What is Cursor Mania? And how does it function?

Cursor Mania, also called, “CursorMania”, is a program developed by Mindspark Interactive. It is presented as a toolbar that allows users to change the icon of their mouse cursors. This might seem like an interesting and fun feature as it transforms the usual boring mouse cursor into various icons like icons of animals, objects, and so on. This shady program has been active for over a decade now but its distribution from its official site stopped way back in 2013. Even so, it is still being actively distributed in software bundles found on free sharing sites.
Upon the installation of Cursor Mania, its developers also offer additional “features” such as:
“Also includes smileys, ecards, screensavers, skins, avatars, the MyWebSearch search box and Search Assistant – relevant search results in response to misspelled or incorrectly formatted browser address requests.”
As you can tell on the statement from the developers of this program, the instant you install it, it will change the settings of your browsers. This involves the modification of the default homepage and search provider into “Search Assistant” and “MyWeSearch”, respectively. This is why not only Cursor Mania is classified as an adware and PUP but also a browser hijacker. So no matter how fun this program can be, it does not change the fact that using it could bring some potential issues to your computer. To put it simply, the interesting cursors are simply not worth risking your computer over.
How is Cursor Mania distributed online?
As mentioned, Cursor Mania used to be distributed on its official site. However, it’s no longer available on that site but it doesn’t mean that its distribution really stopped as its developers resorted to adding it as one of the optional programs included in a software bundle found on free sharing sites. So even if you didn’t install this program, you could still end up installing it on your computer unknowingly when you install software bundles. To prevent that from happening, you have to opt for the recommended Custom or Advanced setup every time you install this kind of software package.
Use the following instructions to uninstall Cursor Mania from your computer successfully.
Step 1: Start by opening the Task Manager by simply pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys.
Step 2: Next, go to Processes and look for the processes named “Cursor Mania” and then right click on each one of them and select End Process or End Task to kill their processes.

Step 3: Then open the Control Panel. To do so, tap the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then click OK or press Enter.

Step 4: Look for Amazon Web Service or Cursor Mania and any suspicious program and then Uninstall them.

Step 5: Close all the browsers affected by Cursor Mania. If you’re having a hard time closing them, you can close them using the Task Manager just tap on Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
Step 6: After you open the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for the infected browser’s process and end it.
Step 7: Edit your Hosts File

• Tap the Win + R keys to open then type in %WinDir% and then click OK.
• Go to System32/drivers/etc.
• Open the hosts file using Notepad.
• Delete all the entries containing Cursor Mania.
• After that, save the changes you’ve made and close the file.

Step 8: Reset all your browsers to default to their default state.
Google Chrome

1. Launch Google Chrome, press Alt + F, move to More tools, and click Extensions.
2. Look for the extensions, “MyWebSearch” or “Search Assistant” or any other unwanted add-ons, click the Recycle Bin button, and choose Remove.
3. Restart Google Chrome, then tap Alt + F, and select Settings.
4. Navigate to the On Startup section at the bottom.
5. Select “Open a specific page or set of pages”.
6. Click the More actions button next to the hijacker and click Remove.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the browser and tap Ctrl + Shift + A to access the Add-ons Manager.
2. In the Extensions menu Remove the unwanted extension.
3. Restart the browser and tap keys Alt + T.
4. Select Options and then move to the General menu.
5. Overwrite the URL in the Home Page section and then restart the browser.

Internet Explorer

1. Launch Internet Explorer.
2. Tap Alt + T and select Internet options.
3. Click the General tab and then overwrite the URL under the homepage section.
4. Click OK to save the changes.

Step 9: Hold down Windows + E keys simultaneously to open File Explorer.
Step 10: Navigate to the following directories and look for suspicious files associated to Cursor Mania and delete it/them.

• %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
• %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
• %TEMP%

Step 11: Close the File Explorer.
Step 12: Empty the Recycle Bin.
Follow the advanced instructions below to ensure the removal of Cursor Mania using [product-name] as well as all the file residues it left behind.
Perform a full system scan using [product-code]. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot
2. After that, the BIOS screen will be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.

3. To navigate the Advanced Option use the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
4. Windows will now load the Safe Mode with Networking.
5. Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

6. If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
7. Type in the URL address, [product-url] in the Run dialog box and then tap Enter or click OK.
8. After that, it will download the program. Wait for the download to finish and then open the launcher to install the program.
9. Once the installation process is completed, run [product-code] to perform a full system scan.
10. After the scan is completed click the “Fix, Clean & Optimize Now”button.