Search.searchdp.com virus. How to remove? (Uninstall guide)
Searchdp hijacker tries to win over users’ trust with VirusTotal service
Search.searchdp.com virus happens to be a questionable search tool which is presented as a reliable search tool. What is more, users who are especially cautious about their security might appreciate the fact that it promotes VirusTotal service.
Nonetheless, this feature does not change the fact that the search engine is a browser hijacker. What is more, it is created by the company Polarity technologies which is notorious for distributing multiple browser hijackers.
Though specifically, this family of PUP is unlikely to occupy your browser and replace the search tool by force, it is not recommended to ignore its presence. As suggested by its privacy policy, it communicates with multiple third parties and online advertisers. Thus, within a while, you may be bothered by excessive advertising[1]. What is more, you may dislike the fact that it spies on your online activities and transmits data to its business partners:
By Using the Services, You Are Consenting to Grant Polarity Permission to Collect Your URLs and Search Data, Including Search Queries That May Contain Personally Identifiable Information, Share Them with Third Parties, and Use Search-related Cookies.
While, indeed it presents several useful web pages, but you may soon get annoyed by its constant pop-us. Thus, Searchdp removal might be a better choice. You may speed up the process with Reimage.
Click 'Start -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features' (if you are 'Windows XP' user, click on 'Add/Remove Programs').
If you are 'Windows 10 / Windows 8' user, then right-click in the lower left corner of the screen. Once 'Quick Access Menu' shows up, select 'Control Panel' and 'Uninstall a Program'.
Right click on each of suspicious entries and select 'Uninstall'
Right click on browsers' icon and select 'Properties'
Select 'Shortcut' tab and delete 'http://isearch.babylon.com...' or other suspicious URL
Cick 'Go' and select 'Applications'
Click on every malicious entry and select 'Move to Trash'
Click on menu icon and select 'Manage add-ons'
Right click on each of malicious entries and select 'Disable'
Delete malicious URL, enter your desired domain name and click 'Apply' to save changes
Go to 'Advanced' tab and click on 'Reset' button. Now select 'Delete personal settings' and click on 'Reset' button again
Go to Settings and select 'Choose what to clear'
Select 'Clear' button
Open the start menu and select 'Task Manager'
Right-click 'Microsoft Edge' and select 'Go to details'
Select 'More details' if 'Go to details' option fails to show up
Find Microsoft Edge entries and select 'End Task'
Go to Microsoft Edge folder on your computer, right-click every entry and click 'Delete'
Find Windows PowerShell, right-click it and select 'Run as administrator'
Copy and paste a required command and press 'Enter'
Click on menu icon and select 'Add-ons'
Select 'Extensions' and look for malicious entries. Click 'Remove' to get rid of each of them
When in 'General' tab, delete malicious URL from 'Home Page' section or click on 'Restore to Default' button. Click 'OK' to save changes
Click on menu icon and then on '?'. Select 'Troubleshooting Information'
Click on 'Reset Firefox' button for a couple of times
Click on menu icon. Select 'Tools' and 'Extensions'
Look for malicious entries and delete each of them by clicking on the Trash bin icon
After clicking on menu and 'Settings', select 'Set pages'
Click 'X' to remove malicious URLs
When in 'Settings', select 'Manage search engines...'
Click 'X' to remove malicious URLs
When in 'Settings', scroll down to 'Reset browser settings' button and click on it
Click on 'Reset' button to complete your removal
Click on 'Safari' and select 'Preferences'
Go to 'Extensions' and uninstall malicious add-ons
When in 'General', delete malicious URL and enter your desired domain name
Click on 'Safari' and select 'Reset Safari...'
Select all options and click on 'Reset' button
Filling the market with PUPs
The title of the company is often mentioned in our articles, as the number of their search tools keeps increasing. All of them share identical design except the URL name slightly differs. While technically the search tool is not malware, browser hijackers are often called browser infections and threats.
