Hotweb360.com Removal Guide

When Hotweb360.com appears in your main browsers as your new home page, you may not even realize this change. This search engine page may seem very similar to reputable search engines, such as Google. Therefore, it may not draw your attention to the fact that your browser settings have been changed. This can happen with or without your knowledge since this malware infection usually enters your computer under questionable circumstances. As a matter of fact, it is quite probable that you do not even recall installing it but you may remember that you have installed a free program lately. If this is the case, it is likely that your system is under multiple attacks by different malware infections. This browser hijacker may pose a threat to your virtual security through the questionable third-party content it may display to you on your screen disguised as search results. Since engaging with unreliable content may have unfortunate consequences, such as more infections on your system and falling prey to cyber crooks and losing money, we advise you to remove Hotweb360.com right now. Please continue reading our report to find out more about this browser hijacker and how you can defend your computer from similar threats.

It is much more seldom that brand new hijackers without predecessors appear on the web than newcomers in an already well-established family. This infection is no exception as well. It is actually identical to Gogletab.com and very similar to 321oyun.com and Top8844.com. You can mostly infect your system with this browser hijacker if you install suspicious freeware bundles. It is possible to download such packages when you are looking for free programs and end up on a malicious file-sharing website. You should know that questionable torrent and freeware pages most often promote malicious third-party installers that could be packing a number of malware infections alongside legitimate free software. This is how most users actually infect their system without even realizing it. The reason is simple: These installers can be quite tricky and deceiving. Mostly, because they rely on careless and hasty computer users who do not bother to read the license agreement or check the whole content and possible browser settings changes involved, and rush to click "Next" or "Install."

Whenever you install bundles, you need to be extra careful because you may not even realize that you are installing several questionable applications at the same time. This is why it is always important to choose the custom option so that hopefully the full content will be revealed to you and you can actually select what you really need or want. Apart from landing on shady websites packed with unsafe third-party ads, you can also be exposed to such traps when your computer is infected with adware programs or browser hijackers. Both of these infections can display unreliable third-party ads, such as banners and pop-ups, and sponsored links on your screen while you are surfing the web or run a web search. Once again, clicking on such ads could either directly drop a malicious bundle onto your system or open new tabs and new windows with malicious websites that could infect you. If any of this could have happened to you, we suggest that you do not stop after you delete Hotweb360.com from your browsers. It is best for you to scan your system with a reliable online malware scanner to identify all possible threat sources and then, eliminate them all.

This search engine page provides you with a search box and a number of thumbnail links below it leading to popular websites, such as Facebook, Yahoo, and YouTube. Although these links seem to really redirect you to the respective websites and these pages are also reliable, you cannot trust this search engine even though it redirects all your searches to Google. Finding yourself on a trusted and reputable search results page may make you believe that you can click on any content without any risk. However, in this case it is not true. This browser hijacker may spy on you and collect information about your online activities to target you with customized third-party advertisements and affiliated websites' links. This can mean that you may click on ads and links that could be unreliable to say the least. It is also possible that you are exposed to ads and links inserted by cyber criminals. Clicking on such content could end very badly for you as you may infect your system with more serious malware like ransomware or Trojans, but you may also find yourself in the center of an online scam sharing your banking details with cyber criminals. This is why we recommend that you do not think twice before you remove Hotweb360.com from your system.

If you feel up to the task, you can simply change the home page settings of your affected browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer. You can also use our manual removal guide below if you want to see behind the scenes. Nevertheless, you should not forget about the possibility that there could be other malware infections still on board. You may try to identify them manually via Control Panel or your extension lists in your browsers, but there is a good chance that you would miss the more dangerous ones since they could be invisible to you completely. Therefore, we advise you to find and install a trustworthy anti-malware program, such as SpyHunter. Such a security tool can provide you maximum protection against all known malware infections when updated regularly and kept active all the time.

How to remove Hotweb360.com from your browsers

Internet Explorer

1. Press Win+R and type regedit. Click OK.
2. Locate HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page.
3. Find value data "http://hotweb360.com" and replace it with a URL of your choice.
4. Navigate to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}.
5. Delete "hotweb360.com" from the value data fields of the following value names: FaviconURL, FaviconURLFallback, TopResultURL, and URL
6. Exit the editor.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Win+E.
2. Locate %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*
3. Open prefs.js file in a text editor (Notepad).
4. Modify the following string to contain a URL of your choice: user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://hotweb360.com")
5. Save the changes and exit the editor.

Google Chrome

1. Press Win+E.
2. Locate %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default folder.
3. Delete the following files: Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web data
4. Empty your Recycle Bin.