Astromenda is an application designed to organize your browser by changing your home page, default search engine, and new tabs to Astromenda, and its goal (as per publisher) is to make “the web more accessible and more efficient, for all users." To protect your browser settings in the future download Web Companion. 

Please find below a few facts about Astromenda we would like to pay your attention to.

This program is usually distributed by bundling to free software using pay-per-install marketing method; so it may sneak to your PC as a part of another installation without you noticing this. Home page set by Astromenda usually contains attractive boxes with advertisements, but the program disclaims any liability for this content.

From the EULA:

“3rd Party Content: The content provided to you in the course of using the materials and services may include 3rd parties' software and/or services ("3rd Party Content") and Astromenda does not warrant for its quality or authenticity. Astromenda is not, and shall never be, liable for any damage that might occur when using and/or relying on 3rd Party Content and does not warrant that they will be available or accurate.”

 
A screenshot below shows how your New tab usually looks like if you have Astromenda installed on your PC:

Before Google Chrome adds Astromenda to its extensions’ list, it shares the following information with a user:

Astromenda may add an icon called ‘Cut the Rope’ to your desktop which is not an actual popular game shortcut. A click on this icon opens a website with Astromenda online games, where online version of Cut the Rope is available along with different Astromenda games.

Astromenda Manual Removal Instructions

Note. This is a self-help guide. Use it at your own risk. This article is provided "as is" and to be used for information purposes.

1.    Before you start, please make sure you are logged as a system administrator. Also, please save a copy of your important documents/files on external hard drive/cloud storage.

2.    Please close all your browsers (if any).

3.    From your desktop, click on Windows Start button and choose Control Panel option (Windows 8 users: right-click on ‘Windows Start’ icon (by default, it is located in the left bottom corner of your screen), and choose Control Panel from the context menu):

•   Click ‘Programs and Features’ under the ‘Programs’ category (Windows Vista, 7 and 8)/‘Add or Remove Programs’ (Windows XP),
•   Please find ‘WSE_Astromenda’ -> right click on it, choose ‘Uninstall’ and follow the prompts,
•   Once uninstall is done, a webpage opens confirming the same. Simply close this page.

4.    Please make sure that hidden files in your Windows Explorer are visible: Start –> Control Panel (Appearance and Personalization) –> Folder Options –> ‘View’ tab –> find ‘Hidden files and folders’ and check a box ‘Show hidden files, folders, and drives’.

5.    Follow this path - C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Temp (XP users: C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Temp) -> highlight all the files/folders here -> press ‘Shift’+’Delete’ and click ‘Yes’ to completely clean this folder (Note. If you receive messages that some files cannot be removed, just skip the file in question).

6.    Please find the directories below and make sure that all the Astromenda traces are removed:
C:\Program Files\WSE_Astromenda
C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\WSE_Astromenda
C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXX.default\extensions\{ad7ce998-a77b-4062-9ffb-1d0b7cb23183}
C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXX.default\searchplugins\Astromenda
C:\Users\YOUR_USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\UserData\Default\Extensions\pfkfdlcdbajamklbneflfbcmfgddmpae

7.    Now please make sure that your browser is clean.

Mozilla Firefox

•   Click on the Menu button   in the right upper corner of Firefox window (older versions of browser: click on the orange ‘Firefox’ logo in the upper left corner) -> find Add-ons section -> check ‘Extensions’ and ‘Plugins’ tabs, and if you find Astromenda addons here, please click on ‘Remove’ button:

•   Again click on the Menu button and choose ‘Options’ -> in the General tab ‘Home Page’ field, please highlight http://astromenda.com... link -> right click on it and press ‘Delete’ -> type a web address of your preferred home page in ‘http://…’ format.

•   In the main Firefox window, click on a small triangle in the ‘Search Engines’ field (right upper corner), and choose ‘Manage Search Engines…’ option. Highlight all the unwanted search engines including ‘Astromenda’ and click on ‘Remove’ button:

•   Restart Firefox.

 Google Chrome

•   Type chrome://extensions in the Chrome address bar and press ‘Enter’;
•   If you see  here, please click on a trash can (like shown below):

•   Now please click on ‘Settings’ tab and find ‘On startup’ section: click on ‘Set pages’ link next to ‘Open a specific page or set pages’ option -> in the opened window find astromenda.com… link, move your cursor over this link, and click the "X" button on the right to delete it:

 
•   In the Appearance section: when ‘Show Home button’ box is checked, click on ‘Change’ link -> in the next window highlight astromenda.com… link and press ‘Delete’ button on your keyboard.

 
•   In the Search section: click on ‘Manage search engines…’ button and:

1.    In the opened window set a new desired Home page from the existing list: move your cursor to the new engine for ‘Make default’ button to appear – click on this button.
2.   Once done, move your cursor to Astromenda for a ‘X’ button to appear and remove it from the list.

•   Restart Google Chrome.

Internet Explorer

•   When IE window is opened, press Alt+x keys on your keyboard to open Tools menu -> and click on Manage Add-ons;
•   Open ‘Toolbars and Extensions’ section -> if you have Astromenda here, highlight it and click on ‘Disable’/‘Delete’ button.
•   Open ‘Search Providers’ section -> set a new desired Home page from the existing list (right click on a new search engine, and choose ‘Set as default’ from the context menu -> now please highlight Astromenda and click on ‘Remove’ button on the bottom of the window:

 
•   Again open Tools menu -> Internet Options -> General Tab -> ‘Home page’ section: if you see ‘http://astromenda.com…’ link here, highlight and delete it using context right-click menu -> type a new web address you want to set up as your home page, and click ‘Apply’. You can also set other custom settings of your startup page in the ‘Startup’ section (to start with your last session, for example):

•   Restart Internet Explorer.

8.    If you see a shortcut on your desktop called ‘Cut the Rope’, highlight it, press Shift+Delete buttons on your keyboard and click on ‘Yes’ when a dialog box opens to confirm deletion.

9.    Now, please install Ad-Aware to make sure you don’t have any infections on your machine:

•    Click here to download Ad-Aware, and follow installation instructions from Ad-Aware User Guide (‘Installation and Uninstallation’ -> ‘Ad-Aware Install’ section).
•    Perform a full scan of your PC with Ad-Aware (following Ad-Aware User guide: ‘Scanning System’ -> ‘Running a scan’ section).
•    Restart your PC.

10.    If you continue facing issues with Astromenda, please remove its traces from your registry. Before you start, please make sure you understand how important this part of your PC is. You cannot restore data from here once you delete something (‘Ctrl+Z’ never works in Registry Editor). And if you delete an incorrect component by mistake, it may damage your OS or make it unusable.
•    To open the Registry, press ‘Win+R’ keys on your keyboard -> in the opened window type regedit and press ‘Enter’.
•    Highlight main registry section called ‘Computer’ -> press Ctrl+F keys on your keyboard -> make sure Keys, Values, Data check-boxes in the ‘Find’ window are checked -> type Astromenda in the search field and click OK. Search results will highlight a key/value/data that contains Astromenda components. If you find the exact match with the name of program you want to remove, right click on the element in question and choose ‘Delete’ from the context menu.
•    Use F3 key to continue the search and to find all the necessary files.
•    Exit the registry editor.
•    Reboot your PC.

Lastly, it is recommended to always keep your antivirus program up-to-date with a real-time protection turned on, and perform weekly full scans to stay protected at all times.