This specific hijacker is not likely to infect you with malware, nonetheless, it has links with the notorious Safe Browser, which is labeled as a persistent hijacker. Furthermore, you may notice that the products of the company are similar to the ones promoted by another browser hijacker creator Imali Ltd.
Though the hijacker is not technically malicious, but you should not ignore search.searchdp.com redirect tendency. This phenomenon might direct you to the sites which might contain weak SSL certificates and possess other vulnerabilities[2] which might attract malware. Thus, it is another reason to remove search.searchdp.com.
Ways to detect PUPs on time
This specific browser infection usually contains its specific web page. It might be promoted on third party websites as well. You are likely to get redirected there after you click on a link or play button.
Additionally, such hijacker might be promoted as the add-on to free file converters. In order to pinpoint such questionable search tools and PUPs, choose “Advanced” settings and deselect all unnecessary optional tools.
Get rid of the hijacker from Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari quickly
You can successfully delete the PUP in two ways: remove Searchdp manually or eliminate it using the manual guide. Note that if you choose the latter, precision and attention are required.
On the other hand, you may combine these two methods to ensure complete Search.searchdp.com removal. So if you reside in Greece[3] or Sweden and get redirected to the web page, take necessary measures.
You can remove virus damage automatically with a help of one of these programs: Reimage, Malwarebytes. We recommend these applications because they can easily delete potentially unwanted programs and viruses with all their files and registry entries that are related to them.
To remove Search.searchdp.com virus, follow these steps:
Get rid of Search.searchdp.com from Windows systems
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Click Start → Control Panel → Programs and Features (if you are Windows XP user, click on Add/Remove Programs).
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If you are Windows 10 / Windows 8 user, then right-click in the lower left corner of the screen. Once Quick Access Menu shows up, select Control Panel and Uninstall a Program.
- Uninstall Search.searchdp.com and related programs
Here, look for Search.searchdp.com or any other recently installed suspicious programs. -
Uninstall them and click OK to save these changes.
- Remove Search.searchdp.com from Windows shortcuts
Right click on the shortcut of Mozilla Firefox and select Properties. -
Go to Shortcut tab and look at the Target field. Delete malicious URL that is related to your virus.
Repeat steps that are given above with all browsers' shortcuts, including Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Make sure you check all locations of these shortcuts, including Desktop, Start Menu and taskbar.
WindowsMac OS XInternet ExplorerMicrosoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle ChromeSafariEliminate Search.searchdp.com from Mac OS X system
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If you are using OS X, click Go button at the top left of the screen and select Applications.
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Wait until you see Applications folder and look for Search.searchdp.com or any other suspicious programs on it. Now right click on every of such entries and select Move to Trash.
Erase Search.searchdp.com from Internet Explorer (IE)
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Remove dangerous add-ons
Open Internet Explorer, click on the Gear icon (IE menu) on the top right corner of the browser and choose Manage Add-ons. -
You will see a Manage Add-ons window. Here, look for Search.searchdp.com and other suspicious plugins. Disable these entries by clicking Disable:
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Change your homepage if it was altered by virus:
Click on the gear icon (menu) on the top right corner of the browser and select Internet Options. Stay in General tab. -
Here, remove malicious URL and enter preferable domain name. Click Apply to save changes.
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Reset Internet Explorer
Click on the gear icon (menu) again and select Internet options. Go to Advanced tab. - Here, select Reset.
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When in the new window, check Delete personal settings and select Reset again to complete Search.searchdp.com removal.
Uninstall Search.searchdp.com virus from Microsoft Edge
Follow the elimination steps carefully to delete all Searchdp web elements
Reset Microsoft Edge settings (Method 1):
- Launch Microsoft Edge app and click More (three dots at the top right corner of the screen).
- Click Settings to open more options.
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Once Settings window shows up, click Choose what to clear button under Clear browsing data option.
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Here, select all what you want to remove and click Clear.
