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How to remove Blekko Redirect?

June 26th, 2012

What is Blekko Redirect?

Blekko Redirect is a browser hijacker that changes default search provider to Blekko.com. Blekko is a legitimate website, one of the smaller search engines. It also claims to be a spam free. However, it also pays affiliates for each visitor that tries out the search engine. Although the amount of money is relatively small, it is lucrative for malware makers that gain additional couple of bucks for each install. Thus stripped down version of Blekko toolbar is installed without user’s consent and uninstall is impossible sometimes. As users are not warned about the install, they call the toolbar causing redirections a Blekko virus.

Due to this, we rate Blekko Toolbar as Potentially Unwanted Application and if the uninstaller is not included it is a sign of malware infection. Distribution of such programs without actual uninstaller is violation of terms and conditions of affiliate program, however, malware makers do not care and it is hard to prove. If you haven’t installed the toolbar yourself, it is a sign your PC is infected with adware or trojans, and you should not take these redirections lightly. Besides being annoying if you are happy with your regular search results, they hide more serious problem: someone installs software without your actual consent.

If you haven’t installed Blekko Toolbar yourself

In this case, you are infected and should remove Blekko Virus, you must immediately perform a full system scan with an anti-malware program. There are several versions of trojans that distribute toolbars and you will need anti-malware program like Spyhunter to determine the cause of infection. Then you should repeat the steps written bellow.

If you have installed Blekko Toolbar, or see it in control panel

If you have installed toolbar yourself and wish to remove it, follow following instructions :

1. Go to control panel. Uninstall Blekko Toolbar. I would also recommend uninstall other software you do not know about that was installed on the same day.

2. Open your browser. Go to extensions/pluggins. Check out that there is nothing Blekko related. Delete all extensions that are made by anything else than Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, Sun or Google.

3. You will have to reset your Search provider.

On IE:

Click arrow on the right of search box
Do following
On IE8-9 choose Manage Search providers
On ie7 click change search defaults
Remove Blekko from the list

On Firefox :

In url field type “about:config” (without the quotes) and do following =>
Type “Keyword.url” in the search box. Right click it & reset it.
Type “browser.search.defaultengine” in the search box. Right click it & reset it.

On Google Chrome:

Click wench icon on browser toolbar
Select Settings
Select Basics ->Manage Search engines
Remove Blekko from list

4. Scan with anti-malware program Spyhunter or Spybot S&D to confirm that everything got removed and cleaned.


Blekko Redirect is Dangerous

arrow Blekko Redirect is a parasitic Browser Hijacker
arrow Blekko Redirect may show numerous annoying advertisements
arrow Blekko Redirect logs your internet browsing history
arrow Blekko Redirect will replace (hijack) your browser homepage
arrow Blekko Redirect may spread additional spyware
arrow Blekko Redirect violates your privacy and compromises your security
Download Spyhunter
for Blekko Redirect detection

Note: Spyhunter trial provides detection of parasite like Blekko Redirect and assists in its removal for free. You can remove detected files, processes and registry entries yourself or purchase a full version.



Blekko Redirect screenshots


Blekko Redirect screenshot

Manual Blekko Redirect removal


Important Note: Although it is possible to manually remove Blekko Redirect, such activity can permanently damage your system if any mistakes are made in the process, as advanced spyware parasites are able to automatically repair themselves if not completely removed. Thus, manual spyware removal is recommended for experienced users only, such as IT specialists or highly qualified system administrators. For other users, we recommend using Spyhunter or other malware and spyware removal applications found on 2-viruses.com.
Stop these Blekko Redirect processes:
Disable these Blekko Redirect DLL files::
Remove these Blekko Redirect files:
It is impossible to list all file names and locations of modern parasites. You can identify remaining parasites, other Blekko Redirect infected files and get help in Blekko Redirect removal by using free Spyhunter scanner. It comes with free real-time protection module that helps preventing Blekko Redirect and similar threats.

Blekko Redirect is classified as a Browser Hijacker, which means its parasitic damage payload consists of hijacking your browser homepage, error page, or search page with its own, mostly a commercial site of its creators, forcing you to accumulate force hits to a particular website to make it more popular or by using pay-per-click sites to earn money.

The easiest way for a Browser Hijacker such as Blekko Redirect to infect your computer is to exploit certain ActiveX controls and other security holes in your Internet Explorer browser. By browsing insecure websites on the internet, users may encounter various pop-ups, which secretly install Browser Hijackers like Blekko Redirect on your computer once clicked upon.

As soon as Blekko Redirect completes its operations, the overall browser stability and performance severely degrade, making it nearly impossible to surf the web normally.


How to tell if your PC has been infected by a Browser Hijacker such as Blekko Redirect?

Slow internet connection: Browser Helper Objects are constantly using your internet connection to send your private information to remote servers, as well as receive ads and pop-ups from third party servers, which causes much slower internet connection speed and overall connection instability.
Numerous undesirable and annoying pop-ups: A typical Browser Hijacker keeps track of your internet browsing habits, sending your browsing history data to remote servers, owned by third party companies that use this information to advertise their products via numerous pop-ups, toolbars, hijacked homepages and spam letters. All these undesirable advertising methods are used on the victims of Browser Hijackers.

Browser Hijacker

  1. Christ
    August 8th, 2012 at 05:08 | #1

    I ran all scans on my cpu, uninstalled blekko from control panel.

    I have a blekko toolbar on firefox, when I go to addons/extensions, I see nothing new. There is no option to remove blekko toolbar or anything of that sort.

    When I go to chrome, every new page i open is blekko. I go to manage search engines, and it still says that GOOGLE is the default search engine. Theres also nothing out of the ordinary in extensions/addons.

    HOW TO I REMOVE THIS CRAP!!!!!!

    • August 8th, 2012 at 09:07 | #2

      In chrome, you will have to change the start page. Press on Wench icon, go to Settings, there go to on Startup. Change to open New Tab.
      Also, it might install some invisible addon too. Scan with Anti-Malware programs.

  2. pouya
    September 17th, 2012 at 16:36 | #3

    Hi, thanks for the instructions i get infected when i was downloading from softpedia the blekko was packaged with the software shame on sofpedia for packaging viruses and trojans into their download packages anyway i have scotty and eset smart security they warned me about some soft wants to instll itself and i didn’t allow it but it install itself Without my permission that’s definitely a malicious behavior.

    for get rid of this malicious soft i uninstalled it from control panel and then restart my system after that i did what you have said in the instructions

    On IE:

    Click arrow on the right of search box
    Do following
    On IE8-9 choose Manage Search providers
    On ie7 click change search defaults
    Remove Blekko from the list

    On Firefox :

    In url field type “about:config” (without the quotes) and do following =>
    Type “Keyword.url” in the search box. Right click it & reset it.
    Type “browser.search.defaultengine” in the search box. Right click it & reset it.

    On Google Chrome:

    Click wench icon on browser toolbar
    Select Settings
    Select Basics ->Manage Search engines
    Remove Blekko from list

    and blekko is gone people don’t trust any site when downloading from internet and i recommend u to don’t download from downloading sites like softpedia that when u waana a damn soft they enforce u to dl some other softs.

  3. robert
    October 18th, 2012 at 04:59 | #4

    Hi, a friend of mine has the same blekko problem, which i intend to tackle soon, further to the actions listed on here, i would also suggest deleteing anything related to blekko from the registry aswell,
    click start, in search box, type regedit, this will appear at top of start window, click on it to open the registry, select H/KEY LOCAL MACHINE, then SOFTWARE from the drop down menu, look for blekko, then right click and delete, you will be asked if you want to remove the item and all sub keys, choose yes, that should remove any remnants of blekko from the system, hope this helps :)

  4. robert
    October 18th, 2012 at 05:16 | #5

    Hi again, an excellent antimalware and adware program is MALWAREBYTES, I use it on my laptop regualarly and find it very easy to use and it does the job it’s intended for, the quick scan takes about 5 mins on my machine, thats an 80gb hard drive which has about 50% free space, full scan takes a lot longer, havnt timed it though, but the easiest way to prevent blekko and other nasty’s getting in, is to install a good internet security suite, i use norton 360, again, an excellent product, and since installing it, havnt had any problems at all :) , well worth the cost if you value your pc/laptop.

  5. Zak
    February 2nd, 2013 at 16:10 | #6

    The reset option is grayed out when i do your firefox instructions.

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