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  • Active
  • Severity: Medium
  • Browser Hijackers
  • Windows, Mac
  • Verified · Jan 2020

How to remove Speedtestace.co

A step-by-step removal guide for affected devices. Follow the verified procedure below — most readers complete it in under 10 minutes.

Gabriel E. Hall · Passionate web researcher

Speedtestace.co is a potentially unwanted application that collects a variety of information about users and shares it with its partners

Speedtestace.co

Speedtestace.co, also known as Speed Test Ace, is a browser hijacker that modifies the settings of Google Chrome or another browser and sets the https://www.speedtestace.co/homepage/homepage.html?id= as the homepage, as well as new tab URL. Additionally, a customized search engine is appended, which redirects all the searches to Yahoo, and fills them with sponsored links directing users to affiliated sites.

Speedtestace.co functionality might seem quite attractive for some, as it allows them to test the internet speed whenever they want. However, the app is considered to be a potentially unwanted program that heavily modifies the installed browsers to deliver ads, and collects a variety of personal and anonymous information about its users. In other words, if you do not like intrusive ads and being tracked every step you take on the internet, you better remove Speedtestace.co from your browsers as soon as possible.

Name  Speedtestace.co
Type Potentially unwanted program, browser hijacker 
Associated app  Speed Test Ace 
Installation  Third-party sites, Google Web Store, official website 
Developer HyperConnectMedia
Potential risks  Installation of other potentially unwanted programs, personal information disclosure to unknown parties 
Symptoms 
  • A browser extension or add-on Speed Test Ace added to all applicable web browsers
  • Homepage and new tab address set to https://www.speedtestace.co
  • Unwanted advertisements show up on sites that the infected users common visit
  • Search results are redirected to http://search.yahoo.com
  • Search results are filled with sponsored links
Removal You can uninstall potentially unwanted programs with the help of our instructions below
System fix If you are experiencing any OS problems after you delete potentially unwanted programs or malware, we suggest you use FortectIntego to fix virus damage

While users might download Speed Test Ace from its official website or the Google Web Store, it can also slip in during the installation of freeware or shareware apps downloaded from third-party sites. Suchlike installers are often filled with optional components that are often deliberately hidden from users' sight, so they often miss the infiltration of PUPs. However, as soon as they open the web browser, they will see that Speedtestace.co is now their homepage.

Browser hijackers like Speedtestace.co are initially not considered to be malicious or even dangerous, although users should be aware that potentially unwanted programs serve as an inconvenience at least. The main goal of developers is to expose them to pop-ups, flashing windows, in-text links, auto-play videos, and other types of ads for monetization purposes. Each click, even an accidental one, generates Speed Test Ace authors money.

For an effective way to monetize, Speedtestace.co also users targeted advertising.[1] The only way to target users with particular ads, however, is to gather information about them, and Speed Test Ace collects a lot of it with the help of such technologies like web beacons, flash cookies,[2] unique identifiers, etc. If you read Privacy Police on their official website, it becomes clear that the app is terrible when it comes to privacy, as it gathers both anonymous and personal data.

Speedtestace.co browser hijacker

To make matters worse, Speedtestace.co also shares this information with affiliates and even third-parties:[3]

We may share your information, including your Personal Information, with our Commercial Partners in furtherance of our provision of Services to you, including our services, advertising, and content partners (collectively, “Commercial Partners”) or allow those Commercial Partners to gather information directly from you.
Your Personal Information may also be shared with third parties in other circumstances, including without limitation, as follows: <…>

Therefore, if you want to keep your searchers private and avoid the ads that would plague your browsers each time you launch them, we advise you to proceed with Speedtestace.co removal as soon as possible. Doing so should not be difficult (we provide the detailed guide below), although it is also important to note that you should reset all the installed browsers or stop the Speedtestace.co notifications via browser settings if you enabled them. If your machine is working slowly or you are receiving errors, we suggest scanning it with a repair tool FortectIntego.

Beware of bundled software packages, as PUPs may be installed on your system without you noticing

Software bundling is a marketing technique that has been around for many years now – it allows third-party application developers to propagate their software deceptively. The main reason why this technique works is because of users' carelessness, as they rarely pay attention to the installation process of the freeware.

Software bundling is still a viable PUP distribution method because many still resort to downloading applications from sites like Softonic.com. These third-party sites often employ deception and promotional campaigns in order to make you install software that does not always meet your expectations or, worse – exposes you to intrusive ads and tacks all your web browsing activities. Therefore, before downloading apps from third-parties, rather opt for official sources like Microsoft Store, App Store, or Google Play  – these stores got millions of apps in stock, so there is no need to rely on sites that employ software bundle packages.

Nevertheless, if you choose to download apps from these third parties, you should pay attention to the following:

  • Read the comments and online reviews about the app before downloading it;
  • Check if the program provides important documents like Privacy Policy and EULA;
  • During the installation, always opt for Advanced/Custom settings;
  • Read the instructions provided on each step carefully – you might miss important information;
  • Decline all offers/deals that are suggested to you;
  • Watch out for tricks that might make you miss and optional program: pre-ticked boxes, misplaced buttons, fine print text, etc.

