Sports Madness Browser Hijacker — How to remove?

The Sports Madness search hijacker is an example of a typical unwanted program; such applications are promoted massively these days. In this article you will see the precise information of “Sports Madness” hijacker elimination in various ways: making use of anti-malware tools and also hand-operated elimination process.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing Sports Madness manually may take hours and may damage your PC in the process. I recommend you to download GridinSoft Anti-Malware for threats removal. Allows to complete scan and cure your PC during the trial period.

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Sports Madness – What is it?

“Sports Madness” search hijacker is a potentially unwanted application (PUA)¹, that is spread as a plugin for your web browser. It is usually advertised as an add-on for Chrome or Firefox, that assists to search some specific information, as an example, about sport events, make your browser far more secure, enable downloading of any video, et cetera. Also, this app adds the “Managed by your organization” feature (on Chrome browsers).

However, the “Sports Madness” plugin is pretty pointless since all such functions are already integrated to your web browser and/or system. Such marketing mottos are targeted at low-skilled computer users, for example, pensioners or schoolchildren. But occasionally even experienced users are getting caught on such a lure. In certain instances, this hijacker is distributed together with free apps.

Sports Madness Search Hijacker

Here is a short details for the Sports Madness hijacker

How harmful is Sports Madness hijacker?

Besides its impracticality, Sports Madness hijacker is likewise considerably unsafe for web browser usage. It changes your search engine to its specific – Sportmadness.info, and likewise alters your background, putting its watermark on your wallpaper (or, sometimes, altering it to default with the specified symptom).

Besides viewable modifications done by Sports Madness hijacker, you can see that some of your search questions are redirecting to the suspicious web pages, full of links and ads – so-called doorway websites. Such websites can consist of web links for malware downloads. The chance of redirecting surges if you attempt to launch Google search page forcibly.

But all these actions are far more annoying than truly damaging. The main threat, particularly for people who have a great deal of confidential information in their internet browsers, is embedded in information gathering functionalities. Cookie files, chats, often-visited sites, and other activities are simply collected by Sports Madness hijacker.

How to remove Sports Madness search hijacker?

• Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
• Open GridinSoft Anti-Malware and perform a “Standard scan“.
• “Move to quarantine” all items.
• Open “Tools” tab – Press “Reset Browser Settings“.
• Select proper browser and options – Click “Reset”.
• Restart your computer.

Browser hijackers are generally pretty simple to deal with. In many cases, they have an independent application that can be located in the list of installed applications. Due to the specific marketing manner of Sports Madness hijacker, it can be quickly tracked and erased manually. However, if you got Sports Madness in the bundle with a free applications, your system can be contaminated with far more dangerous malware – trojans, spyware and even ransomware. That’s why I’d recommend you use anti-malware programs to deal with the Sports Madness PUA and all various other malware.

You can make use of Microsoft Defender² – it is capable of finding and removing various malware, including mentioned hijacker. But severe malware, that can be present on your computer in the discussed instance, can disable the Windows antimalware program by editing the Group Policies. To stay clear of such scenarios, it is far better to use GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

To detect and eliminate all malicious programs on your personal computer with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, it’s better to use Standard or Full scan. Quick Scan is not able to find all the viruses, because it scans only the most popular registry entries and folders.

You can see the detected viruses sorted by their possible harm during the scan process. But to perform any actions against malware, you need to hold on until the scan is over, or to stop the scan.

To set the action for each spotted malicious or unwanted program, click the arrow in front of the name of the detected virus. By default, all malware will be removed to quarantine.

Reverting browser settings to original ones

To revert your browser settings, you are required to use the Reset Browser Settings option. This action is not able to be intercepted by any virus, hence, you will surely see the result. This action can be found in the Tools tab.

After pressing the Reset Browser Settings option, the menu will be shown, where you can specify, which settings will be reverted to the original.

Deleteing Sports Madness hijacker manually

Besides using anti-malware software for browser restoration, you may choose the “Reset browser settings” function, which is usually embedded in all popular browsers.

To reset Edge, do the following steps :

1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :



2. After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original :

For Mozilla Firefox, do the next actions :

1. Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :



2. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :


After choosing this option, you will see the next message :

If you use Google Chrome

1. Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button :



2. In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :



3. Finally, you will see the window, where you can see all the settings which will be reset to default :
   

Opera can be reset in the next way

1. Open Settings menu by pressing the gear icon in the toolbar (left side of the browser window), then click “Advanced” option, and choose “Browser” button in the drop-down list. Scroll down, to the bottom of the settings menu. Find there “Restore settings to their original defaults” option :



2. After clicking the “Restore settings…” button, you will see the window, where all settings, which will be reset, are shown :

As an afterword, I want to say that time plays against you and your PC. The activity of browser hijacker must be stopped as soon as possible, because of the possibility of other malware injection. This malware can be downloaded autonomously, or offered for you to download in one of the windows with advertisements, which are shown to you by the hijacker. You need to act as fast as you can.

1. More information about PUAs
2. Detailed review of Microsoft Defender