ConvertDocsOnline is a Browser Extension for Google Chrome developed by Mindspark Inc. This extension offers users a quick and easy way to convert documents without any additional applications installed on their computer, it also has quick access links to popular websites that the average user might find interesting. While all this may look appealing and nice, this extension injects itself into your browser.
While installed, ConvertDocsOnline will monitor your browsing activity and record visited websites, clicked links, downloads, and even viewed products. All this information is later used/sold to Mindsparks Ad network to better serve user-targeted ads.
Browsing the internet with this extension installed will result in ad placement throughout your browsing sessions. These ads might appear as normal links (sponsored content), ad links, or even pop-up ads.
ConvertDocsOnline has been marked as a Browser Hijacker by several Anti-Virus scanners and is therefore recommended for optional removal from your PC.
About Browser Hijackers
Browser hijackers (sometimes referred to as hijackware) are a type of malware that changes web browser settings without the user’s knowledge or permission. These types of hijacks are increasing at an alarming rate around the globe, and they can be truly nefarious and sometimes dangerous too. There are plenty of reasons why you may have a browser hijack; however commercial, marketing, and advertising are definitely the primary reasons for their creation. In most cases, browser hijacking is used for earning advertising revenue that comes from forced ad mouse clicks and site visits. It might appear naive, but the majority of these sites are not legitimate and may pose a significant threat to your online safety. In a much worst case, your internet browser could be hijacked to download malicious software that can do a lot of damage to your PC.
Symptoms of browser hijacker malware
Symptoms that a web browser is a hi-jacked include:
1. the browser’s homepage is modified
2. your internet browser is constantly being redirected to adult websites
3. the default online search engine and/or the default browser settings are altered
4. you see many toolbars in your internet browser
5. you might find endless pop-up adverts on your computer screen
6. your web browser gets slow, buggy crashes very often
7. you can’t navigate to certain web pages, such as computer security software-related websites.
How they infect computer systems
Browser hijackers can enter a PC in some way or other, for example via downloads, file sharing, and e-mail also. Many browser hijackings come from add-on software, i.e., toolbars, browser helper objects (BHO), or plug-ins added to browsers to give them extra functionality. Browser hijackers sneak to your computer in addition to free software downloads also that you unwittingly install alongside the original. Examples of popular browser hijackers are Fireball, CoolWebSearch. GoSave, Ask Toolbar, RocketTab, and Babylon Toolbar.
The existence of any browser hijacker on your computer could drastically diminish the web browsing experience, record your internet activities that lead to critical privacy issues, degrade overall computer efficiency, and result in application instability also.
Removing browser hijackers
Certain hijackers could be removed by simply uninstalling the related freeware or add-ons from the Add or Remove Programs in the Windows control panel. But, many hijacking codes are certainly not very easy to get rid of manually, since they go deeper into your operating system. Beginner PC users should not try for the manual form of removal methods, as it calls for thorough system knowledge to perform fixes on the system registry and HOSTS file.
Browser hijackers can be effectively removed by installing and running anti-malware software on the affected PC. To get rid of any browser hijacker from your laptop or computer, you should download this particular certified malware removal application – SafeBytes Anti-Malware. Along with the antivirus tool, a system optimizer, like SafeBytes’s Total System Care, will help you in getting rid of all related files and modifications in the computer registry automatically.
Virus Blocking Access To Safebytes Website And Preventing Anti-Malware Downloads - What You Should Do?
All malware is bad and the level of the damage will vary greatly in accordance with the type of infection. Some malware types modify browser settings by including a proxy server or modify the PC’s DNS configuration settings. In such cases, you’ll be unable to visit some or all of the websites, and thus unable to download or install the necessary security software to remove the malware. If you are reading this now, you may have probably realized that a malware infection is the cause of your blocked net traffic. So how to proceed when you want to install antivirus software such as Safebytes? Do as instructed below to remove malware through alternate ways.
Get rid of viruses in Safe Mode
The Windows operating system includes a special mode known as “Safe Mode” where just the bare minimum required programs and services are loaded. If the malicious software is set to load immediately when PC boots, switching into this particular mode can prevent it from doing so. In order to enter into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking, press the F8 key while the PC is starting up or run MSConfig and look for the “Safe Boot” options under the “Boot” tab. Once you are in safe mode, you can try to download and install your antivirus software application without the hindrance of the malware. Now, you can actually run the antivirus scan to eliminate computer viruses and malware without hindrance from another malicious application.
Switch to an alternate internet browser
Some malware only targets certain internet browsers. If this is your situation, make use of another internet browser as it can circumvent the malware. If you’re not able to download the anti-virus program using Internet Explorer, this means the virus could be targeting IE’s vulnerabilities. Here, you need to switch to a different internet browser like Firefox or Chrome to download the Safebytes Anti-malware program.
Install antivirus on a USB drive
Another option would be to make a portable anti-malware program on your USB stick. Adopt these measures to run the anti-malware on the infected PC.
1) On a clean PC, download and install Safebytes Anti-Malware.
2) Plug the pen drive into the clean PC.
3) Double click on the downloaded file to open the installation wizard.
4) When asked, choose the location of the pen drive as the place where you would like to store the software files. Follow the instructions on the computer screen to finish up the installation process.
5) Now, transfer the thumb drive to the infected PC.
6) Double-click the anti-malware program EXE file on the pen drive.
7) Run Full System Scan to detect and clean-up up all kinds of malware.
Review of SafeBytes Anti-Malware
If you are planning to purchase anti-malware for your desktop, there are plenty of brands and utilities for you to consider. Some are good ones, some are decent, while some are simply just bogus anti-malware applications that can ruin your personal computer themselves! You have to pick a tool that has got a good reputation and detects not only computer viruses but other sorts of malware also. When thinking about trustworthy programs, Safebytes Anti-Malware is certainly the strongly recommended one.
Safebytes is one of the well-established PC solutions companies, which provide this all-inclusive anti-malware software. Using its cutting-edge technology, this application will assist you to get rid of multiples types of malware including computer viruses, trojans, PUPs, worms, ransomware, adware, and browser hijackers.
SafeBytes anti-malware takes computer protection to a whole new level with its advanced features. These are some of the highlighted features included in the tool.
Real-time Active Protection: SafeBytes gives real-time active monitoring and protection against all known viruses and malware. It’ll monitor your PC for suspicious activity continuously and safeguards your PC from illegal access.
Robust, Anti-malware Protection: Built upon a highly acclaimed anti-virus engine, this malware removal tool has the capacity to find and get rid of several stubborn malware threats such as browser hijackers, PUPs, and ransomware that other typical antivirus applications will miss.
Extremely Speed Scanning: SafeBytes Anti-Malware has got a multi-thread scan algorithm that works up to 5 times faster than any other anti-malware software.
Web Protection: Through its unique safety score, SafeBytes informs you whether a site is safe or not to access it. This will make sure that you’re always certain of your safety when browsing the world wide web.
Light-weight: SafeBytes is really a lightweight tool. It uses up an extremely small amount of processing power as it operates in the background so you’re free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want.
24/7 Assistance: Support service is available 24 x 7 x 365 days through chat and email to answer your concerns.
SafeBytes can keep your personal computer protected from most advanced malware threats automatically, thus keeping your online experience secure and safe. Malware issues will become a thing of the past once you put this software program to use. You’ll get the best all-around protection for the money you spend on SafeBytes AntiMalware subscription, there is no doubt about it.
Technical Details and Manual Removal (Advanced Users)
To eliminate ConvertDocsOnline manually, go to the Add/Remove programs list in the Control Panel and choose the program you want to get rid of. For internet browser extensions, go to your web browser’s Addon/Extension manager and select the add-on you intend to remove or disable. You might also want to reset your home page and search engine providers, as well as delete browsing history, temporary files, and internet cookies.
In order to ensure the complete removal, manually check your hard drive and Windows registry for all of the following and remove or reset the values as needed. But bear in mind, this can be a tricky task and only computer professionals could carry it out safely. Furthermore, certain malicious programs are capable to defend against its removal. It is advised that you carry out the removal process in Safe Mode.
