How to Get Rid of Hightsearch.com? - Browser Hijacker Removal

My homepage has been changed into Hightsearch.com and I cannot turn it back into Google. I have tried resetting Google as my homepage but failed. This is really annoying. My computer system is Win7 64 bits and IE browser is my frequent used browser. How can I resolve this problem? Anyone advice will be appreciated.

Description of Hightsearch.com

Hightsearch.com is a website with bad reputation associated with browser hijacker and adware. This website makes use of attracting and convincing design to pretend as professional and helpful and it adds some familiar icons and connect to links such as Google plus, Twitter and Facebook icons to make it more trustworthy. However, you should not believe in that search engine, which is especially designed by the hackers to trick the innocent users, for it will not provide you with any reliable information. If you analyze the page more carefully, you will find out that it is actually designed to bombard pops- up to promote undesirable things on the computer. If you try to search something on this fake search engine, but all you can get are unwanted results including advertisements and porn. On account of the browser hijacker, you will be redirected to Hightsearch.com or other unwanted websites from unknown third parties when you click on some websites. Some pop-up advertisements asking you to download unknown programs, update plug-ins or scan and optimize your computer performance with some products and so on will frequently show up. Any click on those ads may lead to malware attack.

Once your computer has been infested by Hightsearch.com, it starts to modify default search engine' setting immediately, disrupt browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and reduce the performance of the whole system. More seriously, it slows down the computer performance and attach undesirable plug-in, add-on, toolbar onto the browser without asking user's permission firstly. You may feel angry because you are cheated. Sometimes the program will show the fake fixing result to make users believe it has done a good job in cleaning viruses. In virtue of the ability of Hightsearch.com to infect and control the browser, you may have to eliminate it urgently unless it will result in further severe system problems.

To protect your computer system and your privacy, you should remove Hightsearch.com redirect with no hesitation. You can follow the removal guide provided below, if you have no ideas how to perform the removal.

Effects of Being Infected by the Redirect Virus

1. Hightsearch.com redirect can not only get on browsers without permissions, but reset default structures of affected browsers without letting you change them back.

2. Hightsearch.com helps other malicious third-party malware get into computer via browser.

3. Other malware would be dropped into your computer when you click on the unwelcome ads.

4. The performance of the infested browser may reduce greatly for the browser hijacker utilizes it to perform insecure tasks.

5. Private information and commercial related account data, such as personal identifiable information, online bank account as well as credit card account details, may be silently gathered and transferred to a remote third- party server monitored by cyber hackers.

How to Remove Browser Hijacker Step by Step?

In virtue of containing malicious code created by cyber criminals, Hightsearch.com can effectively prevent itself from removing by celebrated antivirus programs. In general, the manual removal task needs the user to have much computer experience. The following are the steps to manually remove Hightsearch.com redirect virus (Please be very careful during the removal process, especially when dealing with the files and registry entries):

Step 1 Uninstall Hightsearch.com relevant programs from Control Panel
Windows 7/Vista

Open the Start Menu -> Control Panel-> Uninstall a Program-> Find dubious program -> click Uninstall.
Windows 8
Go to Start Menu-> Control Panel-> Enter programs and features in the search box-> tap Programs and Features-> Highlight target program- > Uninstall it.

Step 2 Remove malicious Extensions from Your IE/Chrome/Firefox
Google Chrome
Click Chrome Menu -> Tools -> Extensions ->Find related add-ons and delete them.
Internet Explorer

click the Tools -> click Manage add-ons->Toolbars and Extensions ->Select unwanted add-on and click Remove button.

Mozilla Firefox
Click on the menu button at the top right corner to open Menu > Add-ons > Choose related extensions ->click Disable or Remove button
 
Step 3 Delete Hightsearch.com from the browser homepage
Google Chrome
Go to 'Wrench or 3-Bars icon' > 'Settings' > 'Appearances'> 'Show Home button', click on the Change button to change your browser homepage.
Go to 'Wrench or 3-Bars icon' > 'settings' > 'Manage search engines.
Make google.com as your default search engine and click on the X to remove the unwanted URL.

Internet Explorer
Open IE and go to 'Tools' > 'Internet Options' > In the General tab, delete Hightsearch.com from the homepage > Enter the URL that you perfer > click on OK.
Mozilla Firefox
Go 'Tools' → 'Options'→ 'General'. In the Homepage field, change Hightsearch.com to google.com.

Step4. Restore browser settings to defaults.

Google Chrome

Click the Chrome menu (3 bar button) in the top right corner > Choose Settings > Click Show advanced settings > Go to Reset browser settings section > Click Reset browser settings > In the dialog that appears, click Reset.

Mozilla Firefox
Open Mozilla Firefox > Go to Help > Go to Troubleshooting information > Click Reset Firefox… button.

Internet Explorer
Click on the cogwheel in the right upper corner > Click Internet options > Go to Advanced tab > Click Reset button > Put a tick near Delete personal settings checkbox > Click Reset button.

Conclusion

Hightsearch.com is as annoying and dangerous as the rest of browser hijacker around the cyber world. Once it gets inside the infected computer, it will be very difficult to remove it in a short time. It must be frustrating when Hightsearch.com appears on the browser each time it starts up. But you will be surprised to see that it still remains in system. This redirect virus will also frequently pop up a number of ads, discounts, deals and coupons on your browsers, most of which are mainly based on your search terms and browsing history - this could prove that this redirect virus would collect your confidential information while it stays on your computer. All of these help it to stay longer and avoid from detection and deletion.

Note: If you think manual is too complicated and may cause system instable or other problems. If you still don't clearly know how to manually remove the threat after reading the guide above, please download and use an automatic removal tool instead.