Remove Searchz.co Hijacker From Chrome/Firefox/IE

by Jenny R. SEOer,web editor

Searchz.co is categorized as a dangerous browser hijacker that created by cyber criminals for commercial purposes. Under this situation, more malicious redirect threats will seize the chance and secretly finish their entrance on the target browsers. Searchz.co takes advantage of convincing interface and user’s carelessness to trick users into utilizing its search service, the time innocent users use it to search for information, and they will be redirected to unrelated results.

In fact, it is a fake search engine that pretends to be a legitimate site and provides users with multiple utilities and many other search services in order to attract users to visit it. It is a terrible redirect virus which can cause redirection and many serious PC problems. In most cases, the advertising sites are designed to promote various products or services to make money. Most of them will be attracted by discount, coupons and other information. So some users accept various advertising sites or receiving pop-up ads.

Although Searchz.co is not as malicious as a Trojan horse, it does bring many problems to the infected computers. Some unwanted browser plug-ins may be installed in the affected browsers to assist in helping the browser hijacker to complete many harmful tasks. In the case, the computer speed may slow down and the web browser freezes or even crashes from time to time. Moreover, the redirect virus may provide random links which link to malicious websites so as to invite more threats to further harm the PC. It is risky because other cyber threats may get the opportunity to get into the PCs when users click on the dubious links and visit the malicious websites.

How to Remove Searchz.co Virus Effectively

1. Remove the browser hijacker from the infected computer.

Click on the Start button and select Control Panel. Click on Uninstall a program under the Programs category.
Find out and locate the programs related to Searchz.co browser hijacker. Click on the Uninstall button to remove them all.

2. Launch the infected browser and remove the add-ons or extensions related to the browser hijacker.

Internet Explorer:
Open IE, click on Tools and then select Manage Add-ons. When it opens a window, click on Toolbars and Extensions. Find out the extensions related to the browser hijacker and select them. Then, right-click them and click on the Disable option. Restart IE to finish the procedure.

Google Chrome:
Launch Google Chrome. Click on the Three-bar icon on top-right of the browser, select tools and then Extensions from the list. After that, click Extensions on the left side of the window. Locate the extension related to the browser hijacker, select it and click on the trash icon. Restart the browser to complete the procedure.

Mozilla Firefox:
Start Firefox and click on the tool menu from the top menu. Click on the Add-ons tab to open the configuration window. Then, click Extensions on the left side of this window. Now find out the extensions of the redirect virus and remove them from the browser. Restart the browser to complete the process.

3. Show hidden files and folders.

Go to Control panel again and click on Appearance and Personalization. Then double click on Folder Options. Hit the View tab, tick “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and deselect “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” . Click on the OK button to apply the changes.

4. Delete the malicious files of Searchz.co from the local disk.

The files listed below are reference only because the virus may has the ability to changes the names and locations of its files.
%Program Files%\ random
%AppData%\Protector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\Inspector-[rnd].exe
%AppData%\vsdsrv32.exe

5. Open Registry Editor and delete the registry entries of the browser hijacker..
Press Windows+ R keys simultaneously to open the Run window. Then type “regedit” in the run box and press Enter key to open Registry Editor.

After that, find out and delete all the registry entries of Searchz.co. The below registry entries are also for reference only.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\[random].exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\browser hijacker name
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System ‘DisableRegistryTools’ = 0

6. Restart the infected computer to apply all changes.

Conclusion

Searchz.co will invader the target computer by hiding in some programs, pretending as a useful item to let PC users install. This kind of the redirect viruses can be bundled with free programs on the malicious sites, and then automatically installed into PC users’ computers stealthy. Most computer users don’t realize that their computers have been infected with malware even if they see some weird symptoms when browsing the Internet.

To prevent being hijacked and redirected by the redirect virus, users should pay more attention to the browsing activities and their computer performance so that they can take instant measures to fix the browser redirect issues once they notice the default homepage is altered forcibly, the search quires are redirected or unknown toolbars appear on the browser. The best way to fix the browser hijacking is to remove the unwanted extensions in browser and malicious programs with a professional security tool. Then, restore the settings and build more self-protections in the system. You are highly recommended to download a professional toolkit to remove the virus completely.