Mediatab.club browser hijacker (virus) - Free Guide

What is Mediatab.club browser hijacker?

Mediatab.club can cause unexpected activities on your web browser

Homepage and new tab is altered

Mediatab.club is a web address that shows up on your Google Chrome browser as soon as you install Media Tab (which is classified as a browser hijacker) extension on it. While you could have installed the app from Chrome Web Store, you could also find it installed seemingly out of nowhere – this happens due to inattentive installation of bundled software packages.

While this extension is not malicious like, for example, a Trojan would be, it is important to note that it does influence the way you browse the web quite a bit. It alters your homepage and new tab address, making it impossible to get rid of unless the extension is disabled or uninstalled.

There are few other aspects that you should know about the hijacker:

• Upon installation, it warns users that it can read and change all the data on all mediatab.club sites. This can be practically concerning, as everything you type within the mentioned page will be transferred to a third party. While this functionality is legitimate and used by many apps, it can also be used for data tracking purposes.
  Request to read and alter all data on visited pages
• Once installed, it creates several entries within Google's %AppData% folder and places several files there. It also modifies registry entry “extensions.settings” within the Chrome section.
• It changes your default search provider. Even if you had Google.com as your provider before, all your searches would be redirected to Yahoo. Besides, the top area of the search results will be filled with sponsored links and ads that lead to predetermined websites, increasing the revenue for the app developers based on a pay-per-click scheme.^[1] Media Tab redirects all search results to Yahoo and fills them with sponsored links

It is also important to note that Media Tab provides Privacy Policy. While many people are not keen on reading the wall of text presented in these documents, it can often disclose information relevant to your privacy online. For example, it is stated that the extension can gather technical details of the device and the browser, data about visited websites, links clicked, timestamps, and more.

Also, some personal information might be collected in the process, as long as you agree to provide it to the developer. Data sharing can also cause concern, although personal information is not shared or sold with third parties. Nonetheless, you can see that non-PII is indeed shared freely:^[2]

We do and may share non-personally identifiable information about your use of the Site and Product with our partners and some service providers, in order to provide the services, facilitate them, measure their performance, optimize, improve, monetize and so forth.

According to Privacy Policy, anonymous information is gathered and shared with third-parties

To track users, the extension uses cookies, web beacons^[3], and other technologies. These can and should later be eliminated from your browser; otherwise, the tracking by the developer and all the third parties that the data was shared with can continue even after Mediatab.club removal.

Speaking of which, if you want a clean uninstall of the hijacker, proceed with the next section. You can remove Media Tab easily – by accessing your browser's settings. However, since the PUP changes some registry entries and inserts its files into certain folders on the system, you might as well scan your machine with anti-malware.

Uninstall Media Tab from your device and check it for malware

First and foremost, we would recommend performing a scan with anti-malware software, especially if you have found this or another program on your system without directly installing it. This is also very relevant if you tend to visit less secure websites or download cracked apps from torrent and similar sites.

Therefore, download SpyHunter 5Combo Cleaner or another reputable anti-malware and perform a full system scan. If you don't want a third-party program, you don't have to get it – Microsoft Defender Offline scan can be particularly useful when dealing with invisible malware. It might not be able to remove the hijacker for you, however, so we recommend a third-party option for that.

In order to eliminate the extension from Chrome manually, proceed with these steps:

• Click on three vertical dots at the top-right-corner of the window.
• Go to More tools > Extensions.
• Here, you will find the list of extensions.
• Find Media Tab – you can either Disable it by moving the switch to the left (you can then re-enable it later if you would like to) or get rid of permanently by pressing Remove.

It is important to note that while this action will stop the unwanted activities on your web browsers – such as redirects to a different search provider or homepage changes – it will not stop the tracking activities. To prevent third parties from tracking you, you should clear web data as explained below:

• Click on Menu and pick Settings.
• Under Privacy and security, select Clear browsing data.
• Select Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, as well as Cached images and files.
• Click Clear data

In order to remove all the files related to Chrome extensions within the Google folder, you should navigate to the following location and delete all the contents:

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions

Delete leftover files from Windows

Finally, if you encounter some difficulties when trying to eliminate this or another annoying extension, you might want to reset your browser altogether:

• Click on Menu and select Settings.
• In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
• Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
• Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
• Confirm with Reset settings.

Bonus read: extra steps for security and better usability

Finally, if you have found out that malware was indeed residing on your system, it could have damaged your Windows system components. As a result, you might experience crashes, errors, and other stability issues. If that is the case, we recommend using a PC repair tool FortectIntego to avoid the OS reinstallation process.

Besides, it can also clean your web browsers automatically, so you don't have to do all the above-mentioned steps yourself – it is also a great investment for the future, as it can greatly save you time. Remember, this app is not a replacement for anti-malware solutions but is a great complementary tool that can fix virus damage, protect your privacy, clean junk, and fix common Windows issues such as BSODs, DLL errors, etc.

The extension can be downloaded from Chrome store