Search.yahoo.com redirect. How to remove? (Uninstall guide)
Search.yahoo.com – legitimate search engine that has been spread in a bundle with other programs
Search.yahoo.com is a legitimate search engine that belongs to a well-known company called Yahoo. However, we have to warn you about an increased amount of browser hijackers that can start redirecting you to this search engine without your permission asked.
According to PC security experts, in most of the cases, they are related to Spigot, which is known for its Spigot toolbar. However, many other developers of the hijackers take advantage of search.yahoo.com to trick users into believing that they are trustworthy.
If you have already noticed redirects to search.yahoo.com or r.search.yahoo on your IE, Mozilla, Chrome or another web browser, you should think what free software[1] have you recently installed on your PC. Usually, these unwanted activities are noticed after installing a download manager, PDF creator, video streaming software and similar programs that have been filled with questionable browser add-ons, extensions, and plugins.
As soon as they are installed on the system, they may start such unwanted activity as tracking of people's search sessions,[2] collecting their non-personally identifiable information, causing ads or redirects to sponsored websites and so on. One of them is search.yahoo.com.
You could suspect that your computer is infected with a browser hijacker if Yahoo search became your default search engine suddenly. Other symptoms of the affected web browser might be:
- inability to set preferred homepage or/and search engine;
- increased amount of online ads;
- random text turned into hyperlinks;
- redirects to suspicious sites.
If any of these activities can be noticed on any of your web browsers, think weather you like this search provider or not. Usually, it is not considered malicious, so you can use it just like any other search provider. If you are not happy with these changes, act now and remove search.yahoo.com by reseting your browsers.
Redirect to sponsored websites is the way how Yahoo earns the money
So-called Yahoo Search virus mostly works as an advertising tool that promotes various third-party sites, programs, and other services. However, this threat might redirect to dangerous online sources and put your computer and privacy at risk.
Therefore, you should consider Yahoo Search removal once it appears on your browser out of nowhere. For that, we would like to recommend you to scan your computer with Reimage. Anti-malware/anti-spyware[3] software helps identify computer infection and clean device safely.
Colleagues from Germany[4] also noticed that majority of potentially unwanted applications track various information about users. Not only these programs can collect non-personally identifiable information, but sometimes they are trying to get access to personally identifiable details.
Questions about search.yahoo.com redirect
It goes without saying you need to uninstall Yahoo Search if you want to protect sensitive information. If your logins, banking information and other details are visible for cyber criminals, you might suffer from money loss or identity theft.[5]
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
Insidious infiltration method of the browser hijackers
Potentially unwanted programs (PUP) are commonly distributed as a counterpart of other third-party Spigot apps (Add-ons, plug-ins, toolbars, extensions) and other freeware. As soon as you install such software with the whole its bundle on your computer, it results in system hijack.
This issue shows up on all the most popular web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer. To prevent this from happening, you should always pay an appropriate amount of attention to the freeware's installation process.
It's advisable to read EULA, Privacy Policy, and other accessible information about your selected program. By the way, you should opt for Advanced or Custom installation option and carefully check the entire process.
During software installation, your main task is to find the list of “optional downloads” and opt out of all programs that are promoted there. NEVER agree to set an unknown search site as your start page and search provider because you may later experience various issues.
Methods to eliminate Yahoo Search “virus”
We have to warn you that, technically, search.yahoo.com is NOT a virus. It’s a potentially unwanted program that is responsible for modifying your search engine. However, in order to stay safe and avoid unwanted activity during your searches, you should remove this search engine by resetting each of your web browsers.
For that, we present you two different options – manual Yahoo Search removal and automatic elimination option. According to PC security experts, the first option can be used only when you know the names of potentially unwanted programs that are causing redirects to this search engine.
To take care of Yahoo Search removal on Mac, you should also know names of related adware. If you are not sure what cyber parasite infected your device, you should opt for the automatic removal and let anti-malware program to identify and remove it.
You can remove search.yahoo.com automatically with a help of one of these programs: Reimage, Plumbytes Anti-MalwareWebroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, Malwarebytes Anti Malware. 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.yahoo.com redirect, follow these steps:
Eliminate search.yahoo.com from Internet Explorer (IE)
To delete the cause of Yahoo hijack, you have to eliminate all suspicious components. We highly recommend reseting 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.yahoo.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.yahoo.com removal.
Uninstall search.yahoo.com redirect from Microsoft Edge
Follow the instructions to fix Microsoft Edge after the hijack.
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.yahoo.com should be removed from your Microsoft Edge browser.
Internet ExplorerMicrosoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle ChromeSafariErase search.yahoo.com from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
If your default search engine was changed to search.yahoo.com, you need to delete suspicious add-ons and then reset the browser.
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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.yahoo.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.yahoo.com removal.
Delete search.yahoo.com from Google Chrome
One of the reasons why search.yahoo.com appeared on Chrome is infiltration of potentially dangerous extension. To fix Chrome, your task is to find this PUP and uninstall it. We also suggest resetting the browser in order to get rid of tracking cookies.
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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.yahoo.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.yahoo.com removal.
Remove search.yahoo.com from Safari
To forget about this virus on Safari, you should check the list of extensions and uninstall unknown entries. It is also recommended resetting the browser.
- 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.yahoo.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.yahoo.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.yahoo.com removal process.
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References
- ^ Freeware - The Good, The Bad, And the Dangerous. Security Response by Symantec. The site provides unparalleled analysis of and protection from IT security threats.
- ^ Jeremy Kirk. Researchers reveal 3 devious ways online trackers shatter your privacy and follow your digital footsteps. PCWorld. News, tips and reviews from the experts on PCs, Windows and more.
- ^ Ugnius Kiguolis. Anti-spyware. NoVirus. The website about computer viruses, latest industry news and malware removal instructions.
- ^ DieViren. DieViren. Informational site about computer viruses and their removal for German users.
- ^ Dave Drager. 9 Ways to Prevent Identity Theft From Your Online Activities. MakeUseOf. The website about technology and modern gadgets.