Welcome to our NavSmart removal instructions. This article intends to help you remove NavSmart from your system and is designed to work for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer and all Windows versions.
There are a few things on the internet that can get under your skin as much as a browser hijacker can. Today we’re looking at a specific piece of browser hijacker widely known as NavSmart. It’s a nasty piece of programing, we will agree on that, but we should draw the line somewhere. It comes to distinguish the various types of software we decidedly don’t want near our computers. Many of our readers refer to and believe NavSmart “virus”. That is not accure though, NavSmart is not really a virus or malware. What we are referring to is the common misconception that browser hijacker = malware. This is absolutely not the case and the difference is pretty simple: malware (from the word ‘malicious’) is a piece of programming that aims to cause damage, once on your computer. Think in terms of viruses like Trojan Horses and ransomware – that is what malware is.
The browser hijacker, being a completely different class of software, stems from the word ‘ad’ – as in ‘advertisement’. If you have been infected by it and with that explanation in mind, you can easily put two and two together and realize that the main aspect to NavSmart is the many ads it generates. Having said that, we’re not trying to get you to lower your guard, not by the least. In fact, in this article we will explain to you about the potential dangers browser hijacker hides and just why you are going to want to remove it asap.
What does a browser hijacker do?
browser hijacker, like the today’s star NavSmart, is developed and distributed by the programmers behind it to make money. It operates based on the Pay per click scheme, which converts each click on any given ad into a profit. But that’s just on the surface, the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. What you don’t see is how NavSmart also spies on you, in order to customize those ads, in the hopes that they will somehow appeal to you and attract your cursor. All of your browsing-related info is collected and analyzed, following which the ads are then modified to suit your personal preferences and interests. You can easily determine this for yourself, if you take note of your own recent search queries and compare them to the ads you start seeing in the following few days. You are bound to see a correlation. What’s disturbing about this whole thing is that your personal details can be gathered along with other info, too. Further, browser hijacker developers are infamous for selling this data to third parties, once they no longer have any use for it. Would you like your private information, like your identity, payment credentials and other details roaming the web? We didn’t think so.
In addition to risking potentially becoming a victim to identity theft and similar crimes, you also risk getting infected by computer viruses each time you click on a banner, popup, box ad and each time you are redirected to another page. Most times, the ads you see don’t even answer to reality. Best case scenario, when clicking on a fake ad you will simply end up someplace offering something completely different. Worst case scenario, though – you can be redirected to a malicious website, which could instantaneously unleash some awful malware on your PC.
How does NavSmart infect computers?
There are several possible ways for you to get infected, the most common of which seems to be through program bundles. Some sneaky developers tend will bundle their software into a different program, naturally without disclosing this prior to you downloading the said program. Actually, you probably won’t even realize you downloaded the browser hijacker up until your browser gets bombarded with different ads. There’s an easy way to avoid this. When you download a given program like some freeware of shareware, for example, you will of course at some point need to install it in order to use it. When accessing the setup, always choose the custom or advanced setup option, because that way you will be able to see the additional software that has been bundled in. Furthermore, you will be able to untick the box or boxes beside it, preventing that software from being installed on your computer alongside the desired program. Most users tend to choose the easier default settings, which do not let you see any of this. Because they are ‘default’ (read: predetermined), all the settings are fixed and you yourself gave away your right to alter them. Hence, browser hijacker like NavSmart is able to be installed on your PC with your knowledge, but with your consent.
Threat | NavSmart |
Classification | Browser Hijacker |
Security Alert |
Medium |
Negative Effects | Numerous pop-ups, banners and page redirects throughout your browsing experience. |
NavSmart Chrome/Firefox Removal
Reveal Hidden Files. If you don’t know how to do this, ask us in the comments.
Press => Control Panel => Uninstall a program.
Locate the browser hijacker and any other suspicious looking programs and uninstall them.
Additional 2.1:
Sort the programs by Installed On.
Delete recent suspicious entries.
Additional 2.2:
In the search field type => msconfig => hit Enter.
Go to Startup and disable all entries with Unknown as Manufacturer.
=> Search=> Copy/Paste “notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts” => Enter.
If you notice other IPs different from the localhost IPs – you might be in danger!
Ask for additional help in the comments.
NavSmart Removal from Chrome
Click => More Tools => Extensions.
Locate the browser hijacker and remove it.
NavSmart Removal from Firefox
Click => Add-ons=> Extensions.
Locate the browser hijacker and delete it.
Removal from Internet Explorer
Press on => Manage Add-ons =>
Find the browser hijacker and remove it.
Right click on the Taskbar => Start Task Manager.
Navigate to Processes.
Locate any suspicious processes associated with NavSmart. Right click on the process = > Open File Location => End Process = > Delete the directories with the suspicious files.
=> Search => Type:
- %AppData%
- %LocalAppData%
- %ProgramData%
- %WinDir%
- %Temp%
Hit Enter after each new search. Check each Folder and delete recent entries.
If you run into any trouble – ask us for help in the comments section!