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  • Active
  • Severity: High
  • Stealing programs
  • Windows, Mac
  • Verified · Dec 2015

How to remove surfpageing.com virus

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

Linas Kiguolis · Expert in social media

Although surfpageing.com seems to be just a simple search engine, security experts warn people that it’s sponsored by third parties and is not trustworthy if compared to Google, Bing or Yahoo search providers. It is deemed as a browser hijacker and a potentially unwanted program (PUP) and is a handful of reasons why it is considered to be the lowest level cyber threat. In the next sections we will shortly explain what issues surfpageing.com hijack can cause, how does this search engine spreads and how to remove it from the web browsers permanently.

What aspects pushed security experts to classify surfpageing.com virus as a browser hijacker?

Of course, none of the programs are categorized as virus, malware, PUP or hijacker without having a reason. According to security vendors, there are at least five major aspects that made security experts categorize this pest as a browser hijacker and PUP, these are:

  • Misleading infiltration;
  • Modification of web browser’s settings without asking for permission;
  • Exhibition of unreliable links among its search results;
  • Displaying promotional pop-up ads;
  • Usage of tracking cookies.

showing how the hompage looks like after surfpageing.com hijack

So how does this program works once installed on a web browser?

Surfpageing.com hijacker is compatible with Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and others. That’s why it is referred to as a cross-browser plug-in. As soon on the plug-in is executed, a default web browser’s homepage, new tab, and search provider is replaced with surfpageing.com. If the plug-in is accepted (consciously or accidentally), browser’s modifications are inevitable. However, that’s not the worst part. The most important thing that each user should consider before starting browsing with this search engine is the pages that he/she wants to view. Although it presents Yahoo-based search results, before showing the results to the user various sponsored links and promotional pop-up ads are injected into them. Therefore, you can never know whether surfpageing.com redirects expose you to reliable or potentially dangerous affiliate pages. This way, it generates income from advertising and certainly don’t care about the security of the user. Besides, once inside a PC’s system, this pest activates cookies and starts gathering personally non-identifiable, but quite sensitive, information about its users. That may be the kind of search terms, mostly visited pages, clicks, PC’s IP address, its location, email address, data uploaded and downloaded from certain pages, and so on. Such information may leak to really questionable parties who may apply it for misleading you. For example, your email may be spammed, you may start receiving doubtful pop-ups related to the things you have recently been looking for, missing software updates and so on. All the content brought by surfpageing.com redirect virus can lead you to inadvertent installation of another potentially unwanted program. Do you still consider keeping this search engine by default? Probably not… Thus, our recommendation would be to check the system with FortectIntego and remove surfpageing.com malware with its help.

Could you please explain me how did surfpageing.com hijack my web browser if I did not install it?

Such and similar questions are by far the most commonly asked by the victims of browser hijackers. The answer is simple – you must have agreed with its installation along with another freeware. Try to recall what was the last free program you have downloaded/installed on the system. We would highly recommend you to remove it because it has been used for spreading third-party apps, so it might be untrustworthy itself. If you want to avoid installation of software bundles in the future, make sure that you select safe installation mode (advanced/custom) and keep an eye on each check box given during installation setup.

What should I do to remove this PUP from my PC?

Of course, those who are reading this pose are interested in the surfpageing.com removal options. In fact, there are two options – automatic and manual removal. If you have already been dealing with the removal of browser hijackers, then we are pretty sure that the manual removal guide will be enough for you to remove surfpageing.com virus once and for all. However, if you want to make sure that your PC is PUP and virus-free, we would still recommend running a scan with a professional malware removal tool.

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.

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

Did this guide help?

4 comments

  1. Peeter

    Hate programs that cant be removed when I want. surfpageing.com search is very stubborn as I removed it only after performing a full system scan with SpyHunter

  2. Elise Renae

    DO NOT recommend using surfpageing.com because it displays fake links. I ended up with reimage just a couple of days after infiltration of this search

  3. Magnus Veritas

    Hi guys. Have you tried manual removal? I cant remove this search by myself for some reason, but Im not keen on installing anti-malware..

  4. Dennis

    I have removed surfpageing.com virus using the guide above. However, i nevertheless scanned my PC and now Im glad that I did so because other pest have been lurking in it.

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