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Now you should right-click on the Start button (Windows logo). Here, select Task Manager.
- When in Processes tab, search for Microsoft Edge.
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Right-click on it and choose Go to details option. If can’t see Go to details option, click More details and repeat previous steps.
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When Details tab shows up, find every entry with Microsoft Edge name in it. Right click on each of them and select End Task to end these entries.
Resetting Microsoft Edge browser (Method 2):
If Method 1 failed to help you, you need to use an advanced Edge reset method.
- Note: you need to backup your data before using this method.
- Find this folder on your computer:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe. -
Select every entry which is saved on it and right click with your mouse. Then Delete option.
- Click the Start button (Windows logo) and type in window power in Search my stuff line.
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Right-click the Windows PowerShell entry and choose Run as administrator.
- Once Administrator: Windows PowerShell window shows up, paste this command line after PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> and press Enter:
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml -Verbose}
Once these steps are finished, Search.searchdp.com should be removed from your Microsoft Edge browser.
WindowsMac OS XInternet ExplorerMicrosoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle ChromeSafariDelete Search.searchdp.com from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
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Remove dangerous extensions
Open Mozilla Firefox, click on the menu icon (top right corner) and select Add-ons → Extensions. -
Here, select Search.searchdp.com and other questionable plugins. Click Remove to delete these entries.
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Change your homepage if it was altered by virus:
Click on the menu (top right corner), choose Options → General. - Here, delete malicious URL and enter preferable website or click Restore to default.
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Click OK to save these changes.
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Reset Mozilla Firefox
Click on the Firefox menu on the top left and click on the question mark. Here, choose Troubleshooting Information. -
Now you will see Reset Firefox to its default state message with Reset Firefox button. Click this button for several times and complete Search.searchdp.com removal.
Remove Search.searchdp.com from Google Chrome
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Delete malicious plugins
Open Google Chrome, click on the menu icon (top right corner) and select Tools → Extensions. -
Here, select Search.searchdp.com and other malicious plugins and select trash icon to delete these entries.
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Change your homepage and default search engine if it was altered by your virus
Click on menu icon and choose Settings. -
Here, look for the Open a specific page or set of pages under On startup option and click on Set pages.
- Now you should see another window. Here, delete malicious search sites and enter the one that you want to use as your homepage.
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Click on menu icon again and choose Settings → Manage Search engines under the Search section.
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When in Search Engines..., remove malicious search sites. You should leave only Google or your preferred domain name.
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Reset Google Chrome
Click on menu icon on the top right of your Google Chrome and select Settings. -
Scroll down to the end of the page and click on Reset browser settings.
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Click Reset to confirm this action and complete Search.searchdp.com removal.
Get rid of Search.searchdp.com from Safari
- Remove dangerous extensions
Open Safari web browser and click on Safari in menu at the top left of the screen. Once you do this, select Preferences. -
Here, select Extensions and look for Search.searchdp.com or other suspicious entries. Click on the Uninstall button to get rid each of them.
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Change your homepage if it was altered by virus:
Open your Safari web browser and click on Safari in menu section. Here, select Preferences as it was displayed previously and select General. -
Here, look at the Homepage field. If it was altered by Search.searchdp.com, remove unwanted link and enter the one that you want to use for your searches. Remember to include the "http://" before typing in the address of the page.
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Reset Safari
Open Safari browser and click on Safari in menu section at the top left of the screen. Here, select Reset Safari.... -
Now you will see a detailed dialog window filled with reset options. All of those options are usually checked, but you can specify which of them you want to reset. Click the Reset button to complete Search.searchdp.com removal process.
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References
- ^ Erik Saas. Google Educates Publishers To Avoid Bad Ads. MediaPost Publications. Publishers Daily.
- ^ Update: Bay District Schools' Website Hacked. MyPanhandle. Local news.
- ^ Remove computer threats. Ioys. Spyware and security news.