Conduit Search is perhaps one of the most annoying viruses/spyware you can get on your PC. It changes the home page and default search engine on your main browser to Conduit search. It's incredibly difficult to remove if you don't know exactly how to do it, and multiple files need to be removed. You can use Advanced Systemcare or a similar program to block unapproved changes to your home pages, which is always nice. Still, Conduit finds its way onto millions of computers through malicious programs and other means. If you see Conduit pop up as your home page or search engine, then follow a very detailed guide on how to remove it or you'll be stuck with it...forever.
I hate the Conduit company so much. They are on Checkpoints and Swagbucks toolbar. I put those on my crappy laptop so I don't ruin anything but I don't understand why legitimate companies have you download toolbars that are unsafe.
I have deleted Conduit so many times for it to come right back. It is hard to remove, I can't use Explorer on my computer for the pop ups that Conduit lets through. I have a blocker on Firefox but they still get through. In fact I clicked on a picture that took me to a porn site, the virus checker didn't see that one.
There are tons and tons of programs or files that can keep Conduit on your machine until it drives you crazy. I still think I have a couple of them on my computer, but it only affects Chrome. Plus, my security software prevents that home page from being changed to anything but Google's home page, so even I haven't fully rid myself of it.
Even if you regain control of your home page in your browsers, that does not mean the Conduit crap was completely removed from your system, which is why it may come back so easily. It could still be redirecting all of your browser traffic through it's own servers to gather data on your surfing habits. As the original poster noted, you would need to follow the detailed instructions to completely remove it from your system. As an extra layer of protection, you should consider running plugins such as AdBlock, and Disconnect, and Ghostery - as well as disabling Flash by default and telling Chrome that it needs to be confirmed by you first before it runs. This just simply means you need to click one more time on the Flash animation before it launches, but it prevents all other Flash on the page (such as ads) from loading at all. Lastly, programs such as Spybot S&D have an "immunize" feature which will update your Hosts file to block connections to known malicious domains in the first place.
Better believe it is. Almost got it on my computer a few times, but since I'm trained in the art of unticking checkboxes I've been able to avoid it. I'm not going to lie though, getting it off other computers is quite the feat. Never have I met a piece of software as resilient as this one. I have no idea why someone would want to make this, nevermind why large companies would package it with their software. It certainly isn't going to make anyone want to use it.
Conduit is a malware and it usually hijacks your browsers. Just scan the computer with malwarebytes and it should take care of the conduit issues. Also you have to uninstall some programs in the control panel to make sure there are no other software installed in the computer that is related to Conduit. It's really annoying, i've had that issue before. I also did something on the registry to delete everything related to that malware.
