Initialpage123.com

Posted by Lisa Blanc on April 3, 2017

What is Initialpage123.com?

Initialpage123.com is a browser hijacker that is believed to come from the ELEX family. Anti-Spyware-101.com malware researchers have discussed plenty of other hijackers from this family, some of which include Youndoo.com, Amisites.com, and Trotux.com. Unfortunately, in most cases, the victims of these threats let them in themselves, in which case, it might be harder for them to recognize the risks associated with their activity. Should you delete these suspicious search tools? Of course, you should, and if you are not sure why, this article should shed some light on the matter. We discuss the distribution of malware, its activity, and, of course, its elimination. If you want to learn how to remove Initialpage123.com from your browsers, you should keep reading. Just keep in mind that it might be a bad idea to focus solely on this hijacker because other threats are likely to be present on your operating system as well. Due to this, we suggest scanning your operating system first. test

How does Initialpage123.com work?

Do you know how Initialpage123.com got into your operating system? If you are not sure about this, it is possible that it was installed without your permission, in which case, you should identify it as a dangerous threat that deserves immediate removal. If you have let it in yourself, it is most likely that you were introduced to it as you were installing something else. Maybe the hijacker came bundled with an extension or an application, and you had no option but to let Initialpage123.com replace your homepage? All in all, whether or not you installed it yourself, it is quite possible that other suspicious and potentially malicious threats have managed to slither in. If they have, a legitimate malware scanner should help you find the unreliable programs. If much more dangerous threats are found, you might have to shift your focus from the hijacker; however, that does not mean that you can postpone the removal of this threat for much longer.

If you trust that Initialpage123.com is a beneficial search provider, you are confused. First of all, it redirects to Yahoo Search, which makes it utterly useless. Unfortunately, if you continue using it for web browsing, you could get into trouble. First and foremost, the results displayed via search.yahoo.com could be modified, and interacting with them could be very risky. Second, the longer you use this hijacker, the more information about you will be gathered. The threat can employ tracking cookies to record data even when you do not notice it. The Privacy Policy also reveals that information could be collected using surveys and online forms. The information you share via these surveys and forms is likely to be personal, and so Initialpage123.com could record personally-identifiable information as well. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that this will be safe, and so we do not recommend interacting with the tool or anything that might come along with it, including suspicious surveys or advertisements.

How to remove Initialpage123.com

If you want to surf the web safely, you have to start with a secure homepage and a reliable search tool. Unfortunately, Initialpage123.com is not considered reliable, and we strongly recommend deleting it as soon as possible. The guide below can help you get rid of the undesirable homepage from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer browsers. Make sure you take the process one step at a time to ensure success. Manual removal is not your only option. In fact, if you have found other infections after scanning your operating system, the better option would be to employ a legitimate anti-malware tool capable of deleting Initialpage123.com along with all other threats automatically. Also, after your PC is cleaned, this tool can successfully keep your operating system guarded in the future.

Removal Instructions

Internet Explorer:

Launch RUN by tapping keys Win+R at the same time.
In the dialog box, enter regedit.exe to access Registry Editor.
Move to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
Double-click Start Page and overwrite the hijacker’s URL. Click OK.
Move to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}.
Double-click these values one by one and overwritethe hijacker’s URL:
- FaviconURL
- FaviconURLFallback
- TopResultURL
- URL

Google Chrome:

Launch Explorer by tapping keys Win+E at the same time.
Enter %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\ into the bar at the top.
If multiple Chrome profiles exist, open the {Chrome profile name} folder or move to the Default folder.
Delete the files called Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data.

Mozilla Firefox:

Launch Explorer by tapping keys Win+E at the same time.
Enter %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ into the bar at the top.
Open the {Firefox profile name} folder and then open the file named prefs.js (use Notepad).
Find the URL of the hijacker, overwrite it, and save the file.