Contract PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A, How to Stop Ads and Hijacking [for Windows and Mac OS X]

Is PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A Virus?

As what PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A suggests, it has something to do with start.mysearchdial.com. Just like the browser hijacker, PUP.optional.mysearchdial.a is not technically a virus, it is no more than a browser plug-in to support ads. One should be informed that browser hijacker like mysearchdial is freeware and chasing after traffic, to get itself popular and intercept as much traffic as possible, PUP.optional.mysearchdial.a is created to pop up the ads that will help install the browser hijacker onto connected PCs and gain money from PPC.

 

Why Anti-virus Program Won’t Remove PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A?

Not being a virus, PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A will not be removed by any security utilities. But why it is alerted? To be more specifically, PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A is categorized as PUP, a group that’s seen by security technicians to be potentially dangerous. With the increasingly fierce competition within online marketing, more online operator hire technicians to help make something that can pull traffic together arbitrarily without acting like virus. Thus PUP comes into being.
Be noted that PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A is too money-driven to deserve refined work, thus bug can be unveiled to be exploited by infections injected on the Internet. With the loose structure, the techniques to build up the PUP could be well capitalized by virus to commit evil deeds without being effectively stopped by the build-in security defense:

1. Backdoor program which is originally to track down users’ online whereabouts and upload the information to help with the decision on where to place ads and help propagate mysearchdial hijacker will be utilized maliciously to load down vicious items.
2. BHO (browser helper object) technique that contributes to modifying DNS settings and thus hooking API to guarantee a frequent and permanent appearance of PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A would be capitalized to consolidate the vicious settlement.
3. JS (JavaScript) is inevitable in building a web page; though PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A is not a web page, what it triggers are; once being taken advantage, the in-put information online will be completely recorded including your bank account and log-in credential.

Below is the manual instruction trawled through by VilmaTech Online Support. Be noted that certain level of computer knowledge and skill is required to carry out the instruction as the directory and the name of the related items can vary from OS to OS. Should you want exclusive help according to your concrete situation, please start a live chat window here.

 

Help Remove PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A from Windows and Mac OS X

1.    reset browsers to restore browser settings.

Internet Explorer

• Click on IE’s Tools menu to select Internet Options.
• Please then navigate to Advanced tab.
• See that Restore Defaults button? Press on it and followed by OK button.
  

 
Mozilla Firefox

• Click on Firefox button to choose Help.
• Select Troubleshooting information from the drop-down list.
• A box will pop up with ‘Reset Firefox’ button .
• Press on it to reset Firefox.
  

 
Google Chrome

• Click on ‘Customize and Control Google Chrome’ menu to select ‘Options’.
• Please then navigate to ‘Under the Hood’ tab to press on ‘Reset to Defaults’ button.
  

 
Opera

• Show hidden files and folders (explicit instruction is shown in Step3).
• Navigate to “C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera\” to remove Operapref.ini file.
  

 
Safari

• Click on Safari menu to choose ‘Reset Safari’.
• Tick all given options in the pop-up window followed by ‘Reset’ button.
  

 
 
2.    locate and end the processes associated with PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A.

Windows

• Use Ctrl+Alt+Del (for Windows8 it is Ctrl+Shift+Esc) key combination to bring up Task Manager.
• Click on View tab to choose “Select Columns”.
  
• In the pop-up window, please tick “PID” and “Path name”.
• End the processes according to the shown directories.

 
Mac OS X

• Click Spotlight to type “activity monitor”.
  
• Press enter/return key to click open Activity Monitor.
• Mainly locate the processes unfamiliar to you and consume much CPU.
• Double-click to open them respectively and end the processes according to the location shown in “Open Files and Ports”.
  

 
 
3.    Unveil all hidden files and folders to remove the ones related to PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A.

Windows 7/XP/Vista

• Enter into ‘Control Panel’ from Start menu to choose “user accounts and family safety”.
• Please then double click open ‘Folder Options’.
• When getting a new window, please hit View tab to tick ‘Show hidden files and folders’ and non-tick ‘Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)’.
  
• Finally, press ‘OK’ button to show all hidden items.

 
Windows 8

• Access Windows Explorer from Start screen.
• When getting in, please browse to View tab to tick ‘File name extensions’ and ‘Hidden items’ options.
• Finally, press ‘OK’ button to show all hidden items.
  

a. navigate to the following directories and remove them:

C:\Program Files\MySearchDial\
C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\ MySearchDial.
C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\Temp\
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\ MySearchDial\
C:\WINDOWS\Temp
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet File

 
b. navigate to the following directories to remove every files and folders created on the day when PUP.Optional.SearchProtect.A was firstly detected.

C:\Windows
C:\Program Files\
C:\Windows\System32
C:\users\user\appdata\local\
C:\Windows\system32\Temp
%Program Files%\Common Files\
c:\users\[username]\appdata\locallow\
C:\Users\[your username]\Documents\

Tip: to show the creation date, one should follow the steps here:

• Right click on the space of each of the above listed windows.
• Hover your mouse over “Arrange by”.
• Select “Day”.

 
Mac OS X

• Click on Finder Launchpad icon to select Utilities.
  
• Next click open Terminal window to get a little black window.
  
• Please then copy and paste the following line in:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

• Press Return key.
• Next copy and paste the following line into the Terminal window:

killall Finder

• Press Return key to show all hidden items.
• When done, please navigate to the following listed locations to locate and remove the ones related to PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A:

Library/ Internet Plug-Ins/
[home folder]/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
Applications folder
Dock
Display

Tip: to show the creation date on Mac, one should follow the steps here:

• Click open Finder, select View on the Menu bar.
• Please choose Show view Options.
• Finally check “Date Created”.

 
 

PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A’s Consequence

1. More ads will pop up randomly.
2. Both page-loading speed and PC performance will be considerably degraded.
3. CPU will sometimes spike to cause freezes.
4. Additional PUPs, web applications or virus can be anticipated.

 

PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A Removal Tips

As what has been learned from the preceding paragraphs, PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A can be easily targeted and exploited by virus, it is thus recommended to remove it as soon as possible and completely when you are unfortunately get contracted. Removing it completely means to remove anything related to PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A and the additional items dropped down by/install along with the PUP; otherwise, they will bring PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A back in return. Should you have difficulty in removing the accompanied items yourself, you can either seek solution in virus reservoir or simply contact VilmaTech Online Support by starting a live chat window here.

 

Defrag after PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A’s Removal

It is recommended to do a defrag after removing PUP.optional.MySearchDial.A completely. As a web application, countless cache will be loaded onto the machine casually to take up the internal resource unreasonably and cause poor performance. Defrag will help you relieve the plight in one second. Here’s the video to show how:

 

Published & last updated on April 22, 2020 by Erik V. Miller