Startpageing123.com

Posted by Max Lehmann on January 27, 2017

What is Startpageing123.com?

Startpageing123.com happens to be a browser hijacker even though, at first glance, it looks like any ordinary tool for searching the web. Browser hijackers do not pose a direct threat to computers because they are not going to install malware on systems without users’ knowledge, but it would still be a clever step to go to delete Startpageing123.com from browsers it has affected. Security specialists at anti-spyware-101.com suggest users doing that because they have revealed that this search tool, despite a legitimate-looking interface it has, might expose users to potential threats. More information about this questionable search tool and its removal is provided in the remaining paragraphs of this article, so continue reading the article! test

What does Startpageing123.com do?

According to specialists, Startpageing123.com is a member of a wide family of browser hijackers called ELEX. Such prevalent browser hijackers as Youndoo.com and Amisites.com belong to it too, so it is not surprising that these all websites share similarities. As research has shown, just like other members of this family, Startpageing123.com should not cause harm to the computer directly, but it still has one serious drawback that makes it an untrustworthy search tool – it shows bothersome advertisements. These advertisements usually appear to users during their browsing sessions. More specifically, commercial advertisements are usually shown on the search results page displayed after entering a query together with ordinary Google search results. Since they look exactly like decent search results, users do not even suspect that they are simple ads promoting third-party websites. There is no doubt that they appear on the search results page not without reason. In the opinion of researchers, the developer of Startpageing123.com provides users with these commercial advertisements to get some extra money from advertising third-party pages. Of course, it will not offer users to take a half of the generated revenue even though they do the entire job by visiting those pages. To be frank, users can only get undesirable software out of this because it might be promoted on those third-party websites they are redirected to after clicking on a commercial search result.

Before letting Startpageing123.com stay set on all browsers, users should read the Privacy Policy document too in order to find out how it treats the privacy of users. Researchers know that many users are simply too busy to do that, so they have checked this document for them. Unfortunately, they have made disturbing findings. It has been found that this dubious search tool might collect personal information in a variety of ways: “through online forms for ordering products and services, and other instances where users are invited to volunteer such information.” On top of that, it uses the so-called Log Files to get the non-personally identifiable information about users. Third-party websites users might be taken to if they use Startpageing123.com as a default search tool might record information about users as well, so do not wait until you end up on a bad website and experience problems – go to delete Startpageing123.com from all your browsers today.

Where does Startpageing123.com come from?

There is, basically, no doubt that Startpageing123.com is set as a homepage and default search tool on all browsers (it is compatible with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox) because a software bundle from a file-sharing or a torrent website has been downloaded and installed. In most cases, users are informed about additional software/changes that are going to be applied, but they simply do not notice this piece of information because they skip the installation steps by clicking Next too quickly. If you do not consider yourself a very attentive and careful user too, you should install a security application on your computer to ensure its maximum protection. Malware will not bypass this defense, we can assure you.

How do I remove Startpageing123.com?

To show up on browsers Startpageing123.com makes modifications in the system registry and applies changes inside files storing information about users’ preferences, so the easiest way to get rid of it fully would be to undo those changes it has made. Let our manual removal instructions (they are located below this article) help you, but if you wish to get this job done quicker, you should go to use an automatic scanner without further consideration. Researchers at anti-spyware-101.com recommend using SpyHunter because they are sure that it is capable of removing this browser hijacker fully.

Delete Startpageing123.com manually

Internet Explorer

Launch Run (Win+R) and type regedit in the field you see. Click OK.
Open HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
Locate the Start Page Value there.
Right-click on it, select Modify, and then empty the Value data field or enter a new trustworthy website. Click OK.
Open HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}.
Locate the following Values and empty their Value data fields too (the 4th step of these instructions will help you): FaviconURL, FaviconURLFallback, TopResultURL, and URL.

Mozilla Firefox

Open the Windows Explorer.
Open %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\* (*-symbols).
Find the prefs.js file and immediately open it with Notepad.
Delete user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://Startpageing123.com"); from inside the file and save the changes.

Google Chrome

Go to %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default when you open the Windows Explorer.
Locate three files belonging to Google Chrome: Web Data, Preferences, and Secure Preferences.
Open them one after the other using Notepad and then locate http://Startpageing123.com lines there.
Replace these lines with http://www.google.com or another preferred website and save the changes.