Scour is a fake search engine that will redirect you to questionable sites

Scour.com (can also be found as Scour or Scour Virus) is a potentially unwanted program, which has been accused of annoying redirects, slowdowns, and similar suspicious activities. No matter that it may look like this domain is prepared for searching the web and looking for the required information, you should use it with extreme carefulness. In fact, it would be better that you would try to avoid Scour because it may show you altered search results that may redirect you to really questionable, suspicious, and unsafe websites.
| Name | Scour virus |
| Type | Browser hijacker, potentially unwanted program |
| Distribution | Software bundle packages, suspicious links, deceptive advertisements, fake updates |
| Symptoms | Homepage and new tab address set to Scour.com; search results are injected with sponsored links; all visited websites show intrusive ads; unknown extension installed on the web browser |
| Dangers | Installation of other PUPs or malware, personal data disclosure to unknown parties, financial loss |
| Removal | Eliminate PUPs automatically by scanning your machine with SpyHunterCombo Cleaner or MalwarebytesMalwarebytes anti-malware. Alternatively, you can uninstall unwanted apps manually – we provide the instructions below |
| System optimize | In case your machine works slowly or suffers from crashes and errors, you can try to fix these issues with a repair tool FortectIntego |
Scour virus may start tracking your browsing on the web and may collect information related to your browsing routine. Please, do not agree with that because you can never know what is collected by such suspicious search engines and which third parties can use it. Though it hasn't been found that this website spreads malware or infects computer users in any other way, it can completely hijack Google Chrome or another popular web browser without permission.
Scour hijacker authors developed the app in order to insert intrusive ads into searchers and monetize users' clicks. Unfortunately, users have to deal with troubles when trying to find relevant information or even clicking on links they wanted to, as loading ads might alter the placement of website contents. This trait makes the Scour virus exceptionally dangerous, as redirects might lead to malware-laden and other dangerous websites.
If Scour.com hijacker has appeared on your web browser without your approval and now is bothering you with its redirects to questionable websites, slowdowns, pop-up ads, and similar annoying activities, you should waste no time and check your computer with the reputable anti-malware, such as SpyHunterCombo Cleaner or MalwarebytesMalwarebytes. For manual Scour removal, you can check the instructions we provide below.

You should remember that browser hijackers change the settings of the web browsers and inject cookies for tracking purposes. Thus, it would be the best to reset all the installed browsers to completely remove Scour hijack. All the damage that has been caused to your computer from different types of viruses can be easily removed with FortectIntego.
The unwanted app was most likely installed with freeware
From first sight, Scour.com seems just like another little search engine, which provides the ability to promote yourself through different kinds of ads. However, most PC users who have been using this site for a while claim that its search results should never be trusted. In addition, you should be careful because it may start tracking your browsing habits and may initiate lots of other suspicious activities.
If you have already noticed that each of your web browsers is redirecting you Scour.com, you should think about what freeware have you recently installed on your computer. If that's some kind of download manager, PDF creator, video streaming software, or similar program, it might be that it was involved in the distribution of this suspicious search engine. In this case, you should waste no time and get rid of this program.
The easiest way is to run a full system scan with reputable anti-spyware. Besides, here we should also give you some tips on how can you avoid the Scour virus. The most important thing here is to monitor the installation of the freeware. This can be done by selecting Custom or Advanced installation of the freeware and then carefully following every installation step. Otherwise, this hijacker may take over your start page, default search engine, new tab page, and other system settings.

Remove Scour virus easily
In order to remove Scour from your system, you need to find all its components. Having that in mind, it can either be an extension clipped to Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, or MS Edge browser, or an application that is installed on your system. Since the app can be named as anything, finding it might sometimes be difficult. Nonetheless, we provided detailed manual instructions for that process below.
However, if you want a quick solution for Scour removal, you should employ a powerful anti-malware solution that would be able to detect potentially unwanted programs easily. This way, you will not have to worry that the browser hijacker comes back.
Note that, if the Scour hijack is related to an extension, you can eliminate the unwanted app by simply resetting your web browser or deleting the add-on via the settings menu.
Uninstall from Windows
Uninstall from Windows 10/8:
- Type Control Panel into the Windows search box and open the result.
- Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.

Uninstall from Windows 7/XP:
- Click on Windows Start > Control Panel (Windows XP users should click on Add/Remove Programs).
- In Control Panel, select Programs > Uninstall a program.

Remove the unwanted program:
- In the Programs and Features window, look for any recently installed suspicious entries, select them, and click Uninstall.
- If User Account Control appears, click Yes to confirm, then complete the removal.

