I wrote this article to help you remove 123.Sogou.com. This 123.Sogou.com removal guide works for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

123.Sogou.com is a search engine and entertainment portal of Chinese origin. The website includes a search provider and links to various platforms. There are news articles and promotional content on a wide array of topics. You can find information about television shows, movies, video games, holiday trips, and shopping deals. Whatever you are interested in, you will probably find information about it on 123.Sogou.com. You can visit the website to stay informed about the events across the globe, read your horoscope, check the weather forecast, get recommendations on where to shop, which shows to watch and which games to play. A lot of users get the impression that 123.Sogou.com is a convenient platform, but the presentation is just a masquerade. The domain is a host for a browser hijacker.

The insidious program can lead to a lot of damage. Although the hijacker does not directly harm the system, it is a pest. The main function of the 123.Sogou.com hijacker is to act as a mediator for third party advertisers. The rogue tool generates advertisements, containing promotional offers. The ads feature exclusive deals for miscellaneous consumer goods, including clothes, furniture, accessories, technological devices, decorative elements, sports gear, gardening equipment, and many others. The windows appear in different formats, like banners, coupon boxes, freebies, in-text links, transitional, interstitial, floating, contextual, inline, and comparison ads.

The pop-ups contain embedded links to supported websites. The people behind the 123.Sogou.com hijacker get paid for attracting users. This monetizing technique is called the pay-per-click system. Many advertising agents have based their business around this concept. The practice of conducting advertising campaigns to promote third party content is completely legal. However, it is subjected to certain rules and regulations. The developers of the 123.Sogou.com hijacker have not added security functions to their software. The covert program promotes the websites of all paying parties without running them through a security check. This makes the 123.Sogou.com hijacker a risky ad provider. Any of the pop-up windows could redirect you to corrupted websites and infect your computer with malware. Our advice is not to click on unconfirmed ads you see on random websites.

As cautious as you may be, the risk is still out there. The 123.Sogou.com hijacker does not limit the advertising activity to direct marketing. Rather, the shady tool employs underhanded techniques to manipulate the web browser into leading users to sponsored websites. This happens by changing its settings. The hijacker resets the homepage and default search provider to 123.Sogou.com. This gives the sinister program the ability to render the search results. The hijacker will insert supported pages amid the legitimate results to your queries. This is a seamless way of advertising, as you will not be able to tell which results are real and which are fake. It may be best to stop conducting keyword web searches until you have been able to uninstall the 123.Sogou.com hijacker from your system.

There is another threat we need to warn you about. The 123.Sogou.com hijacker infringes people’s privacy. The secluded program monitors users’ browsing sessions and collects information on them. The data it can gather on you includes your browsing history, tracking cookies, keystrokes, email, IP address, telephone number, geographic location, area code, demographic stats, physical registration, user names, passwords, and financial details. The owners of the malevolent program can trade your private input on darknet markets without acquiring your permission to do so. Your information could fall into the hands of cyber criminals.

To avoid malware from penetrating your machine, you need to enhance your protection. The initial measure is to filter your programs and emails. These are the sources for the 123.Sogou.com hijacker. The obscure software often hitches a ride with other applications. It gets offered as a bonus with the host program. You can choose to include it or opt out of it. The option can be found in the end user license agreement (EULA). We advise you to always get acquainted with the terms and conditions of the programs you add to your system. Avoid freeware and shareware, as they are the usual hosts for questionable tools. A spam email will carry the 123.Sogou.com hijacker in an attachment. The rogue program would get transferred to your system when you access the file. Make sure the messages you have received are legitimate. You can check by proofing the sender’s contacts.

123.Sogou.com Uninstall

Before starting the real removal process, you must reboot in Safe Mode. If you are familiar with this task, skip the instructions below and proceed to Step 2. If you do not know how to do it, here is how to reboot in Safe mode:

For Windows 98, XP, Millenium and 7:
Reboot your computer. When the first screen of information appears, start repeatedly pressing F8 key. Then choose Safe Mode With Networking from the options.

For Windows 8/8.1
Click the Start button, next click Control Panel —> System and Security —> Administrative Tools —> System Configuration.‌

Check the Safe Boot option and click OK. Click Restart when asked.
For Windows 10
Open the Start menu and click or tap on the Power button.

While keeping the Shift key pressed, click or tap on Restart.

Here are the steps you must follow to permanently remove from the browser:

Remove From Mozilla Firefox:

Open Firefox, click on top-right corner , click Add-ons, hit Extensions next.

Look for suspicious or unknown extensions, remove them all.

Remove From Chrome:

Open Chrome, click chrome menu icon at the top-right corner —>More Tools —> Extensions. There, identify the malware and select chrome-trash-icon(Remove).

Remove From Internet Explorer:
Open IE, then click IE gear icon on the top-right corner —> Manage Add-ons.

Find the malicious add-on. Remove it by pressing Disable.

Right click on the browser’s shortcut, then click Properties. Remove everything after the .exe” in the Target box.

Open Control Panel by holding the Win Key and R together. Write appwiz.cpl in the field, then click OK.

Here, find any program you had no intention to install and uninstall it.

Run the Task Manager by right clicking on the Taskbar and choosing Start Task Manager.

Look carefully at the file names and descriptions of the running processes. If you find any suspicious one, search on Google for its name, or contact me directly to identify it. If you find a malware process, right-click on it and choose End task.

Open MS Config by holding the Win Key and R together. Type msconfig and hit Enter.

Go in the Startup tab and Uncheck entries that have “Unknown” as Manufacturer.

Still can not remove 123.Sogou.com from your browser? Please, leave a comment below, describing what steps you performed. I will answer promptly.