How to remove Startup Maximizer (Virus Removal Guide)
Startup Maximizer removal guide contains instructions to remove Startup Maximizer, viruses, malware, and other threats from your PC and stay protected from future infections.
Startup Maximizer Removal, Symptoms, & Help Guide
Startup Maximizer by Solid Tech is promoted as a program that can help you fix a slow and lagging computer. The program claims to disable unnecessary startup programs, maintain your hard drives, and clean your browser history and cache. However, Startup Maximizer is recognized by various computer security products as a potentially unwanted program (PUP). The threat detection for this program is PUP.OptionalStartupMaximizer.
Once Startup Maximizer is installed it will begin to scan your computer for registry entries to clean and optimize, temporary registry values to clean, temporary internet files and folders to clean, visited web pages and cookies available for removal, logs of conversations in Skype, yahoo, and more, junk files to clean, invalid shortcuts to remove, performance and optimization settings, programs loaded at startup, and security issues to check.
Once the Startup Maximizer scan is complete it will state that a large amount of disk space and be cleaned and optimized and will provide you with a Fix Now button. If you click the Fix Now button a pop-up message will appear that says you must register Startup Maximizer to actually use it. In order to register the program you must purchase a subscription.
The Startup Maximizer program typically bundles with or is promoted by other programs and files that are downloaded from a questionable source. Downloading objects online including freeware and torrent files can result in potentially unwanted programs infecting the user’s system. Even if a program is well known and trustworthy, if you download it from a malicious site it can lead to a computer infection.
If the computer user has previously downloaded a malicious program, Startup Maximizer might have automatically downloaded in the background without permission. The user might also be tricked into accepting the download under the guise of a program update or something else. Malicious publishers sometimes hide the download behind a terms and conditions page, effectively tricking users into downloading unwanted software and files. In some cases Startup Maximizer may be advertised as an extension to improve the user’s browsing experience in order to encourage a direct download or a necessary update for your media player, browser, or computer system. Regardless of how the system was infected, removal remains relatively unchanged.
Symptoms
- Advertisements in your web browser and Windows desktop
- Pop-up notifications on Windows Desktop
- Modified browser homepage, shortcut, new tab page, and default search engine
- Slow and sluggish computer
- Decreased internet speed and browser performance
Startup Maximizer (Virus Removal Guide)
Follow each step in this Startup Maximizer removal guide to remove Startup Maximizer and other threats from your computer.
1. Remove PUP.OptionalStartupMaximizer with Malwarebytes
1. Download and Install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software.
2. Open Malwarebytes and click the Scan Now button – or go to the Scan tab and click the Start Scan button.
3. When the Malwarebytes scan is complete click the Remove Selected button.
4. To finish the Malwarebytes scan and remove detected threats click the Finish button and restart your computer if promoted to do so.
2. Perform a second-opinon scan with HitmanPro
1. Download and Install HitmanPro by Surfright.
2. Open HitmanPro and click Next to start scanning your computer. *If you are using the free version you may chose to create a copy or perform a one-time scan.
3. Once the HitmanPro scan is complete click the Next button.
4. To activate the free version of HitmanPro: enter your email address twice and click the Activate button.
5. Click the Reboot button.
3. Uninstall Startup Maximizer and other unwanted programs from Windows
1. Open Windows Start Menu and go to the Control Panel.
2. In the Programs section click Uninstall a program. In earlier versions of Windows this is listed as “Add and remove programs.”
3. Search for Startup Maximizer in the list of installed programs and double click it to initiate the manual uninstall process.
4. A message will appear that says “Are you sure you want t completely remove Startup Maximizer and all of its components.” Click Yes.
5. Once you have uninstalled the program, search for other unwanted programs that may be installed on your computer and uninstall them as well.
4. Remove unwanted add-ons and extensions
Google Chrome
1. Click the Customize and control Google Chrome icon and go to More tools > Extensions.
2. Search for the unwanted extension in the list and click the trashcan icon.
Mozilla Firefox
1. Open the Menu and click Add-ons.
2. Search for the unwanted add-on and click Remove.
Microsoft Internet Explorer
1. Go to Tools (Alt+X) and click Manage add-ons.
2. Search for the unwanted add-on in the list, select it with your mouse, and click Remove.
Apple Safari
1. Go to Safari > Preferences > Extensions.
2. Search for the unwanted extension in the list and click the Uninstall button.
5. Cleanup and repair settings with CCleaner
1. Download and Install CCleaner by Piriform.
2. Open CCleaner and go to the main Cleaner screen. Click the Analyze button. When the process is complete, click the Run Cleaner button on the bottom right of the program interface.
3. Go to Tools > Startup and search for suspicious entries in each tab starting from Windows all the way to Content Menu. If you find anything suspicious click it and click the Delete button to remove it.
4. Go to the Registry window and click the Scan for Issues button. When the scan is complete click the Fix selected issues… button and click Fix All Selected Issues.
How to stay protected against future infections
The key to staying protected against future infections is to follow common online guidelines and take advantage of reputable Antivirus and Anti-Malware security software with real-time protection.
Real-time security software
Security software like Malwarebytes and Norton Security have real-time features that can block malicious files before they spread across your computer. These programs bundled together can establish a wall between your computer and cyber criminals.
Common Online Guidelines
- Backup your computer and personal files to an external drive or online backup service
- Create a restore point on your computer in case you need to restore your computer to a date before infection
- Avoid downloading and installing apps, browser extensions, and programs you are not familiar with
- Avoid downloading and installing apps, browser extensions, and programs from websites you are not familiar with – some websites use their own download manager to bundle additional programs with the initial download
- If you plan to download and install freeware, open source software, or shareware make sure to be alert when you install the object and read all the instructions presented by the download manager
- Avoid torrents and P2P clients
- Do not open email messages from senders you do not know