Viruses of an advertising nature, penetrating computer systems via the Internet or when installing infected applets, today you can count hundreds and thousands. In the material presented below, it is proposed to consider one of them, and, perhaps, the most arrogant in the sense of its behavior in a computer system. What is Search Protect, how to remove the virus and use additional means to protect the system, read on. In principle, there is nothing particularly complicated here, but an ordinary user who has never encountered such things can be offered several basic methods of manual removal, since the virus itself is not always determined by the anti-virus and anti-advertising scanners as an installed program.
What is Search Protect and how to remove the program in the easiest way?
The virus itself is an ordinary hijacker, which, when it penetrates a computer system, is embedded in all browsers, regardless of which one is used by default.
The essence of the impact is that the virus immediately replaces search engines and start pages, and when you try to access the required Internet resources, it instantly redirects to advertising sites (usually with the offer to buy some unnecessary goods or install some software - most often security software of dubious origin).
With a longer exposure, an unnatural increase in the load on system resources (processor and RAM) can occur, which can lead to an abnormal termination of work, user programs and Windows native processes. In the end, the option is not excluded that the virus will simply begin to steal confidential user data, for example, when using payment systems or online banking.
But how to get rid of Search Protect? In the simplest case, you can use the programs and components section of the "Control Panel", in the list you should find the application you are looking for, in the name of which Conduit can be added. Next, select the program and click the delete button.
How to get rid of Search Protect using my own uninstaller?
Oddly enough, the virus is so impudently established in the system that it even installs its own uninstaller, which can be found through the Start menu or in the Xtab program folder.
It can be used without any problems by running the uninstaller file even in the file manager.
Cleaning residual virus components and checking browser settings
What Search Protect is and how to remove the virus is a little understood. Now a few words about cleaning the tails. The main problem is that neither the own virus removal tool nor the operating system uninstaller completely removes this applet (after this there may be files, directories, and registry keys).
The first thing to do is enter the registry editor (regedit), set the name of the virus in the search (Ctrl + F) and delete all found entries, moving from one result to another by pressing the F3 key or the “Find Next” button.
Similarly, you should use the search engine "Explorer" or any other installed file manager, followed by deleting the results (preferably without placing it in the "Recycle Bin" - Shift + Del).
Finally, we’ll see how to remove Search Protect from the settings of web browsers, because it can get into them very deeply, and the above tools will not lead to anything without cleaning the browsers, and the virus will be activated again.
The solution is to call the properties of the browser shortcut (through the RMB menu) and check the line of the object type, where the full path should end exclusively with the name of the browser or launch file (Launcher) with the .exe extension. All posts that are after are deleted, after which it is necessary to save the parameters.
And only after that the removal of Search Protect can be considered complete. It only remains to reboot the system and check the browser.
Note: in some cases, before performing all the described actions, it may be necessary to complete the virus process in the “Task Manager”, and in browsers check for the presence of the same name panels and extensions.
Removal using specialized tools
What Search Protect is and how to remove the program manually is a little clear. But why do these things if you can simplify your work?
Removing Search Protect, and to the fullest extent possible, can be done using automated programs called uninstallers. For example, in the iObit Uninstaller application, you need to select the application from the list, click the uninstall button, set the automatic search for residues in the powerful scan mode, and after completing all the procedures, get rid of the residuals, noting the line for deleting files.
What to do if the virus is not removed?
But it also happens that access to program files is blocked. If Search Protect is not removed, you may need to be logged on as an administrator. Sometimes unlocking programs (for example, Unlocker) help.
But as one of the optimal solutions, we can offer a change in the order of actions. First, delete the registry keys, and only then uninstall the program itself and get rid of the residual files and folders.
Instead of a total
It remains to add that you should not rely on antiviruses. And it’s best to get rid of this virus in a manual way. At least when using uninstallers, removal can be done as fully as possible without resorting to other means. Antiviruses, by the way, may not define this application as a threat, if only for the simple reason that it has trusted status, that is, it has a digital signature and even some kind of certificate of authenticity.