A fortnight before, I downloaded a keygen file, which I presumed to be fine, but when I started the installation, I felt there is something weird. So I was about to start the installation, but I cancelled.
After I cancelled and when I opened my browser, I got some hohosearch as my home page instead of other. I did research on it and found that it is more of an annoying adware than anything dangerous.
Few days later, when I was browsing, things freezed for 20-25 seconds and once it started, my internet stopped. When I debugged and check control panel for any new software that could have installed, to my shock, an antivirus tool along with a player got installed. Then I started feeling scared about this adware.
After few days, instead of hohosearch, a new home page with newsearch123.com became my home page. I did not find any tool to remove it and it did not install any software like before, but all of sudden, few days back, I cannot open google or any other sites with HTTPS. The error being thrown as "Invalid Certificate".
So I am sure that this adware has become dangerous and now I am not able to work on browsers because of this.
I did try to troubleshoot all that was mentioned on search engines with the help of my other machine, but there is no help. The system admin has only one solution and that is to format C drive, but I do not consider this a solution, but a flush. What should I do?