How to Get Rid of Hitcpm.com (Adware/PUP)

What is Hitcpm.com? And how does it work?

Hitcpm.com is a domain used by an ad-supported program that redirects users to its suspicious affiliated third party sites. Once this adware program infiltrates your computer system, it will alter your browser’s settings so it can start browser redirects whenever you browse the internet. The browser settings it changes are the default home page, new tab page, and the search provider. The next time you use your browser, you will be redirected to www.hitcpm.com/watch?key= which will once again reroute you to other promotional sites.
You can barely tell if this program is installed in your computer but one of the telltale signs that are hard to miss is its ability to deliver an excessive number of ads that will eventually diminish your browsing experience as some of them can get pretty intrusive and will pop up out of nowhere while you browse the internet. Some of these ads could also redirect you to highly suspicious pages that might try to get your personal information, i.e. a website that’s forcing you to answer a survey and will ask for your personal information. In addition, Hitcpm.com could also spy on your online activities so it can gather anonymous data from your computers such as its IP address, OS version, browsing history, search queries and many others. The gathered data is processed and may even be shared with its third party affiliates to produce more customized and targeted ads to increase its pay-per-click revenue.
How is Hitcpm.com distributed over the web?
Hitcpm.com is distributed as an extra component in a software bundle along with other free and potentially unwanted programs. These software bundles are often found on sites that offer cracks to software. So if you often install these kinds of packages, you might end up having more unwanted programs than you could handle. Make sure that when you install software bundles you use the recommended setting which is the Custom or Advanced and not the standard one.
For you to get rid of this pesky adware, you need to follow the given removal instructions below carefully.
Step 1: Close all the browsers affected by Hitcpm.com. If you’re having a hard time closing them, you can close them using the Task Manager just tap on Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
Step 2: After you open the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for the infected browser’s process and end it.
Step 3: Reset all your browsers to default to their default state.
Internet Explorer

Open Internet Explorer.
Tap Alt + T and select Internet options.
Click the General tab and then overwrite the URL under the homepage section.
Click OK to save the changes.
Now switch to the Advanced tab and click the Reset button.
Then check the box for “Delete personal settings” and then click Reset again.

Google Chrome

Launch Google Chrome, press Alt + F, move to More tools, and click Extensions.
Look for Hitcpm.com or any other unwanted add-ons, click the Recycle Bin button, and choose Remove.
Restart Google Chrome, then tap Alt + F, and select Settings.
Navigate to the On Startup section at the bottom.
Click on Advanced.
After that, click the Reset button to reset Google Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox

Open the browser and tap Ctrl + Shift + A to access the Add-ons Manager.
In the Extensions menu Remove the unwanted extension.
Restart the browser and tap keys Alt + T.
Select Options and then move to the General menu.
Overwrite the URL in the Home Page section.
Tap Alt + H to access Help.
Next, select “Troubleshooting information” and click “Refresh Firefox” at the top of the page.
Now click “Refresh Firefox” again to confirm the reset.

Step 4: Open Control Panel by pressing the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then click OK or press Enter.

Step 5: Look for any suspicious program that is affiliated with Hitcpm.com and then Uninstall it.

Step 6: Hold down Windows + E keys simultaneously to open File Explorer.
Step 7: Navigate to the following directories and look for suspicious files associated with Hitcpm.com and delete it/them.

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

Step 8: Close the File Explorer.
Step 9: Empty your Recycle Bin.
To make sure that nothing is amiss and that Hitcpm.com is completely removed from your computer, follow the advanced steps below.
Perform a full system scan using SpyRemover Pro. To do so, follow these steps:

Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot
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.

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

If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
Type in explorer http://www.fixmypcfree.com/install/spyremoverpro

A single space must be in between explorer and http. Click OK.

A dialog box will be displayed by Internet Explorer. Click Run to begin downloading the program. The installation will start automatically once a download is done.