TheSearch.net Virus Removal Guide

TheSearch.net virus is taking over my Firefox, please help me to remove it!! How come? Where does it come from? If it is a threat, how can I get rid of it? I have tried several different antivirus programs but none of them is working. How can I protect my PC from it? Is there any effective way to deal with this virus? And can I remove it without causing any system damage or file loss?” To learn how to solve the problems, you may consider keeping on reading the article below.

What is TheSearch.net?

When we refer to computer virus, the first impression that springs to mind may be the phishing websites which disguise as legit sites and then try to trick people into giving secret financial information by sending e-mails that look as if they come from a bank, credit-card account, etc. In this post we are going to talk about TheSearch.net virus which is deemed as a plague on the internet. It is classified as a redirect virus which forces users to visit its domain rather than go to the specific sites. It uses advanced techniques to intrude system through computer vulnerabilities and it can bypass the detection of system. It draws PC users’ attention to increase its traffic and make it more popular than before. It is more dangerous than you can imagine. It infects browsers through DLL plug-in, BHO, Winsock LSP and other forms. It is very easy to identify TheSearch.net redirection, For example, Internet Explorer is steered to malicious web pages while you were visiting normal sites, Internet Explorer browser home page or search page has been modified to undesired one and website address has been specified to phishing sites which can be very dangerous to common users.

Most users may wonder how TheSearch.net virus is able to enter their computers since they have had firewall and antivirus program installed to prevent malware from attacking their system easily. They have no idea about how this potential threat escapes from detect, neither can they remove the virus from their PC. But actually it is capble to infest the system with simple tactics. It utilizes the BHO techniques to intrude on the browser in an legal way which can help effectively avoid scanner of the celebrated security protection tool. This technique makes it hard to check it out and remove it. Even if you have carefully set up security to higher and higher level to prevent malicious sponsored ads from popping up every day, you still take risks to get infected with hijacker virus because security tools is attacked and modified by hijacker previously. To safeguard your PC, you should rely on a more powerful tool. You need to learn a new manual removal way to know how to detect and remove TheSearch.net virus in registry.

In the following are the steps to manually remove the virus. If you are familiar with computer, follow the steps to delete it manually.

Signs of Infection:

1. Your computer performance becomes slower and slower.

2. You need to wait more time for the web browser to respond when you attempt to open a webpage or watch an online video.

3.Your searches are redirected to the pre- determined results.

4. Browsers crash occasionally and network is interrupted now and then.

5. You will get many advertisement windows when you are using the Internet.

6.Your privacy related information will be intentionally followed.

Instructions to remove TheSearch.net manually:

TheSearch.net is a dangerous redirect virus that can change your browser settings and redirect you to the websites which may contain countless advertisements or various cyber threats, such as Trojans, rootkits, ransomware and other infections. Sometimes, your antivirus software cannot detect this threat nor delete it timely. Before making the changes, please back up the important materials in case they get lost. You can follow the guide below to manually remove the virus if you have acquired sufficient computer skills.

Step 1: Set the default homepage back

For Internet Explorer:
Click on Browser Tools
Select Manage Add-ons on the tools window
Click Search Provider
Here you can see many kinds of search engine option as Bing and Google, select your favorite one to be a default homepage.
Choose Search Results and click on Remove icon to eliminate it
Click Tools, select Internet Options and then the General tab. Here you can option a website you like and save it.
c. Select ‘Search Results’ and click ‘Remove’ to remove it;

For Google Chrome:
Open Customize and control
Click on Settings
Select on Basic Options icon
Here you can reset your homepage (e.g.Google.com）
Once you choose a default homepage, click on Manage Search Engines and then click Google to be your default search engine.
Remove it from the browser by clicking Search Result and then the X’ mark

For Mozilla Firefox:
Click Manage Search Engine
Select Search Results and then click Remove option, click OK
Open Tools, under the General tab, set Google.com as default homepage

Step 2: Locate related files of TheSearch.net and remove them from the computer
%AllUsersProfile%
%AllUsersProfile%\Programs\{random letters}\
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~r
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~dll

Step 3: Remove cookies on all browsers
Internet Explorer:
Click options on the browser and then choose Internet Options
Open General tab, click Delete Browsing History to remove all related cookies
Select cookies and click Delete

Firefox:
Click option
Select Privacy and then click on Remove Individual Cookies icon
Delete relevant cookies list on the box

Google Chrome:
Click option
Open Under the Bonnet tab
Select Privacy and then click Clear browsing data
Delete all cookies

Step 4: Remove malicious registry entries
Open Registry Editor on the start menu
Type in Regedit and click OK
Remove all the following registry entries
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings “CertificateRevocation” = ‘1’
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments “SaveZoneInformation” = ‘0’

Conclusion

TheSearch.net is a piece of redirect virus that is developed by cyber violators whose aim is to obtain illegal gains from the cyber world as much as possible. But that doesn’t mean it is safe to your computer. Browser hijacker belongs to the member of phishing domain family. So users should run antivirus to check if the situation is safe. With the help of the browser hijacker, hackers can control your browser and change the way of how browser uses for Internet surfing and which content to display. By showing a large number of features such as interfering with the seamless user experience on your favorite browsers, they hook computer users into the operating system. Once being infested, the malware will totally control your computer and prevent you from modifying. There is no doubt that it is a terrible threat. If you have found it lingering on your computer, just eliminate it immediately.

Note: No matter you use manual or automatic removal to delete TheSearch.net Virus, please back up your system data in case they are missing.

Searchz.co Virus Removal Guide

My browser has been hijacked by Searchz.co and I don’t know how to remove it. I used to clear the cookies and history records when the web browser ran slowly due to some phishing websites. However, I cannot get rid of the redirect virus in the same way this time. Does anyone know how to remove Searchz.co and recover the affected web browser? I need your help!


What is Searchz.co?

Searchz.co is a browser hijacker which appears as a legitimate search engine website to let people do a search with it or display many advertisements. Its design and outfit look professional and quite normal as other legitimate webpage. There is an search bar in the center. If you click on its infected links, unpleasant things may happen. The links on the malicious website are often implanted with dangerous codes. Some of them are advertisement websites which utilize the website to display advertising. As a result, you may fail to find the expected helpful information directly. If you click on some unknown websites in the search results, many other computer infections may be downloaded. It can allow other unknown Trojan or backdoor programs to insert system. For instance, some browser settings and system settings are changed and the computer security levels become lower. In this case, users’ personal information will be at great risk as it may be monitored all the time and stolen at any time if the hackers take action. In this circumstances, malware outside the cyber world will infiltrate the system to harvest your personal information. Sometimes, your personal files could be encrypted by the malware and you couldn’t decrypt them with ease. Those troubles really damage your system to instable and vulnerable.

In general, you may experience the hijack virus when you are launching some web pages. A pop- up may appear on the screen to induce you into changing your home page to the websites which are promoted by the Trojan as soon as you load the page. You may ignore the suggestion if you don’t want. But sometimes you may not realize that this it is a trick and rashly click yes to accept the website being your homepage. Some redirect viruses can even infect your browsers without notice when you visit the websites that have been hacked. If the computer is infected, the browser settings are usually change from default settings to unwanted ones. So, don’t take it for granted that websites are safe to visit. Before visiting a website, please make sure that it’s completely safe. As ordinary anti-virus programs can’t remove this browser hijack virus, manual removal is an effective solution. Please follow the guide given below to manually get rid of the redirect virus. Don’t think that it is ok to keep it on your PC, for it may cause great damage to your system!


How to Manually Remove Searchz.co Virus

Tips: Before you perform the manual removal of Searchz.co, be aware that the removal involves deleting registry files and repairing registry files and re-setting some basic configurations of the operating system. The difficulty for you should be searching for and deleting the virus associated files, since the virus often names its files randomly and would changes the file paths irregularly. Inexperienced users should not try manual way. Therefore, it requires you to have sufficient computer expertise to perform the manual removal. If you are not sure about it, using a specialized tool to deal with it is the best choice.

1. Remove the browser hijacker from the infected computer.

Click on the Start button and select Control Panel. Click on Uninstall a program under the Programs category.
Find out and locate the programs related to Searchz.co browser hijacker. Click on the Uninstall button to remove them all.

2. Launch the infected browser and remove the add-ons or extensions related to the browser hijacker.

Internet Explorer:
Open IE, click on Tools and then select Manage Add-ons. When it opens a window, click on Toolbars and Extensions. Find out the extensions related to the browser hijacker and select them. Then, right-click them and click on the Disable option. Restart IE to finish the procedure.

Google Chrome:
Launch Google Chrome. Click on the Three-bar icon on top-right of the browser, select tools and then Extensions from the list. After that, click Extensions on the left side of the window. Locate the extension related to the browser hijacker, select it and click on the trash icon. Restart the browser to complete the procedure.

Mozilla Firefox:
Start Firefox and click on the tool menu from the top menu. Click on the Add-ons tab to open the configuration window. Then, click Extensions on the left side of this window. Now find out the extensions of the redirect virus and remove them from the browser. Restart the browser to complete the process.

3. Show hidden files and folders.

Go to Control panel again and click on Appearance and Personalization. Then double click on Folder Options. Hit the View tab, tick “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and deselect “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” . Click on the OK button to apply the changes.

4. Delete the malicious files of Searchz.co from the local disk.

The files listed below are reference only because the virus may has the ability to changes the names and locations of its files.
%Program Files%\ random
%AppData%\Protector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\Inspector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\vsdsrv32.exe

5. Open Registry Editor and delete the registry entries of the browser hijacker..
Press Windows+ R keys simultaneously to open the Run window. Then type “regedit” in the run box and press Enter key to open Registry Editor.

After that, find out and delete all the registry entries of Searchz.co. The below registry entries are also for reference only.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\[random].exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\browser hijacker name
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System ‘DisableRegistryTools’ = 0

6. Restart the infected computer to apply all changes.


Conclusion:

Searchz.co Virus is very nefarious that it can compromise your computer system badly. You should remember that you protect your computer not rely on antivirus programs. You need to be careful when downloading programs from the internet. This can only lead to bigger problems. Before you start to remove the browser hijacker, you may need to think twice for the solutions. So, you should think twice before you get down to the manual removal activity, especially if you are a novice user. The instructions above are for the common infection situation. Searchz.co redirect virus can show in different variations in different versions of computer system. More seriously, it may start its variation gradually. As the above has mentioned, the browser hijacker is a cascaded virus. It can change system files to interrupt the proper function of your computer. The removal of Searchz.co is also good for the proper running of other normal applications and legal system files.