It’s no secret that recently various kinds of virus threats related to browser hijackers have become much more active. One of the most annoying can be called Internet Search. How to remove this false search engine from Firefox or from any other browser, read on. In principle, there is nothing particularly complicated or extraordinary here. Just follow the instructions below. It should be noted right away that the situation, although unpleasant, is not catastrophic at all.
What is Internet Search?
As already clear, this applet is supposedly thought-out and convenient search engine, which replaces the tools installed in the default web browsers.
But she’s looking for something completely different from what the user needs. As a rule, even with the most accurately specified search query, redirected to the sites of dubious advertising content with the offer to purchase unnecessary goods or install some software. Of course, this search engine changes the start page, which, in theory, should open when the browser starts, creates its own folders and files in the system, and when deeply penetrated, it disrupts browsers and increases the load on the computer’s system resources. Judging by official descriptions, there is no talk of espionage yet, but who knows ...
It is very likely that at a certain stage of the virus penetrating the system, he himself will not engage in espionage, but ActiveX executable elements and various scripts when visiting dubious resources can easily do this (up to theft of bank card codes). How to remove Internet Search from Mozilla or any other browser?
Step One Actions
Now we proceed directly to resolving the infection problem that has arisen. How to remove Internet Search from Firefox or any other browser? The decision to eliminate the threat at the first stage involves disabling the add-ons and panels installed by the virus.
Mozilla or any other browser uses the extensions section located in the main settings menu, where you need to either disable or remove the add-in with a mandatory restart of both the system and the browser.
Checking Home Page Settings
The second step in solving the problem of how to remove Internet Search from the computer will be checking the start page. As already mentioned, this search system modifies it.
In the simplest case, you can simply change the start address, or even better, set a blank page (about: blank parameter) or set the browser to display the initial bookmark bar when it starts, as is done, for example, in Opera.
Checking the full path to the browser executable
Further, in the matter of how to remove Internet Search from the browser of any developer, it is necessary to check that the path to the executable file is not changed due to the additions after specifying the extension.
You can view such information through the properties section, called by RMB on the browser shortcut, for example, if it is located in the "Taskbar" or "Desktop". For most browsers, the path should end with the .exe extension after the browser name of the same name (Chrome.exe), but for Opera, the final file is Launcher.exe.
Manual removal of directories and files
Further, in the matter of how to remove Internet Search, you will have to use manual removal of the program and all components created by it.
If the application is in the list of Windows programs and components, there should not be any problems (the system’s own uninstaller will work).
If the program is not shown, you can delete the DefaultTab directory located in the user directory yourself (in most cases, the question of how to remove Internet Search is solved in this way). But you must enter it through the Users folder in the root of the system partition. Then you will need to clean the registry by setting the name of the applet in the search for the name of the remote folder.
How to remove Internet Search from a computer using uninstallers?
Finally, you can use uninstallation utilities like iObit Uninstaller, which help to fix the problem one hundred percent. The fact is that even if there is no program in the standard list, it can be found either in the Windows components or in the installed browsers panel section.
Here the question of how to remove Internet Search comes down to marking the desired component and clicking the uninstall button. Then you need to activate the in-depth search for residual elements or run a powerful scan (in different programs such a tool can have different names, but the essence of its use is the same), select all the components found, mark the item for deleting files and clear the system of files, folders and records system registry to be found. Of course, after carrying out such actions, the system must be rebooted without fail.
If the component does not appear in normal Windows operation mode or cannot be uninstalled, the problem of how to remove Internet Search can be completely solved when loading into Safe Mode. On systems below Windows 10, the F8 key is used to do this at startup. In the tenth version, you can use the option of special boot options or commands based on the bcedit.exe tool with the legacy startup mode set for the operating system. It returns the ability to use the F8 key, which does not work with standard Windows 10 boot.
Last tip
If for some reason the proposed user methods do not suit you, you can use specialized utilities like AdwCleaner or boot from a disk with a recorded Kaspersky Secure Disk program or with a similar utility from Dr. Web This, by the way, looks like a much more effective method of removing any of the currently known virus threats. Only for this you need to use the latest versions of anti-virus packages (the same tenth version of Kaspersky is already hopelessly outdated).