What is Search.joygame.com?
Search.joygame.com is a questionable Turkish search engine that can show up in your browsers after you install some software from the joygame.com website that promotes web browser and mobile games. The presence of this search engine as your home page in your browsers suggests that a browser hijacker has landed on your computer. This hijacker is capable of changing certain browser settings; in this case, it only seems to be the home page settings. Most users have reported this hijacker to appear in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, but it is also possible that it affects Mozilla Firefox as well. According to our malware researchers at Anti-Spyware-101.com, not all of the joygame installers offer the home page change, so it might take place without your knowledge, too. Although this search engine seems to mainly target Turkish computer users, it is possible to get infected with this browser hijacker anywhere in the world since the website is most likely available wherever you are. Since this hijacker may expose you to potentially harmful third-party advertisements and web content, we advise you to remove Search.joygame.com before you find yourself on a malicious website and get scammed by cyber criminals.
Where does Search.joygame.com come from?
One way to install this questionable tool is through the Chrome web store. You can find it as Joygame Homepage at this address: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/joygame-homepage/ojmcefcpojnkmmblchnllkaphlpdobgd. The statistics show that over 400 thousand users have installed this browser extension and its popularity keeps growing. It would be useful to be able to check the reviews users write about this application because that could give you a clue about the reliability of this product. Unfortunately, you cannot read them unless you speak Turkish because most of the reviews seem to be in Turkish language. No wonder, since statistics with regard to the regional “popularity” or spreading of this browser hijacker reveal the following percentages: Turkey 72.8%, Egypt 18.2%, and Saudi Arabia 3.6%. If you cannot read these reviews, we still recommend running a quick web search in order to figure out about this tool. In fact, that is what we advise you to do every time you are planning to install new software.
In this case you can either choose to search the name of the search engine or you can use the unique Chrome ID as well. You can retrieve this ID from the web store URL, which always contains it, or from the extension list in the Chrome browser if you tick the Developer mode checkbox. This extension has the following ID: ojmcefcpojnkmmblchnllkaphlpdobgd. This may look like a gibberish, made-up string, but you need to know that this is indeed a unique Chrome ID. If you run this or the name, you will most probably find a number of results that call this tool malware or a browser hijacker that need to be removed. That is why it is so important to double-check what you are about to let on board.
This hijacker can also come through installing games from en.joygame.com, which is the English version of the original Turkish site. You need to be careful with this site as well because you may be exposed to unreliable third-party ads there, too. While installing games from this site, you may be offered to set Search.joygame.com as your home page.
How does Search.joygame.com work?
This search engine is hosted on 212.68.37.6 IP address, which is located in Istanbul. While it is installed, it creates a number of files and registry keys. When it is active it seems to connect to the following servers: launcher.softnyx.net/launcher/OnFetch.txt, rotatorsglb.joygame.com/ar/softnyx/wolfteam, and cdn.joygamedl.com/wtas/patch/game/495/wolfr_495.xfs. When this search engine appears in your browsers, its main page contains potentially unreliable third-party advertisements. Clicking on these may take you to unsafe websites. Using the search tool is not only useless because it simply redirects you to a Google results page, but it may hold risks as well. Namely, these results may be modified by this hijacker to include affiliated third parties’ advertisements and links. But since it looks like a normal Google search results page, you may regard it as reliable. Please keep in mind that this is a manipulated results page that may redirect you to malicious websites, should you click on any of the promoted content. If you want to keep your computer clean of infections, you should not hesitate to remove Search.joygame.com.
How can I delete Search.joygame.com?
Since this browser hijacker has no working uninstaller, you cannot easily get rid of all the mess it has done on your system. First, it is best to reset all your browsers. Second, you need to take care of all the leftovers that remain, such as registry keys and files. So if you want to handle this malware infection manually, please follow our instructions below step by step to make sure that nothing remains on board of this threat. However, since this removal requires working with the Windows Registry, we recommend this method only for those computer users who are aware of the potential risks of making a mistake in the registry database. If you are not confident enough, you should probably use a professional tool, such as an antimalware application that will detect and eliminate all the threats from your PC and it will also protect it from further malware invasions. Please leave us a message below if you need assistance regarding the removal of this browser hijacker.
Remove Search.joygame.com from browsers
Google Chrome
- Tap Alt+F and go to Settings.
- Click Show advanced settings at the bottom.
- Click Reset settings at the bottom.
- Press Reset.
Internet Explorer
- Tap Alt+T and select Internet Options.
- Choose the Advanced tab and press Reset.
- Mark Delete personal settings and click Reset.
- Press Close.
Mozilla Firefox
- Tap Alt+H and choose Troubleshooting Information.
- Press Reset Firefox at the top.
- Press Reset Firefox in the confirmation window.
- Click Finish.
Remove leftovers
- Press Win+R and enter regedit. Click OK.
- If the value data is “http://search.joygame.com”, replace it with a URL you prefer to have as your home page in the following registry value names:
- Exit the editor.
- Press Win+E.
- Locate and delete %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\search.joygame[1].xml (Windows Vista and above!).
- Locate and delete %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\LocalLow\search.joygame[1].xml (Windows XP only).
- Restart your computer.
tested removal of Search.joygame.com*
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