Remove Search Protect - How to Delete Search Protect Redirect Virus?

Search Protect is designed to take control of users’ browsers and affect their browsing activities. Once this virus has been installed to the browsers successfully, the Internet settings will be totally modified without permission, and it will be definitely bad to the PC users. With all the modifications of the browser settings, you will find the default homepage replaced by Search Protect. Browser homepage can be replaced to the options provided by cyber fraudster unnoticeably. Then they cannot access some common websites that they usually visited before because the sites are blocked by the browser hijacker.

Under normal circumstance, Search Protect browser hijack will redirect PC users to visit advertising sites while going online, and then PC users will see many unsafe links and advertisement pages. To put it bluntly, the redirect virus is designed by cyber hackers to make profits by cheating computer users. As most of the ads webpages offered by the redirect virus are always so tempting for generic PC users, they may click the unsafe links, and the victims would fall for the trap set up by cyber criminals. The so-call preferential information are not reliable, you should not click those ads to avoid getting defrauded.

What you should do is remove Search Protect virus from the system. Some PC users will ignore the virus infection because they think that it is safe to continue to use the infected PC as long as they don’t click the links or pop-up ads. Its main aim is to generate advertisement revenue through hijacking innocent computer users to certain websites and tricking them into clicking on commercial ads and sponsored links. The infected machine will suffer an extremely dangerous situation since redirect virus could mess up the system files step by step. After the affection is spread throughout the entire machine, the security defense of the target computer will be reduced or destroyed which will introduce a lot of dangerous viruses. The result would be that numerous computer threats will take over the system and eat up system resources as well as reduce the machine performance. If this redirect virus can not be removed completely, it will be in a very complicated status which makes PC users annoyed. Thus, users should take action instantly to get rid of Search Protect and then repair the affected browsers.

How to Remove Search Protect redirect virus completely?

Step one: set the default homepage back
For Internet Explorer:
1. Click on Browser Tools
2. Select Manage Add-Ons on the tools window
3. Click Search Provider
4. Here you can see many kinds of search engine option as Bing and Google, select your favorite one to be a default homepage.
5. Choose Search Results and click on Remove icon to eliminate it
6. Click Tools, select Internet Options and then the General tab. Here you can option a website you like and save it.
c. Select the unwanted address and click ‘Remove’ to remove it;
For Google Chrome:
1. Open Customize and control
2. Click on Settings
3. Select on Basic Options icon
4. Here you can reset your homepage (e.g.Google.com）
5. Once you choose a default homepage, click on Manage Search Engines and then click Google to be your default search engine.
6. Remove it from the browser by clicking Search Protect and then the X’ mark
For Mozilla Firefox:
1. Click Manage Search Engine
2. Select Search Results and then click Remove option, click OK
3. Open Tools, under the General tab, set Google.com as default homepage
Step two: locate related files of the redirect virus and remove them from the computer
%AllUsersProfile%
%AllUsersProfile%\Programs\{random letters}\
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~r
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~dll
Step three: Remove Cookies on all Browsers
Internet Explorer:
a. Click options on the browser and then choose Internet Options
b. Open General tab, click Delete Browsing History to remove all related cookies
c. Select cookies and click Delete
Firefox:
a. Click option
b. Select Privacy and then click on Remove Individual Cookies icon
c. Delete relevant cookies list on the box
Google Chrome:
a. Click option
b. Open Under the Bonnet tab
c. Select Privacy and then click Clear browsing data
d. Delete all cookies
Step four: Remove Malicious Registry
a. Open Registry Editor on the start menu
b. Type in Regedit and click OK
c. Remove all the following registry entries
HKEY
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings “CertificateRevocation” = ‘1’
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments “SaveZoneInformation” = ‘0’

Conclusion

Users won’t feel easy if their computers have experienced Search Protect. They may suffer worse situation because of lacking of precaution consciousness. Evil cyber criminals make use of this browser hijacker to affect users’ PCs and make money with pay-per-link techniques. With the purpose of safeguarding the system functioning from the destructive activities triggered by Search Protect, it is suggested to try hard to remove this malware once it gets installed on the targeted system. It can not only deeply scan your whole system, but also can delete the threat automatically and quickly within minutes. Unprotected drive- by downloads is one of the avenues that can attract hazardous Search Protect. Another effective solution to prevent the invasion from Search Protect is to activate legit anti-malware scanner which is able to provide real- time professional protection for the computer.