Files:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ConvertDocsOnlineTooltab
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Extension Settings\pebplbnpogfdllkijjlabbjbbngdadjl
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Extension Settings\pebplbnpogfdllkijjlabbjbbngdadjl
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\pebplbnpogfdllkijjlabbjbbngdadjl
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\pebplbnpogfdllkijjlabbjbbngdadjl
Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Google\Chrome\PreferenceMACs\Default\extensions.settings, value: pebplbnpogfdllkijjlabbjbbngdadjl
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMStorage\convertdocsonline.dl.myway.com
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMStorage\convertdocsonline.dl.tb.ask.com
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ConvertDocsOnline
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ConvertDocsOnline
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..Uninstaller
ConvertDocsOnlineTooltab Uninstall Internet Explorer
Coursera was one of the pioneers when it comes to college education online. When it started all courses were free and offered certificates if the taker has done tasks with a passing grade. Today not everything is free but still, there are tons of free courses that can help you to learn something new and to advance in your work or hobby.
Google is using the Coursera platform to deliver its courses to the audience and besides google a lot of academic professors from Princeton, Stanford, John Hopkins and many more are presently offering their course material.
edX has evolved from MITx, MIT’s free initiative to place some free academic lectures from its classrooms free into the world. Since it was rebranded into edX it started including other big university names like Berkeley, University of Texas System, Harvard, and many more.
Since its infant days, edX has expanded and included many areas that it offers coursework from arts to science. Certificated today are mostly not free but course videos are, so if you care to learn and not wave certificates around this is a great place to do it.
Udemy has a little different approach to course material than previously mentioned websites. Teachers on Udemy are mostly people that are working in a given field. Programmers will teach programming, fitness instructors will teach training, etc.
There are vas variety of topics even on lifestyle, hobbies even gaming to more serious ones like software developing hardware, etc.
There are free courses but mostly are one-time purchases with unlimited access to course material and with frequent discounts udemy might be a good place to look if you can find anything interesting.
Alison is kind of Udemy if we are talking about course material and who is teaching, the difference however is that it has more free content and it is one of the rare websites on this list that has Language courses.
Courses vary from beginner level to more advanced ones.
Udacity was also one of the earlier websites to offer free courses, in today’s world it still has free material but there is also paying one.
The big difference from other competitors is that Udacity focuses mostly on programming, data science, and web development and it is very strong in this field. There are no courses about art. Music or similar, mostly IT stuff is covered here.
If this is something that interests you, make a free account and give it a go.
Codecademy is a website mainly focused on teaching you how to code. Pro plan is there but there are a lot of basic and free courses on the mentioned subject.
The curriculum is really wide covering Python, R, Java, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, C#, C++, Swift, PHP, HTML, CSS and more so I am sure that if you are interested in coding this would be a pretty good place to find things.
Besides pure language coding courses site offers also, Cybersecurity, Web design, Data science, web development, Game Development, Mobile Development, and many more courses on provided subjects.
Academic Earth has been built with one simple premise: Everyone deserves access to education.
Lead by this kind of mindset on Academic Earth you will find well, academic courses similar to ones found on edX and Coursera, but from mentioned sites here all courses are free and you will find only academic ones, there are no entrepreneur or expert courses here, just pure academic ones.
If you wish to see and learn something the way it is taught in Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, etc this is the place for you.
Khan academy is completely free and it is offering courses matching certain grades for children. It is offering courses for all 8 years of elementary school, math courses for high school and college with some coursework on topics like science, arts & humanities, reading, life skills, etc.
Despite not being on the same level as some university courses presented on other mentioned websites Khan Academy is a good place to learn a lot of basic skills that you could build upon later.
So far I believe each person on this planet has at least heard of Marvel superhero movies, perhaps even watched a few of them, and no wonder. Movies are spawning now over 20 titles and they are not really released as events described in them.
Throw into mix TV series and you can get confused pretty fast. Now it was officially stated that all TV series that were released before Wanda vision is no canon in Marvel cinematic universe which simplify thing a little but there are still series that are.
