Manual Removal Guide for Baidu.Hao123

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "Baidu.Hao123" manually.
Use this guide at your own risk; software should usually be better suited to remove malware, since it is able to look deeper.

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Threat Details:

Categories:

• adware

Description:

Baidu.Hao123 is an adware by Baidu. It installs without any user consent or showing any kind of end users license (EULA). Its purpose is to open the Internet Explorer and navigate to the hao123 search website.

Removal Instructions:

Quicklaunch area:

Please remove the following items from your start quick launch area text to the "Start" button in the taskbar at the bottom.
To check where they are pointing to, right-click them and choose "Properties" from the context menu appearing.

• Quicklaunch symbols named "hao123.lnk" and pointing to "<$APPDATA>\baidu\hao123\*.exe".

Installed Software List:

You can try to uninstall products with the names listed below; for items identified by other properties or to avoid malware getting active again on uninstallation, use Spybot-S&D or RunAlyzer to locate and get rid of these entries.

• Products that have a key or property named "hao123desk".

Files:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these files.

• The file at "<$DESKTOP>\hao123.lnk".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\Hao123\hao123.lnk".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\Hao123\Uninstall hao123.lnk".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Baidu.Hao123 uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify files!

Important: There are more files that cannot be safely described in simple words. Please use Spybot-S&D to remove them.

Folders:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these folders.

• The directory at "<$APPDATA>\baidu\hao123".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMS>\Hao123".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Baidu.Hao123 uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify folders!

Registry:

You can use regedit.exe (included in Windows) to locate and delete these registry entries.

• Delete the registry key "Baidu" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".

If Baidu.Hao123 uses rootkit technologies, use our RegAlyzer, RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.

Final Words:

If neither Spybot-S&D nor self help did resolve the issue or you would prefer one on one help,

1. Please read these instructions before requesting assistance,
2. Then start your own thread in the Malware Removal Forum where a volunteer analyst will advise you as soon as available.