How to Remove Hao123 adware after install Qvod 2014 ( 如何在安装Qvod后移除hao123 )

tl;dr 

  • Uncheck everything throug Qvod player by right click > Options (选项)> others (其他)> Uncheck Everything.


After installed Qvod 5 last week ( January 2014), all my browsers such as IE, Firefox and Chrome has been kidnaped by an adware hao123.com. hao123 is actually a website provided by baidu as a comprehensive website listing however it become very annoying especially it injected to your browser start page without your approval.

Hao123 main page


I didn't pay a lot of attention when I installed Qvod hence it installed "快玩" and other unwanted adwares to my pc. The first lesson:

ALWAYS pay attention to software that you are going to install. You will never know what additional application it will "recommend" to you.

I spend some time to remove all of them however the problem still persist - hao123 still showing all around.

For IE, it is pretty straight forward. I manage to restore it via default home page preference. Baidu were trying to modify again but was detected (by anti adware) and disabled.

For chrome and firefox, they are a little bit tricky. I will use Chrome to show you why. According to internet, hao123 used to modify their setting in Chrome via Setting > On Startup and Search Engine. This is not the case anymore. As you can see below, all setting in the settings page in Chrome look completely normal.



To be honest, I was amaze on how the hell it manage to change my startup page without modify the chrome setting. After go through couple of research apparently Qvod is the Culprit here. There is a setting in Qvod which checked by default to modify browser to open the adware. To solve it, just uncheck the option as show in screenshot below. 


In fact, you can remove all of them as none of them provide any benefit to you except disturbance.

So, how did Qvod Manage to do this?
According to my finding, it is related to the background services which run even Qvod is closed.


To be specific, it communicate through QvodTerminal.exe to achieve this.






Comments

  1. Anonymous10:08 PM

    if you recently have installed QVOD and you have this hao123 hijack your browser,

    this is a temporary solution. I tried and it works. But the rootkit is still in the

    machine and it certain will hijack your computer again.

    1. goto program files delete QVOD folder

    2. search everywhere for qvodextend.dll

    3. search users>asus>qvod

    4. seach temp file for qvod

    5. seach whole C.drive for qvod

    delete all the entries and hao123 issues is solved.

    ReplyDelete

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