Outfox.tv Invasion? What Is It and How to Remove Outfox.tv?

“Outfox TV has invaded my Firefox webbrowser. In the past 3 weeks, Outfox TV has hijacked my Internet Browser, and has made itself my Home Page.
I am not sure how it got there. I have not downloaded any free applications..... I swear!  I found the program and delected the program file from my PC, changed my homepage back to Yahoo.....but the darn thing keeps coming back, popping up.  Scanned my PC virus, nothing.”

What Is Outfox.tv?

As its name suggests, Outfox.tv offers video shows for PC users. It has its homepage. If one ever pays attention to the ads on its homepage, one could infer that most of the contents are free and Outfox.tv has to publish ads for fund to support operation. Such application is quite adept at using ads to work around, for example, Outfox.tv pops up some video ads to push its contents.

So You Mean Outfox.tv Is Not Virus?

Outfox.tv is not a virus or malware at all though it pops up a lot and hijack homepage. Actually, these can be done with some legal means such as BHO, JS, Applet and ActiveX technologies. Such technologies can be utilized to push aggressive promotion just like what Outfox.tv does. Hijacking homepage and popping up ads are aiming at promoting its brand.

Recommendation

If one doesn’t follow good PC practice not very often, it is recommended to remove/uninstall Outfox.tv for the following reasons:

1. Once being attacked by infections, BHO, JS, Applet and ActiveX will be utilized maliciously to preload vicious item into system configuration and modify DNS setting to constantly redirect victims to some spam sites.
2. Any program that manages to stick to a computer and survive conventional removal means is thought to be potentially dangerous as random modifications have been made and vulnerability can be readily exploited by intrusive infections.

Besides, to display pages with ads would consume CPU. When encountering infections, a weak anti-virus program with deficient CPU would fail as full play needs plenty of CPU.

If one starts to see additional problems such as search redirect, more irritating pop-up ads, additional installations of program or applications, it is advisable to remove/uninstall Outfox.tv as soon as possible. If you don’t want Outfox.tv any more, you are welcome to follow the instruction here. Should you encounter difficulty in dealing with incidental problems or programs, please do feel free to get expert help from Global PC Support Center.

How to Remove/Uninstall Outfox.tv from Browsers?

1. Remove the extensions created on the day when Outfox.tv was firstly detected.

Internet Explorer
Tools > Manage add-ons > ‘Toolbars and Extensions’ > remove Outfox.tv' s extension > ‘Search Providers’ > remove Outfox.tv’s extension.

Mozilla Firefox
Tools > Options > ‘Extension’ > remove Outfox.tv' s extension > ‘Plugins’ panel > remove Outfox.tv’s extension.

Google Chrome
Spanner icon > "Tools" > ‘Extensions’ > remove Outfox.tv’s extension.

Opera
Opera menu > Extensions > Manage Extensions > remove Outfox.tv’s extension.

Safari
Safari Menu > Preferences > extensions tab > remove Outfox.tv’s extension.



2. Restore the homepage from Outfox.tv.

Internet Explorer
‘Search Providers’ > select desirable search engine > press “Set as Default” button.

Mozilla Firefox
Options > General tab > "homepage" > type your desirable URL.

Google Chrome
Spanner icon > "Settings" > Search section > click dropdown menu to select desired search engine.

Opera
Opera menu > Settings > Preference > General tab > "Home Page" > set your desirable homepage.

Safari
Safari Menu > Preferences > General tab > Default Search Engine > set desirable search engine.



3. End Outfox.tv’s running processes and related ones.

Windows
Access Task Manager > View >　select columns > tick "PID" and "Path name" > go to open up System Information > end the process with path name directing to Outfox.tv's path.

Mac OS X
Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor > click open the suspected processes > "Open ports and files" > end the process with path name directing to Outfox.tv's path.



4. remove items generated by Outfox.tv in Database.

Windows

1. Access Database with “regedit” typed in Run box (enabled by Win+R key combination).
2. Access the below given entries to find and remove keys related to Outfox.tv:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\[the browser that has Outfox.tv]
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Microsoft\[the browser that has Outfox.tv]
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\AppID\Extension.DLL
HKCU\Software\Outfox.tv
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{random number}

Mac OS X 
Navigate to the below places to remove Outfox.tv.

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences
/Safari/ Preferences/extensions/
/Safari/Help/Installed Plug/Ins & list
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
~/Library (in home folder)/Internet Plug-Ins/.

As a matter of fact, drive-by download is not the only way for Outfox.tv’s automatic installation. It can also be implanted into a machine through a click on its or affiliate ads. This is the strategy that Outfox.tv adopts to push itself aggressively within a short period of time. Though it is not pleasing, it should not be considered to be virus.

Reference:

Computer virus – Wikipedia

Browser Hijacking – Wikipedia