The FileShareFanatic instead of your start page is a sign of appearance of potentially unwanted program from the browser hijacker family on your PC. It may bring a security risk to your computer. So, do not ignore it! Of course, the FileShareFanatic is just a site, but the browser hijacker uses it to change your newtab, start page and search engine by default, without your permission and desire to see it. The FileShareFanatic as your home page may be just the beginning, because your PC system has been hijacked with a malicious software, that in the future may increase the amount of problems with the Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Its appearance will prevent you normally browse the Web, and more, can lead to crash the web-browser.
In addition, the FileShareFanatic browser hijacker may also alter the search provider selected in the internet browser. When you try to search on the infected web-browser, you will be presented with search results, consisting of advertisements and Google (or Yahoo, or Bing) search results for your query. Among these search results may occur links that lead to unwanted and ad web sites.
Although, FileShareFanatic browser hijacker is not a virus, but it does bad things, and it modifies certain settings of all your typical web browsers. Moreover, an adware (sometimes called ‘ad-supported’ software) can be additionally installed on to your computer by this hijacker, which will open lots of ads, or even massive full page ads that blocks surfing the Internet. Often such these ads can recommend to install other unknown and unwanted applications or visit harmful web sites.
In addition to that, as was mentioned earlier, certain browser hijacker infections such as FileShareFanatic to also change all internet browsers shortcuts that located on your Desktop or Start menu. So, every infected shortcut will try to redirect your web-browser to undesired web-sites, certain of which might be harmful. It can make the whole personal computer more vulnerable to hacker attacks.
We recommend you to free your PC of browser hijacker ASAP. Use the steps below that will assist to remove FileShareFanatic startpage and malicious software, that can be installed onto your computer along with it.
Remove FileShareFanatic
Fortunately, it is not hard to remove the FileShareFanatic hijacker. In the following steps, we will provide two methods to clean your machine of this hijacker. One is the manual removal solution and the other is automatic removal way. You can choose the method that best fits you. Please follow the removal instructions below to remove FileShareFanatic right now!
Remove FileShareFanatic search without any utilities
Steps to remove FileShareFanatic hijacker infection without any software are presented below. Be sure to carry out the step-by-step guide completely to fully remove this unwanted FileShareFanatic redirect.
Uninstall FileShareFanatic related applications through the Control Panel of your computer
The process of browser hijacker removal is generally the same across all versions of Windows OS from 10 to XP. To start with, it’s necessary to check the list of installed programs on your personal computer and uninstall all unused, unknown and suspicious programs.
Windows 8, 8.1, 10
First, click the Windows button , then press Search . Type “Control panel”and press Enter.
Windows XP, Vista, 7
First, click “Start” and select “Control Panel”.
It will display the Windows Control Panel like below.
Next, click “Uninstall a program”
It will display a list of all programs installed on your PC system. Scroll through the all list, and remove any suspicious and unknown programs. To quickly find the latest installed applications, we recommend sort software by date in the Control panel.
Remove FileShareFanatic search from Microsoft Internet Explorer
First, run the Microsoft Internet Explorer, click ) button. Next, click “Internet Options” as on the image below.
In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, press Reset button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will show the Reset Internet Explorer settings dialog box. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and click Reset button.
You will now need to restart your PC system for the changes to take effect. It will remove browser hijacker which cause a redirect to FileShareFanatic web page, disable malicious and ad-supported internet browser’s extensions and restore the IE’s settings like new tab, homepage and search provider by default to default state.
Get rid of FileShareFanatic from Chrome
Use the Reset web-browser tool of the Google Chrome to reset all its settings like start page, new tab page and search engine by default to original defaults. This is a very useful tool to use, in the case of browser hijacks like FileShareFanatic.
- First launch the Chrome and click Menu button (small button in the form of three horizontal stripes).
- It will display the Chrome main menu. Select “Settings” option.
- You will see the Google Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and press “Show advanced settings” link.
- Scroll down again and click the “Reset settings” button.
- The Google Chrome will open the reset profile settings page as shown on the screen above.
- Next press the “Reset” button.
- Once this process is finished, your browser’s newtab page, startpage and search provider by default will be restored to their original defaults.
- To learn more, read the article How to reset Chrome settings to default.
Get rid of FileShareFanatic from Firefox by resetting web browser settings
Resetting your Firefox is good initial troubleshooting step for any issues with your web-browser application, including the redirect to FileShareFanatic web-site.
First, start the Firefox and click button. It will open the drop-down menu on the right-part of the browser. Further, click the Help button () as displayed on the image below
.
In the Help menu, select the “Troubleshooting Information” option. Another way to open the “Troubleshooting Information” screen – type “about:support” in the browser adress bar and press Enter. It will open the “Troubleshooting Information” page as shown on the image below. In the upper-right corner of this screen, click the “Refresh Firefox” button.
It will open the confirmation dialog box. Further, click the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Firefox will start a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker that causes web browsers to open undesired FileShareFanatic web-page. After, it is finished, click the “Finish” button.
Clean up the browsers shortcuts that have been hijacked by FileShareFanatic
Important to know, most antimalware software which are able to remove browser hijacker infection, but unable to find and recover modified shortcuts. So, you need to fix the desktop shortcuts for your Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and MS Edge web browsers manually.
Click the right mouse button to a desktop shortcut that you use to open your browser. Next, select the “Properties” option. Important: necessary to click on the desktop shortcut for the web-browser that is rerouted to the FileShareFanatic or other intrusive web site.
