Automatic and manual removal steps for the Qvo6 adware

Sep 24, 2013 09:28 GMT  ·  By

Here is a complete guide on how to remove Qvo6 or Qvo6.com, a piece of adware that’s usually installed on computers by mistake since it’s bundled with other pieces of software, mainly application installers.

When installed, Qvo6 changes the home page of web browsers and sets the default search engine to qvo6.com.

Qvo6 has been found to hijack browser shortcuts, windows shortcuts and search results, in some cases pointing users to shady websites. That’s why many internauts find this browser hijacker very annoying.

However, removing Qvo6 from your computer can be tricky. That’s because Qvo6 is not actually a malicious application so antivirus programs might not detect it. So how can you uninstall it?

First of all, check your control panel for applications you haven’t installed on purpose. Qvo6 has been found to install software such as Desk 365, eSafe Security Control, DProtect and other applications.

The first step is to go to Control Panel, Uninstall Programs, and remove all the applications that appear to be related to Qvo6, particularly if you identify one named “Qvo6 Search.”

Using tools

There are a series of free tools that you can use to facilitate the Qvo6 browser hijacker removal process. One of them is Adwcleaner, an adware and toolbar removal application that’s quite effective in eliminating any annoying software.

Once you’ve installed AdwCleaner, simply run a scan with it. Once the scan is complete, press the Clean button to remove the detected pieces of adware.

Download AdwCleaner

Another useful application is Junkware Removal Tool. Junkware is also efficient in cleaning up adware. However, it’s a command-line utility, so it doesn’t have such a user-friendly interface.

Download Junkware Removal Tool

For restoring your web browsers to their initial settings, you can utilize Avast! Browser Cleanup. The application might not find anything wrong with your browsers, but you can use it to restore Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome to their default settings.

Download avast! Browser Cleanup

Finally, once you run these applications, you can run a complete system scan with an antivirus to make sure the redirections made by Qvo6 haven’t resulted in malware being downloaded to your computer. For this task, you can use something like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Manual removal

The aforementioned utilities might get rid of Qvo6, but some traces of the adware might remain, so you should check out the manual removal steps as well, just to make sure you’ve gotten rid of it completely.

AdwCleaner should have removed the browser hijacker from the registry as well. However, you can check to make sure it has by accessing the Registry Editor in Windows (type “regedit” in the Run window). Use the Registry Editor’s search function to look for entries that contain “Qvo6.”

In case you come across references to Qvo6, remove them or change them.

Note. This step is only for advanced users. Be sure to make a backup of your registries before making any changes.

The most important phase is cleaning up Qvo6 from the browser itself. Here are the removal steps for each browser. It’s worth noting that these steps are provided on Qvo6.com and may vary depending on the browser's version.

These steps are for the latest versions of each browser.

Firefox

1) Go to Firefox -> Options -> Options. 2) Delete Qvo6 from the home page field under the General tab and set a new homepage 3) Go to Firefox -> Add-ons and remove the Qvo6 add-on 4) From the search list located in the upper right corner, select Manage Search Engines 5) Remove Qvo6

Chrome

1) Go to Settings and change the home page from the “On Startup” section 2) From the “Search” section, change the search engine to the one you want 3) Go to Manage Search Engines and remove qvo6 from the list 4) Click on the Extensions tab and remove the qvo6 extension

Internet Explorer

1) Go to Tools -> Internet Options and change the home page in the General tab 2) Go to Tools -> Manage Add-ons and remove qvo6 from the list

For all browsers, it’s recommended that you delete the cache files and other browsing data. It’s also worth noting that the latest versions of these web browsers do a decent job at blocking adware such as Qvo6, so you might not have to perform many changes.

Once this is done, all you have to do is make sure the browser shortcuts are clean. To do this, right click on them, go to Properties, go to the Shortcut tab, and remove “qvo6” from the Target field. This step must be performed on all browser shortcuts, not just the ones on your desktop.

In case you like video tutorials, here are a couple from Free Uninstall It and PC Threat: