My home page is taken over by the pop-up start-search.com page. I can’t make it go away because it will pop right back up no matter how many times I have tried to reset my browser. I also receive lots of pop ups on random websites and am redirected onto unwanted websites online. How do I stop these troubles without reinstalling my browser? Is there some kind of malware on my computer that I need to get rid of to fix my browser problem?

Start-search.com Hijacker – How to Remove?

The Start-search.com (also known as Start Search) is categorized as a browser hijacker which will claim itself as a helpful online search engine and provide shortcuts and accesses to abundant resources online. It pop ups on your browser as a regular webpage with a search engine on the home page. But you may already notice that ever since this particular website gets onto your browser, you are having lots of troubles when getting online in a way that you can’t search things efficiently without being interrupted by constant pop ups and redirects. These problems are due to the browser hijacker on your system. And you need to get rid of it as soon as possible to prevent further consequences from happening. This passage introduces a manual removal guide in the following to help.

How does the start-search.com pop up get on my browser when I have antivirus protection on? Will it be removed if I run security checks through the system? Users wouldn’t come across these doubts if the hijacker can be deleted automatically by antivirus software. In fact, it can escape from many antivirus programs and sneak onto Windows and Mac systems via bundling with any unfriendly freeware online. Hence, users need to watch out when surfing online for those suspicious websites, links and unknown free programs from spam resources. In short, soon as the hijacker gets on your browsers, it will completely mess them up by creating constant disorders including:

Home page is replaced and favorite search engines are disabled.
Unknown toolbars or extensions are automatically installed.
Browsers are blocked constantly by similar pop up police alerts.
Regular websites may not be accessed as usual due to the complete block of this scam page.

How to delete http://www.start-search.com pop-up hijacker on browsers completely?
Ran security scans on the system but nothing related is detected? Wonder if these pop ups will stop automatically in a period of time if you leave them alone? Unfortunately, the hijacker will not go away on its own and can even bring in more problems if you do not get rid of it timely. To completely get rid of the adware program and stop these pop ups, a manual removal is introduced in this passage as an efficient way that guarantees a complete restore of the affected browser. Other than resetting browser defaults, you will also need to get rid of unknown extensions on browsers and check for potential malware. For that, expertise will be required during the manual process to complete the clean. This passage contains a manual instruction for help in the following.

Suggestions: If you are not qualified with sufficient computer knowledge to deal with this browser issue, contact YooSecurity Online PC Experts for help now to delete this pop up Start-search.com adware to restore your browsers successfully:

The Start Search Hijacker Popup Screenshot

start-search.com-popup
* The above screenshot shows the regular appearance of the browser hijacker. It looks like a search engine that contains categories including Web, Images, Video and News. Everything on the page may look right to you. But this start-search.com page pops up on your browser without letting you change it. Each time you attempt to start a search online, you can be redirected to unknown resources. You can also notice lots of annoying pop ups on different websites. Besides from slowing down the performance of the affected browsers with these interruptions, the hijacker can also access the browsing histories where personal online data is stored. It is risky to have this hijacker on your computer.

How to get rid of Start-search.com pop up ads from computer?
As mentioned above, manual removal is much more efficient and guarantees a successful uninstall of this adware from computer compared to anti-virus removal. As the browser hijacker is not only able to reset browser defaults to cause disorders, but adjust certain files and registry keys to make its effect last longer. Thus, besides from resetting browser defaults, uninstalling unknown extensions and clearing browsing histories manually, users will also need to check for program files and registry errors in order to completely fix this browser problem. A guide is contained below to walk you through the basic steps to remove the pop up hijacker.

Browser Hijacker Manual Removal Instructions

A step-by-step guide to remove the hijacker popup manually from Mozilla Firefox:

1. Windows Task Manager.
windows-task-manager

Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC; or pull up Run box from Start menu to type in taskmgr
Right click on items you want to end, select Go To Process
Click on End Process
or
Click on Processes tab
End process of all Firefox items/ Start-search.com popup hijacker

2. Delete virus files and adjust registries from system.
folder-options

Click on Start button
Control Panel
Search for “folder options” on top right corner
Click on View tab
Show hidden files, folders, and drives

C:\Users\profile name here\AppData\-
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\-

* Files and registries of the Start-search.com pop up adware can be changed or renamed time from time in order to keep the infection functioning longer. If you are not able to identify the related items, contact online experts for help instantly.

3. Reset Firefox.
clear-history-firefox

Click on Tools – Options
Under General tab – reset home page on Firefox
Under Privacy tab – clear browsing histories

4. Close out all the windows and restart the system to take effects.

Video guide on browser hijacker removal:

Alternatively, you can view this browser hijacker removal video guide directly on our website:

Conclusion

The pop up Start-search.com webpage is a browser hijacker that can attack your Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and even Apple Safari and cause constant problems to affect the overall performance of the system. This pop up can not only reset the browser defaults automatically, but may drop further problems on the system including malware and adware. What’s worse, it may even gain access to your browsing histories with the help of third party online tracking cookies to collect valuable information for cyber criminals. In a word, the pop up hijacker is not a friendly search engine to your system and it should be got rid of right away once being noticed. The longer it resides on the system, the more problems it could cause. A manual removal with expertise is efficient to delete this pop up completely from your computer.

Note: Still can’t stop the random pop ups on websites? Websites take forever to load? Please contact YooSecurity Online Experts for help now if you still get any problems:

Published by Tony Shepherd & last updated on May 21, 2014 12:38 pm

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