Further, necessary to look at the text that is written in the “Target” field. The hijacker infection can rewrite the contents of this field, which describes the file to be start when you launch your browser. Depending on the web-browser you are using, there should be:
- Google Chrome: chrome.exe
- Opera: opera.exe
- Firefox: firefox.exe
- Internet Explorer: iexplore.exe
If you are seeing an unknown text like “http://site.addres” that has been added here, then you should remove it, as shown in the figure below.
Next, press the “OK” button to save the changes. Now, when you run the browser from this desktop shortcut, it does not occur automatically redirect on the FileShareFanatic site or any other undesired web-sites. Once the step is complete, we recommend to go to the next step.
Run free malware removal tools to completely remove FileShareFanatic
Use malware removal utilities to get rid of FileShareFanatic automatically. The free software tools specially made for hijacker, adware and other potentially unwanted programs removal. These tools can remove most of browser hijacker from FF, Chrome, Internet Explorer and MS Edge. Moreover, it can remove all components of FileShareFanatic from Windows registry and system drives.
Use Zemana Free to remove browser hijacker
You can get rid of FileShareFanatic automatically with a help of Zemana Free. We suggest this malicious software removal utility because it may easily remove hijackers, PUPs, ad supported software and toolbars with all their components such as folders, files and registry entries.
Download Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) from the link below. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop or in any other place.
164103 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
When downloading is complete, start it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the Zemana will try to update itself and when this process is complete, click the “Scan” button . Zemana AntiMalware tool will start scanning the whole personal computer to find out FileShareFanatic browser hijacker infection and other web-browser’s malicious extensions.
A system scan may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your computer. When a threat is detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Review the scan results and then press “Next” button.
The Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will start to remove hijacker infection which cause a reroute to FileShareFanatic web-site.
Run Malwarebytes to remove FileShareFanatic home page
We suggest using the Malwarebytes Free which are completely clean your machine of the hijacker. The free tool is an advanced malware removal program made by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular anti-malware technology. It is able to help you delete hijackers, PUPs, malware, adware, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your machine for free.
Download MalwareBytes by clicking on the following link.
326457 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
Once the download is finished, close all windows on your computer. Further, open the file named mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as shown on the image below, click the “Yes” button.
It will display the “Setup wizard” that will allow you set up MalwareBytes on the PC system. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
Once install is finished successfully, press Finish button. Then MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will automatically start and you can see its main window as displayed on the screen below.
Next, click the “Scan Now” button for checking your PC for the hijacker infection that causes browsers to show annoying FileShareFanatic web-site. This process may take some time, so please be patient. When a threat is found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the checking is done.
When MalwareBytes completes the scan, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will open a scan report. All detected threats will be marked. You can remove them all by simply click “Quarantine Selected” button.
The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) will remove hijacker infection that cause a reroute to FileShareFanatic site and move threats to the program’s quarantine. When the cleaning process is complete, you can be prompted to reboot your PC. We suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using the MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) to remove browser hijacker infections, ad-supported software and other malware.
Use AdwCleaner to remove FileShareFanatic from the system
AdwCleaner is a free removal tool which can check your computer for a wide range of security threats such as adware, malicious software, potentially unwanted programs as well as FileShareFanatic browser hijacker and other internet browser’s harmful add-ons. It will perform a deep scan of your system including hard drives and Windows registry. When a malware is found, it will allow you to get rid of all found threats from your system by a simple click.
Download AdwCleaner by clicking on the following link. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop.
225298 downloads
Version: 8.4.1
Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
Category: Security tools
Update: October 5, 2024
After the downloading process is finished, open the folder in which you saved it. You will see an icon like below.
Double click the AdwCleaner desktop icon. When the utility is launched, you will see a screen as shown below.
Further, click “Scan” button .AdwCleaner program will scan through the whole personal computer for the hijacker infection that reroutes your browser to intrusive FileShareFanatic page. A system scan may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your system. After AdwCleaner completes the scan, AdwCleaner will show a list of detected threats as on the image below.
Make sure all items have ‘checkmark’ and press “Clean” button. It will display a dialog box like below.
You need to press “OK”. Once finished, the AdwCleaner may ask you to reboot your personal computer. When your personal computer is started, you will see an AdwCleaner log.
These steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.
Stop FileShareFanatic redirect and other undesired web sites
We advise to install an ad blocker application which can stop FileShareFanatic and other unwanted web sites. The ad-blocker utility like AdGuard is a application which basically removes advertising from the Net and blocks access to malicious web sites. Moreover, security experts says that using ad blocker applications is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Net.
Installing the AdGuard ad blocking program is simple. First you will need to download AdGuard by clicking on the link below and save it directly to your Microsoft Windows Desktop.
26655 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
When the download is complete, double-click the downloaded file to run it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen like below.
Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed and an icon will be placed on your desktop. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick guide as shown in the following example.
Press “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will help you get to know AdGuard better.
Each time, when you launch your computer, AdGuard will run automatically and stop pop ups, web-sites such FileShareFanatic, as well as other malicious or misleading web sites. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that is located on your desktop.
Tips to prevent FileShareFanatic and other unwanted software
Many applications used to hijack a computer’s web-browser. So, when you installing free software, carefully read the disclaimers, choose the Custom or Advanced setup mode to watch for third-party applications that are being installed, because some of the software are ad supported software and potentially unwanted programs.
Finish words
Now your computer should be clean of the hijacker infection that cause a reroute to FileShareFanatic web page. Remove AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep Zemana (to periodically scan your computer for new browser hijackers and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you stop undesired advertisements and harmful web sites). Moreover, to prevent hijackers, please stay clear of unknown and third party software, make sure that your antivirus program, turn on the option to find PUPs (potentially unwanted programs).
If you need more help with FileShareFanatic related issues, go to our Spyware/Malware removal forum.