WhiteClick
The WhiteClick software may be presented to Web surfers on a site that is aimed at Russian-speaking visitors. The WhiteClick software is known to support only Russian for its interface, and it may come in a freeware bundle that includes browser plugins, browser extensions, radio and media players, which you may not want to install. The WhiteClick is advertised to add a quick menu to the Windows Taskbar and enable advanced search features. The WhiteClick program might manifest as a magnifying glass icon next to the Windows start logo and open a small window with quick shortcuts to services like VKontakte (Russia's alternative to Facebook), Odnoklasniki (social platform for classmates) and Mail.ru (Russia's alternative to Gmail).
WhiteClick is a malware application that acts primarily as an adware and data-tracking parasite. It used to have its own domain and download link on it, which seems to have disappeared now. WhiteClick can still be hiding in bundle installers and free software packages. The text WhiteClick uses to advertise itself is that it is a "convenient program for quick Internet searches", where you no longer need to launch a browser to search. Of course, it does a few extra things it never discloses.
The majority of the search and social connection features enabled in WhiteClick may not be attractive to Web users who are not speaking Russian on an everyday basis. The WhiteClick program is observed to change the Internet settings in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Mozilla Firefox so that the users are redirected to the Ukrainian version of Google.com (https://www.google.com.ua/) at the start. The WhiteClick widget is not customizable as of writing this article and does not support International languages. Also, the WhiteClick application may lock access to the start page settings in your browser and load pop-up windows with recommended content. WhiteClick is deemed as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) that you may want to remove with the help of a credible security instrument.
Once installed, WhiteClick creates a new search box in your Windows taskbar. The search box supposedly makes searches faster, because you don't need to launch a browser to search. Naturally, once you hit Enter to send your query, your browser will need to load up all the same. However, a few more things happen alongside with that. The results page you get when you use the WhiteClick search box will likely contain injected ads and generate more ad popups on click. Your search query will also be collected by the entity behind WhiteClick, stored and potentially resold to third parties.
Removing WhiteClick
Luckily, removing WhiteClick is not much of an issue. The program creates its own entry in the system's list of installed software and usually a simple uninstallation solves the issue. To uninstall WhiteClick, you first need to navigate to your Windows Control Panel. Getting there is a little different depending on the version of Windows you are using.
On Windows 10, do the following:
- Click the Start menu button
- With the Start menu open, type "control panel" and click the icon that comes up
- In the Control Panel window, click on "Programs and Features"
- Find WhiteClick in the list of installed programs
- Right click it, select "Uninstall" and proceed through the prompts
On Windows 7, do the following:
- Click the Start menu button
- Click on Control Panel in the right side of the Start menu
- In the Control Panel window, click on "Programs and Features"
- Find WhiteClick in the list of installed programs
- Right click it, select "Uninstall" and proceed through the prompts
Going through those steps should result in a clean Windows taskbar with no extra search boxes. Now your system should be free of WhiteClick. As a final precaution, you could also double-check your browser's default search engine and home page, in case some version of WhiteClick has modified those as well, but this is usually not the case.
