Converterz-Search redirect virus might be to blame for the changed browser's settings, and it could have entered together with free programs. You probably installed some kind of free program recently, and it possibly had the hijacker adjoined to it. It's essential that you are vigilant during application installation because otherwise, you won't be able to prevent these types of threats. Redirect viruses are quite low-level threats they do act in an unnecessary way. You'll notice that instead of the normal homepage and new tabs, your browser will now load the hijacker's promoted page. Your search engine will also be altered, and it may be able to inject sponsored links among the legitimate results. If you click on one of those result, you will be redirected to weird pages, whose owners get money from boosted traffic. Some browser hijacker are able to reroute to infected web pages so unless you want to get your machine contaminated with malware, you should be cautious. If you got malware, the situation would be much worse. Redirect viruses like to pretend they have useful features but you could find legitimate plug-ins doing the same thing, which will not reroute you to random malware. You might be encountering more personalized sponsored content in the results, and it is because the redirect virus is collecting data about you and tracking your searches. It would not be strange if that information was sold to third-parties too. And the faster you terminate Converterz-Search, the less time the redirect virus will have to affect your operating system.
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