Get rid of Speedtestace.co homepage by uninstalling Speed Test Ace

To remove Speedtestace.co from your homepage and new tab, you will have to eliminate the potentially unwanted program Speed Test Ace or/and the browser extension from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge, or another browser. If you enabled the Speedtestace.co notifications upon entering the site but did not install anything, you can get rid of unwanted ads by performing the following steps.

Google Chrome

  • Click Menu and pick Settings
  • Go to Advanced
  • Under Privacy and security, select Site Settings
  • Pick Notifications
  • You should see Speedtestace.co under the Allow section
  • Choose More Actions and click on Block

Speedtestace.co stop notifications

Mozilla Firefox:

  • Pick Menu and then Options
  • Click on Privacy & Security section and then select Notifications
  • Go to Settings –and you should see Speedtestace.co
  • Click on the the drop-down menu and select Block
  • Finish with Save Changes

MS Edge:

  • Click on More and select Settings
  • Pick View advanced settings and then got for Advanced
  • Select Manage permissions
  • Find Speedtestace.co entry and turn off notifications

However, if you installed the add-on or/and the application, you will need to uninstall for a complete Speedtestace.co removal. Many security applications recognize the app as potentially unwanted, so a scan with one of such programs could get rid of it automatically. If you want to eliminate the PUP manually, check out our instructions below.

Uninstall from Windows

Uninstall from Windows 10/8:

  1. Type Control Panel into the Windows search box and open the result.
  2. Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.Uninstall from Windows 10/8

Uninstall from Windows 7/XP:

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

Remove the unwanted program:

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

Delete from macOS

Remove the unwanted application:

  1. From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
  2. In the Applications folder, look for any suspicious entries, then drag them to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash).Uninstall from Mac

Delete leftover files and folders:

  1. Select Go > Go to Folder.
  2. Enter /Library/Application Support and remove any suspicious folders related to the unwanted program.
  3. Repeat the same check in the /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders, deleting any suspicious entries.Delete leftover files from Mac
  4. Finally, empty the Trash to permanently remove the leftovers.

Reset Internet Explorer

Remove dangerous add-ons:

  1. Open Internet Explorer, click on the Gear icon (IE menu) on the top-right corner of the browser
  2. Pick Manage Add-ons.
  3. You will see a Manage Add-ons window. Here, look for suspicious plugins. Click on these entries and select Disable.Remove add-ons from Internet Explorer

Change your homepage if it was altered:

  1. Open IE and click on the Gear icon.
  2. Select Internet Options.
  3. In the General tab, delete the Home page address and replace it by your preferred one (for example, Google.com).
  4. Click Apply and then select OK.Reset IE homepage

Delete temporary files:

  1. Press on the Gear icon and select Internet Options.
  2. Under Browsing history, click Delete...
  3. Select relevant fields and press Delete.Clear temporary files from Internet Explorer

Reset Internet Explorer:

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

Remove from Microsoft Edge

Delete unwanted extensions from MS Edge:

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

Clear cookies and other browser data:

  1. Click on the Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services..
  2. Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
  3. 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.Clear Edge browsing data

Restore new tab and homepage settings:

  1. Click the menu icon and choose Settings.
  2. Then find On startup section.
  3. Click Remove next to any suspicious startup page.

Reset MS Edge if the above steps did not work:

  1. Press on Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
  2. Click on More details arrow at the bottom of the window.
  3. Select Details tab.
  4. 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.Reset MS Edge

Instructions for Chromium-based Edge

Delete extensions from MS Edge (Chromium):

  1. Open Edge and click select Settings > Extensions.
  2. Delete unwanted extensions by clicking Remove.Remove extensions from Chromium Edge

Clear cache and site data:

  1. Click on Menu and go to Settings.
  2. Select Privacy, search and services.
  3. Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
  4. Under Time range, pick All time.
  5. Select Clear now.Clear browser data from Chroum Edge

Reset Chromium-based MS Edge:

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

Remove from Mozilla Firefox (FF)

Remove dangerous extensions:

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

Reset the homepage:

  1. Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
  2. Choose Settings.
  3. Under Home, set your preferred homepage and new tab settings.

Clear cookies and site data:

  1. Click Menu and pick Settings.
  2. Go to Privacy & Security section.
  3. Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
  4. Click on Clear Data...
  5. Select Cookies and Site Data and Temporary cached files and pages, then click Clear.Clear cookies and site data from Firefox

Reset Mozilla Firefox

If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:

  1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
  2. Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.Reset Firefox 1
  3. Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox...
  4. Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.Reset Firefox 2

Remove from Google Chrome

Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:

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

Clear cache and web data from Chrome:

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

Change your homepage:

  1. Click menu and choose Settings.
  2. Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
  3. 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:

  1. Click on Menu and select Settings.
  2. In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
  3. Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
  4. Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
  5. Confirm with Reset settings.Reset Chrome 2

Delete from Safari

Remove dangerous extensions:

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

Clear history and website data:

  1. Click Safari in the menu and pick Clear History.
  2. Set Clear to all history and confirm with Clear History.Clear history from Safari

Reset Safari:

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

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