How to remove Hi.ru

What is Hi.ru

Hi.ru is a deceptive browser hijacker, that can display malicious ads and redirects to other harmful resources. According to its name, we can say, that it is a Russian website, however, it has touched foreign users as well. Likewise other unwanted applications, it was designed for fraudulent means. Hi.ru is meant for displaying online ads to generate views and redirects to ad providers. However, these advertisements can potentially contain unwanted redirects to a free file hosting pages, adware pop-ups, and other dangerous content. Hi.ru and other hijackers are known to have multiple backup domains. This way if their website gets banned due to user complaints or other violations, they can easily move to other mirror domains. In fact, Hi.ru diversifies your homepage by adding custom design and other allegedly useful features. It also changes browser settings, therefore setting up a better ground for hackers to gather your data like browsing history, passwords, downloads and other kinds of information that can be treated negatively. Besides that, the standard search engine is changed to Hi.ru, which is fake, because once you paste something in Hi.ru searching space, it will redirect you to a legitimate Yandex search. This is one of the testaments to the fact that Hi.ru does not bring any value and should be removed from your computer. Read the guide to find out how to do that.

How Hi.ru infected your computer

If you see Hi.ru as a default homepage at the start of the browser, then this might be caused by some unwanted program installed on your PC. Adware and other plug-ins are the most popular reasons for Hi.ru appearance that can infect your computer via bundling, ad clicks, and push notification abuse. This is why you should very cautious on the web filtering everything you visit and click while browsing. To illustrate, when inexperienced users download free software from unofficial pages, they are risking to pick up some other applications bundled in the kit along the way. Most users do not want to waste time reading “Terms of Use” sections thus frequently skipping “Advanced” or “Custom” regions where virus developers hide unwanted software like Hi.ru. It unintentionally gets installed on user’s computers due to careless behavior which can subsequently lead to deplorable implications like data loss. Luckily, the uninstallation of such software does not require any extraordinary skills and can be done by following simple steps down below.

Remove Hi.ru manually for free

Here is a manual step-by-step tutorial for full Hi.ru removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of the Hi.ru installer on operating systems with the latest updates and browser versions.

Note: Hi.ru can be installed as Google Chrome extension as Administrator (you may see Installed by enterprise policy inscription near it), and this will not allow removal. Therefore, before starting removal process, perform these actions:

1. Start the Command Prompt by clicking the Start menu button and typing command prompt (or just searching for “command prompt” in Windows 10 search field). Right click on the Command Prompt result and choose Run as Administrator.



2. Type in and execute the following commands:

   
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy"
gpupdate /force

Remove Hi.ru from Control Panel

To start removing Hi.ru you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names, but usually “Hi.ru”. It should uninstall correctly, however, we recommend you to use IObit Uninstaller to clean leftover items after uninstalling. Here are instructions for Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 or Mac.

Remove Hi.ru from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Hi.ru might have an Uninstaller.
3. Otherwise, drag Hi.ru from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Remove Hi.ru from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Hi.ru or other suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Hi.ru from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Hi.ru or other suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Hi.ru from Windows 8:

1. Hover mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner to see Menu.
2. Click Search.
3. After that click Apps.
4. Then Control Panel.
5. Click Uninstall a Program under Programs.
6. Find Hi.ru or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Hi.ru from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Hi.ru from Windows 10

Way one

1. Click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the System tile.
4. Click Apps & features and locate Hi.ru or other suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on it and then click Uninstall button near it.

Way two (classic)

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Programs and Features.
3. Locate Hi.ru or other suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Cannot uninstall Hi.ru

In some cases, Hi.ru won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Hi.ru. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Hi.ru folder and files. This happens because the process or service does not allow you to do it. In this case, I will recommend you to use SpyHunter 5 or Malwarebytes or uninstall Hi.ru in Safe Mode. To boot in Safe Mode do the following:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. While it starts booting press F8 button.
3. This will open Advanced Boot Options menu.
4. Choose Safe Mode and wait until Windows loads.
5. Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program and remove Hi.ru or other suspicious program

>> See detailed instructions and video tutorial on how to boot in Safe Mode

and for Mac:

If you can’t uninstall Hi.ru using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Hi.ru. Follow instructions below:

1. Download free AppCleaner.
2. Drag Hi.ru from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Hi.ru.
4. Click Delete button.

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Hi.ru from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has browser extensions and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Hi.ru related extensions from your browsers manually.

Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Click Extensions tab.
3. Find Hi.ru extension.
4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Hi.ru or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click the trash can icon to remove them.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
3. Choose Hi.ru or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.
5. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

Note: There is no feature to remove browser extensions from browser in latest version of Internet Explorer. To remove Hi.ru from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Hi.ru, please, do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu Manage Add-ons.
4. Select Toolbars and Extensions.
5. Click Disable Hi.ru or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Hi.ru does not install in Opera browser however you can always double check. Do the following:

1. Start Opera browser.
2. Go to Tools > Extensions > Manage Extensions.
3. Find Hi.ru or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Hi.ru installs a search engine that hijacks your browsers. Here is the instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

Reset Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Go to the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.
3. Click Remove All Website Data button.
4. In opened window click Remove Now button to remove data stored by websites in Safari.
5. Go to the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences.
6. Click the Show Develop menu in menu bar option.
7. In the menu click Develop and select Empty Caches from this menu.
8. Again, go to Safari menu and choose Clear History….
9. Choose to clear all history and click Clear History button.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. Scroll down and find Show advanced settings link.
4. Click on it and scroll down to the bottom again.
5. Click Reset browser settings button and click Reset to confirm.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:support.
3. Click Reset Firefox… button.
4. Click Reset Firefox to confirm.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu choose Internet options.
4. Click Advanced tab.
5. Click Reset button.
6. Choose Delete personal settings and click Reset.

Opera Browser:

1. Close Opera and open command prompt from the start menu.
2. Type following command del %AppData%\Opera\Opera\operaprefs.ini
3. Start Opera.

Alternative way to remove adware browser extensions and reset browser settings

For safe and effective browser extension removal use avast! Browser Cleanup utility. Run it with administrator privileges and remove all extensions with bad rating including related to Hi.ru. You can also reset your browser settings for each of your browsers: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox.