Search.searchptp.com. How to remove? (Uninstall guide)
Reasons not to trust Search.searchptp.com search engine
Search.searchptp.com is a bogus search engine created by Polarity Technologies Ltd. It spreads with Package Tracker Pro application which is usually included in freeware downloads. Once it enters the system, users might find a changed homepage, default search engine, and even new tab URL address.
However, it might not be easy to revert all the changes caused by search.searchptp.com virus. It might modify Windows registry and alter browser’s settings to prevent users from uninstalling it. But the good news is that this cyber threat can be removed.
Technically speaking, this search tool is not a virus, but a potentially unwanted program (PUP) that works as a browser hijacker.[1] Therefore, you can remove search.searchptp.com with or without security software. If you choose manual elimination option, you will need to find all hijacker-related entires and revert its changes.
After the search.searchptp.com hijack, users might suffer from these problems:
- inability to set their preferred Chrome, Firefox, Explorer or other browser’s startup page;
- being forced to use search.searchptp.com search engine as default one;
- seeing an increased amount of online ads that are based on the browsing history;
- redirects to sponsored websites;
- browser slowdowns or crashes.
The appearance of the search.searchptp.com seems legit. It offers quick access to popular websites and allows tracking parcels directly from the home page. Additionally, all the search keywords are redirected to Yahoo results page.
However, you should be aware of suspicious search.searchptp.com redirect tendencies. The hijacker might trigger redirects to third-party sites once you click on the Yahoo result link. Indeed, the PUP wants to control your browsing habits. Why? In order to generate income.
The real purpose of the program is to profit from online advertising. Thus, when you click on ads or visit affiliate’s site, developers generate pay-per-click revenue. This form of online advertising is legit. However, when it is applied by a browser hijacker, there’s a risk to end up on a malicious website.[2]
Thus, after the hijack, you should not test this tool or tolerate its appearance. The program might not only increase your chances to get infected with ransomware or data-stealing trojan but collect information about you as well. Thus, uninstall the program immediately! If you want to speed up search.searchptp.com removal, take advantage of 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
Suspicious program infiltrates the system in software bundles
The reason why search.searchptp.com hijacks browser’s homepage is an installation of Package Tracker Pro which is widely distributed in software packages. You can find it offered to download together with various free programs that you can download from file-sharing sites or torrents.
When you need to install freeware or shareware, you have to be careful in order to avoid unintentional installation of third-party software. According to Les Virus[3] team, users often rely on “Quick” or “Recommended” settings when they install new programs. However, it’s a bad habit because this setup does not reveal about “additional downloads.”
For this reason, you always have to choose “Advanced” or “Custom” settings that disclose and allows rejecting installation of third-party apps.
The correct way to uninstall search.searchptp.com
Only uninstalling Package Tracker Pro is not enough to remove search.searchptp.com entirely. You have to get rid of other suspicious programs, browser extensions and other hijacker-related components that might be capable of bringing back the hijacker.
You can follow manual search.searchptp.com removal guide presented at the end of the article. However, if you are afraid of missing some components, you should opt for the automatic elimination method.
You can remove virus damage automatically with a help of one of these programs: Reimage, Malwarebytes MalwarebytesCombo Cleaner, Plumbytes Anti-MalwareMalwarebytes Malwarebytes. We recommend these applications because they detect potentially unwanted programs and viruses with all their files and registry entries that are related to them.
To remove Search.searchptp.com, follow these steps:
Get rid of Search.searchptp.com from Windows systems
Follow the steps below to remove browser hijacker along with its related components from the system:
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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.
- Uninstall Search.searchptp.com and related programs
Here, look for Search.searchptp.com or any other recently installed suspicious programs. -
Uninstall them and click OK to save these changes.
- Remove Search.searchptp.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 ChromeSafariRemove Search.searchptp.com from Mac OS X system
If your browser was hijacked, these instructions will let you remove PUP from the system entirely:
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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.searchptp.com or any other suspicious programs on it. Now right click on every of such entries and select Move to Trash.
Eliminate Search.searchptp.com from Internet Explorer (IE)
To speed up Search.searchptp.com removal from Internet Explorer, you should reset the browser.
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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.searchptp.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.
-
Reset Internet Explorer
Click on the gear icon (menu) again and select Internet options. Go to Advanced tab. - Here, select Reset.
-
When in the new window, check Delete personal settings and select Reset again to complete Search.searchptp.com removal.
Erase Search.searchptp.com from Microsoft Edge
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.searchptp.com should be removed from your Microsoft Edge browser.
WindowsMac OS XInternet ExplorerMicrosoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle ChromeSafariDelete Search.searchptp.com from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
The guide below will explain to you how to wipe out Search.searchptp.com from the Firefox entirely.
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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.searchptp.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.searchptp.com removal.
Uninstall Search.searchptp.com from Google Chrome
In order to get back to normal browsing sessions, you have to uninstall suspicious extensions, including Package Tracker Pro, from Google Chrome.
-
Delete malicious plugins
Open Google Chrome, click on the menu icon (top right corner) and select Tools → Extensions. -
Here, select Search.searchptp.com and other malicious plugins and select trash icon to delete these entries.
-
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.
-
Click Reset to confirm this action and complete Search.searchptp.com removal.
Get rid of Search.searchptp.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.searchptp.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.searchptp.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.
-
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.searchptp.com removal process.
About the author
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References
- ^ Browser hijacker (browser hijacking). TechTarget. The network of technology-specific websites.
- ^ George Paliy. Malvertising: Hidden Advertising Threats You Need to Know About. StopAd Blog. Practical content and insights.
- ^ Les Virus. Les Virus. Cyber security news and malware database.