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The Google Redirect Virus is a very sneaky virus, and a bad one to get on your computer. The virus does not act like most other viruses, so it’s hard for your anti-virus software to find it. Most viruses load an executable program on your computer that looks like a real program…and this is the sign that your anti-virus program usually sees, in order to find and eliminate viruses. The Google Redirect Virus, however, does not behave in such a straightforward manner. So if you do a search for it with your AVG Antivirus, or Norton Antivirus, or whichever industry-standard antivirus you have, you won’t find it, and your search results will keep on leading you down dangerous paths.

What the virus itself does is very basic and easy to understand. It takes advantage of the knowledge that search engine users will surely be clicking on the results of any search them make on an engine, in order to redirect those users to other pages that the virus thinks users should visit instead. So, if a user searches for “mobile phones” and the first result in the search engine is “mobilephones.com,” the user will click on “mobilephones.com,” thinking they will be directed to that page. The virus, however, intercepts this behavior, and redirects the user to a page of its choice. Often these pages are trying to sell you something, are full of annoying pop-up windows, or worst of all, may contain more viruses and malware that will further affect your computer’s performance negatively. This, combined with how hard it is to remove the virus, is what makes the Google Redirect Virus so problematic.

The Google Redirect Virus is truly an awful virus for your browser and computer to get. Believe me, I know, as my computer was infected with the virus for over 9 months. And this is especially telling as I am a person who does web design for a living, and is very technology savvy. I tried everything, and had no luck getting rid of the virus.
As mentioned above, the Google Redirect Virus is a very stealthy intruder on your computer. The virus does not behave like other viruses, so it’s hard for your anti-virus software to find it. Most viruses load an.exe program on your computer that looks like a real program…and this is the telltale sign that your anti-virus program usually picks up on to find and destroy viruses. The Google Redirect Virus, though, doesn’t do this at all. Instead, it hides out in your computer’s registry and browser, which is an entirely different way of behaving that the major anti-virus companies like Norton and AVG haven’t caught up with yet. Therefore, any search by those products won’t catch up to the problem…and your search results will still get redirected, and your frustration will only grow.

The best solutions for getting the virus involve a rootkill software, and a thorough registry cleaning. Trying widely-available tools like TrojanKill or RootKill are the best attempt you have at stopping this software. If these can detect the virus, manually delete the files it determines are infected. After this, use a registry cleaner to get rid of any trace of the virus in the computer’s registry.

If this does not work, however, probably the simplest approach to getting rid of the Google Redirect Virus is to use a restore point on your computer. This is why consistently creating backup points and mirrors of the hard drive image is essential.

Steve Goerger runs a website about anti-virus, if you are experiencing a Google redirect virus problems then I’d suggest you visit his Google Redirect Virus Removal website.