Hao123 or th.hao123.com might be the website that is stuck on all of your browsers. Whenever you open your browser you might be shown hao123 on the homepage. No matter what you try, th.hao123.com is really hard to remove from your PC. Even if you have an antimalware program installed on your PC, you might be attacked by hao123. So you might be wondering what hao123 is and how to remove th.hao123.com from your web browsers. So let’s find out:
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What is Hao123?
FYI, Hao123 is a product of Baidu (a Chinese search engine) that works as an online listing portal. But for the last few years, it is being maliciously got into your system and hijacks all the browsers you use. It comes as freeware while installing some third-party software on your PC.
When hao123 gets installed on your PC, it will be replaced as the default homepage and search engine on all the web browsers installed on your PC. So whenever you open any browser you will see http://www.hao123.com as your homepage and you can’t remove it manually with simple measures. Sometimes hao123’s Windows shortcuts installed on your desktop or Start Menu.
Is Hao123 a Virus?
As we said earlier, Hao123 is not a virus but it gets installed on your PC and hijacks the browser installed on PC and it gets set itself as the default search engine and homepage without your permission and consent. So it is not considered as a malicious thing that can harm your data but you need to know that one thing that can be installed on your PC without your consent may put your data and information to risk as well.
How Hao123 can infect your PC?
When you install free or cracked software on your PC from online websites or email, it is possible that Hao123 might be bundled with it hideously. So when you install that free program, Hao123 infects the PC without your consent and infects the browsers.
So these free software and programs that you download from malicious free websites do not disclose the freeware and adware program that comes with it. So hao123 may only infect your PC when you download malicious or free software downloaded from suspicious websites.
What Hao123 can do to your PC?
When hao123.com infects your PC, it will change your search engine to Hao123.com which will redirect you to its search results from Yahoo or Google. This is done to increase the ad revenue by using Google and Yahoo for its search results.
So when you don’t like this service and you remove it from the browser you will find that it is added back when you open a new tab or re-launch the web browser. So it kind of hijacks your PC and it infect the Windows service in a way that it will be added again even if it is deleted from the browser or the system. So when you want to remove hao123.com completely from the computer you need to delete it by some program or from within the system.
What are the symptoms of Hao123 when it infects your PC?
So you might be thinking about what harm th.hao123.com does to your PC. Here are some of the things can be changed on your PC when you are attacked by hao123.
- Your web browser’s default homepage would be changed from any other site to www.hao123.com.
- The search engine of the site will also be changed to www.hao123.com from Google or Yahoo.
- Hao123 will be able to modify the “new tab” feature to open the amended search engine portal page.
- All the shortcuts of the browser would be modified and redirect through hao123.com
How to remove hao123 from the PC
So now comes the main thing for what you are here. If you want to use this as your default homepage and search engine then you can continue to do it but if you have a question like “how do I remove the hao123 from my PC” then here, we have given the process of removing hao123 completely from the PC.
Method 1 – How to remove and completely delete hao123 from the PC
Here in this first method, we shall try to delete the malicious program from the system and remove hao123. Mostly, users are using Windows 10/8/7 so we have given the process of deleting hao123 from Windows completely.
- On your Windows 10 PC, you shall see the Windows logo at the bottom left corner of the screen. You have to right-click on that Windows Start Menu and click on “Apps and Features” and then you will be redirected to all the installed programs on your PC.
- Now when a new screen appears on the screen, you will be able to see the complete list of installed software, program, adware, freeware, and everything on the PC. So here, you have to scroll and check what could be the malicious program in the system.
- Now you just have to click on the program that you find malicious or suspicious. Once you have clicked on it a new sub-menu will popup and you just have to hit the “Uninstall” option to completely remove the program from the system. (If asked again to delete the program on the screen then click on “yes”.)
Note: It is important to find out which program is malicious and which is not. So when you find any program to be suspicious, you can search on Google for the information regarding that program.
Method 2 – How to remove hao123 from the web browsers and system permanently
In this method, you have to install a malware detector and remover on your PC. The program given below will scan, detect, and remove all the malware programs installed on your PC.
Step 1 – Install the MalwareFox from here.
Step 2 – Once you have installed this program on your PC, run the program and select “Scan Now”.
Step 3 – When the deep scan is completed all the suspicious programs will be detected and you can remove them clicking on ‘uninstall” next to them.
Now, close all the browser and re-launch them. You shall find no hao123.com homepage on your system and browsers.
Final Words:
So this is how you can find and delete the th.hao123.com browser hijacker from your PC and all the browsers. So you have to beware before installing any program on your PC. While installing any program, you have to check whether any adware is being bundled with that program or not. If you find any trouble while following this process then you can contact us through the comment box.
