working on your PC could have helped it to slither onto the system too. Evidently, users surfing the Internet on a daily basis should have a security application installed and enabled on their computers. It would be too hard for an ordinary computer user to ensure the maximum protection of the system alone.

The Faststartpage.com removal is not an easy process because it does not have an uninstaller, meaning that users have to find its folder with files themselves and only then delete it. Of course, it would be quicker to erase it automatically. A reputable automatic malware remover, such as SpyHunter, would delete the Faststartpage.com browser hijacker very quickly for you, and you will not need to do anything, except to launch the scanner. Go to check the manual removal guide placed below this article and then make a decision on which removal method you are going to employ yourself.

Remove Faststartpage.com manually

1. Press Win+E simultaneously.
2. Go to %APPDATA%.
3. Find the Browsers folder and delete it.
4. Locate the hijacked shortcuts there and fix them one by one (right-click on a shortcut, open the Shortcut tab, and restore the Target line):

• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs
• %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
• %USERPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
• %USERPROFILE%\Desktop