Chrome Zapped by "default-search.net" Browser Hjack

[GTPilot]

My laptop has acquired the "default-search.net" browser hijack which appears to only affect the Google Chrome browser. Internet Explorer and Waterfox / Firefox do not seem to be affected and behave normally.

The computer is a Dell Inspiron 3521 with an Intel Core i5-3337U CPU and 6 GB of RAM running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit edition with Service Pack 1.

I have run the Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and attached the two log files it generated. Note that the program "hung" when run the first time. On the second try, it ran to completion.

When Chrome is launched, it comes up showing "Google.com" as it's home page (as it should) and within about 5 seconds after loading that page, the address window changes to show "default-search.net" as the home page and displays their logo in the browser's main window. Any attempt to load another page brings up their search window and it appears to send you to the page via them as a proxy server, even though in the settings window of Chrome, no proxy server is defined nor enabled.

Please help me get rid of this mess!

Thanks.

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Hello,

Fix with AdwCleaner

Please download AdwCleaner by Xplode and save the file to your Desktop.

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
• Accept the Terms of use.
• Wait until the database is updated.
• Click Scan.
• When finished, please click Clean.
• Your PC should reboot now.
• After reboot, logfile will be opened. Copy its content into your next reply.

Note: Reports will be saved in your system partition, usually at C:\Adwcleaner

 

[GTPilot]

Hello,

Fix with AdwCleaner

Please download AdwCleaner by Xplode and save the file to your Desktop.

• Right-click on
  
  icon and select
  
  Run as Administrator to start the tool.
• Accept the Terms of use.
• Wait until the database is updated.
• Click Scan.
• When finished, please click Clean.
• Your PC should reboot now.
• After reboot, logfile will be opened. Copy its content into your next reply.

Note: Reports will be saved in your system partition, usually at C:\Adwcleaner

Attached are the two log files AdwCleaner created.
While it found 76 total threats in the system, a number of them are parts of an item
called "Web Companion" by Lavasoft, publisher of AdAware. I don't think this package
was a threat, unless it's files were corrupted by the actual culprit.

Checking Chrome now shows it's search engine and home page have been restored to
Google.com.

Please let me know what you find in the log files.

Thanks

 

[TwinHeadedEagle]

Is everything okay now?