Delete from macOS
Remove the unwanted application:
- From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
- In the Applications folder, look for any suspicious entries, then drag them to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash).

Delete leftover files and folders:
- Select Go > Go to Folder.
- Enter /Library/Application Support and remove any suspicious folders related to the unwanted program.
- Repeat the same check in the /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders, deleting any suspicious entries.

- Finally, empty the Trash to permanently remove the leftovers.
Reset Internet Explorer
Remove dangerous add-ons:
- Open Internet Explorer, click on the Gear icon (IE menu) on the top-right corner of the browser
- Pick Manage Add-ons.
- You will see a Manage Add-ons window. Here, look for suspicious plugins. Click on these entries and select Disable.

Change your homepage if it was altered:
- Open IE and click on the Gear icon.
- Select Internet Options.
- In the General tab, delete the Home page address and replace it by your preferred one (for example, Google.com).
- Click Apply and then select OK.

Delete temporary files:
- Press on the Gear icon and select Internet Options.
- Under Browsing history, click Delete...
- Select relevant fields and press Delete.

Reset Internet Explorer:
- Click on Gear icon > Internet options and select Advanced tab.
- Select Reset.
- In the new window, check Delete personal settings and select Reset.

Remove from Microsoft Edge
Delete unwanted extensions from MS Edge:
- Select Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and pick Extensions.
- From the list, pick the extension and click on the Gear icon.
- Click Remove.

Clear cookies and other browser data:
- Click on the Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services..
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Select Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files. (apart from passwords, although you might want to include Media licenses as well, if applicable) and click on Clear.

Restore new tab and homepage settings:
- Click the menu icon and choose Settings.
- Then find On startup section.
- Click Remove next to any suspicious startup page.
Reset MS Edge if the above steps did not work:
- Press on Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
- Click on More details arrow at the bottom of the window.
- Select Details tab.
- Now scroll down and locate every entry with Microsoft Edge name in it. Right-click on each of them and select End Task to stop MS Edge from running.

Instructions for Chromium-based Edge
Delete extensions from MS Edge (Chromium):
- Open Edge and click select Settings > Extensions.
- Delete unwanted extensions by clicking Remove.

Clear cache and site data:
- Click on Menu and go to Settings.
- Select Privacy, search and services.
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Under Time range, pick All time.
- Select Clear now.

Reset Chromium-based MS Edge:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- On the left side, pick Reset settings.
- Select Restore settings to their default values.
- Confirm with Reset.
- This will disable extensions and reset startup pages but will not delete bookmarks, saved passwords, or browsing history.

Remove from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
Remove dangerous extensions:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click on the Menu (three horizontal lines at the top-right of the window).
- Select Add-ons.
- In here, select the unwanted extension and click Remove.

Reset the homepage:
- Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
- Choose Settings.
- Under Home, set your preferred homepage and new tab settings.
Clear cookies and site data:
- Click Menu and pick Settings.
- Go to Privacy & Security section.
- Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
- Click on Clear Data...
- Select Cookies and Site Data and Temporary cached files and pages, then click Clear.

Reset Mozilla Firefox
If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
- Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.

- Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox...
- Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.

Remove from Google Chrome
Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome, click on the Menu (three vertical dots at the top-right corner) and select More tools > Extensions.
- In the newly opened window, you will see all the installed extensions. Uninstall all suspicious extensions related to the unwanted program by clicking Remove.

Clear cache and web data from Chrome:
- Click on Menu and pick Settings.
- Under Privacy and security, select Clear browsing data.
- Select Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, as well as Cached images and files.
- Click Clear data.

Change your homepage:
- Click menu and choose Settings.
- Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
- Click on Open a specific or set of pages and click on three dots to find the Remove option.
Reset Google Chrome:
If the previous methods did not help you, reset Google Chrome to eliminate all the unwanted components:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
- Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
- Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
- Confirm with Reset settings.

Delete from Safari
Remove dangerous extensions:
- Open Safari, click Safari in the menu at the top-left of the screen, and select Preferences.
- Go to the Extensions tab, look for any suspicious entries, and click Uninstall to remove them.

Clear history and website data:
- Click Safari in the menu and pick Clear History.
- Set Clear to all history and confirm with Clear History.

Reset Safari:
- Click Safari in the menu and select Preferences > Advanced.
- Enable Show Develop menu in menu bar.
- From the menu bar, click Develop and select Empty Caches.

Did this guide help?
3 comments
Ignestas
Please help, i have this!!!
Delta Jay
Go to programs and remove the program I Want This by 215 apps...Its a malware that somehow got installed on you computer like it did on mine.
sam
Help, I cant seem to get rid of this, and im horrible with computers