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What is Trovi Search?
Circumventing user authorization while making changes to the way a computer system is configured is a feature that makes apps like Trovi potentially unwanted entities. Falling victim to this adware is a matter of installing a third-party program and paying little or no attention to the details of the setup procedure. For instance, some inconspicuous checkmark on one of setup wizard screens can get you infected unless you opt out of the ‘special terms’, which few users pay attention to. The dodgy utilities that are known to be involved in spreading Trovi include Search Protect by Conduit, Yontoo, Vuze Toolbar, SearchNewTab, Value Apps, and BookmarkTube. Although seldom, this threat may also be downloaded directly as Trovi Toolbar or Trovi Search, but in that case the user is way off the track in terms of the anticipations for what this app is going to do.
The surreptitious infiltration into a system having been completed, the malicious code gets down to reconfiguring the web browsers running on the now compromised computer. Since Trovi is a cross-browser infection, its impact applies to Firefox, Chrome and IE alike. The homepage, default search engine and new tab page are subject to an unapproved modification, starting to return trovi.com instead of the values previously set by the victim. Note that the URL is going to be concatenated with a slew of attributes and characters that denote a specific malvertising campaign the user has been pulled into.
From this very moment on, a big portion of the Internet decision-making is taken away from the user. Even if the above-mentioned custom settings are manually altered back to where they were before the hijack, trovi.com will be back the next time the browser gets opened. Is this landing page a threat as such? Not really, unlike the app that causes the redirects. The site is essentially an under-the-table search provider making use of another resource’s keyword lookup algorithms. As of 2019, all searches via this shady platform are being forwarded to Bing.com, which is an undoubtedly trusted provider that appears to have been inadvertently dragged into the cybercriminals’ devious schemes.
To understand what the point of this entire browser hack is, one should carefully examine the structure of trovi.com default page and the subsequent SERPs (search engine results pages) – they all either contain big ol’ advertisement banners or sponsored links in a quantity exceeding the limits of common sense. Consequently, the more people visit that page the greater financial gain for the authors of the adware under consideration. On top of that, the underlying app harvests some sensitive user data when running inside a computer. It includes the browsing history, web forms being filled out, ecommerce sites the victim logs into, bookmarked pages, and quite possibly, even usernames and passwords for various online accounts. This information ends up becoming a source of targeted advertising as well as scams such as spear phishing attacks.
Whereas Trovi Search is quite a complex strain of malware, the only simple thing about it is the absolute need for removal. Unless cleaned up through strict security effort, this pest will keep on messing up your cyber environment and definitely won’t go away. The fix highlighted here has got proven efficiency in this regard.
Use reliable security software to detect and remove Trovi hijacker
CCleaner by Piriform is an efficient solution designed to automatically uninstall persistent malware such as the unwanted browser extensions related to Trovi Search hijacker and cease the browser redirect activity.
- Download free or paid version of CCleaner by Piriform and save it to your Desktop. Install and run the software.
- Click on the Cleaner button in the left-hand navigation menu, select Windows and Applications tabs in turn, and click Analyze option for each. Once the analysis has been completed, click Run Cleaner .
- Go to Tools in the navigation menu and select the Startup option. Search entries under all available tabs (‘Windows‘ through ‘Context Menu‘) for dubious items that might be related to the Trovi adware (Trovi Search, Trovi Toolbar, Search Protect by Conduit, Conduit Search, Yontoo, BookmarkTube, SearchNewTab, etc.) and choose Disable and Delete for each one.
- You can also use the Uninstall functionality under Tools to completely get rid of browser add-ons / toolbars that cannot be deleted manually.
- Uninstall malicious extension(s) from Control Panel:
- On Windows 7: go to Start –> Control Panel –> Uninstall a Program
- On Windows 8: click on Search icon –> type in ‘add or remove‘ (this will suffice) –> select Add or remove programs
- On Windows 10: click the Start button and go to Settings –> Apps –> Apps & features
- When the screen for program removal appears, look for the following items:
- Trovi Search
- Trovi Toolbar
- Search Protect by Conduit
- Conduit Search
- SearchNewTab
- BookmarkTube
- Yontoo
Reset your browser to stop Trovi redirects
Trovi Search removal from Mozilla Firefox
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Click the Open menu icon and select Troubleshooting Information. You can alternatively type about:support in the URL area and hit Enter
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Spot a section that says Give Firefox a tune up and click Refresh Firefox
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Read the information on a follow-up dialog and click Refresh Firefox if the aftermath of the reset is okay with you
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Restart Firefox so that the changes take effect
Remove Trovi Search hijacker from Google Chrome
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Click the Customize and control Google Chrome icon and select Settings in the menu
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At the very bottom of the default settings screen, spot and click the Advanced button
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Scroll down to the Reset and clean up area and click Restore settings to their original defaults
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Wind up with the reset by confirming the changes
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Restart Google Chrome and check it for signs of redirect activity
Remove Trovi Search virus from Internet Explorer
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Go to Tools and choose Internet options
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Select the Advanced tab and click Reset
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Be sure to enable the Delete personal settings option and click Reset on the dialog
Double-check
Scan your system with Bitdefender, the Privacy PC Gold Award winner in Internet security suites category, to make sure all registry entries and junk files added by Trovi virus have been cleaned up. This step will help you ascertain that no remainders of the infection are still there in case you missed something or if the adware has re-enabled some of its components after manual removal.
