What is Discover My Ancestry?
Have you ever thought of analyzing your family tree? If you have, you probably know a lot of methods that can help you do that way better than Discover My Ancestry. This browser extension may look like it can help you discover your family tree and other important pieces of information, but the truth is that it is there to make money. And in the midst of doing that, the extension might accidentally expose you to potentially harmful content, so it is for the best to remove Discover My Ancestry from your browser. You can scroll down to the bottom of this description for the manual removal instructions.
Where does Discover My Ancestry come from?
The extension seems to be part of a big browser plug-in family that just keeps on growing. Our research suggests that Discover My Ancestry is very similar to My Utility Box, and a number of other extensions that we have recently covered on your site. The good news is that most of those programs can be removed following the same guidelines. The bad news is that the more programs appear, the more trouble you will have trying to deal with them.
Just like most of the apps from the same group, Discover My Ancestry can be downloaded from its official homepage. The homepage can be accessed via discovernyancestry.com. The extension is also available at the Chrome Web Store. Hence, it is more than obvious that the extension is not a malicious infection as you have to add it to your browser yourself.
However, Discover My Ancestry may enter your system in other ways, too. Direct distribution source is one of the many routes this plug-in could take. It is far more likely that it arrives in a software package with some other application that you have found on a file-sharing website. If you go through the installation automatically, you may add Discover My Ancestry to your browser, and then the next time you open it, you are already greeted by a new homepage.
What does Discover My Ancestry do?
Due to the fact that Discover My Ancestry can change your homepage address, some users think that the application is similar to a browser hijacker. However, as mentioned, unless you add the extension willingly, it cannot enter your system. Consequently, you agree to these modifications even if you are not aware of that. As a result, this program changes your homepage and the new tab settings. Although it does not modify your default search engine, the program can still redirect your search queries to query.discovermyancestry.com, and then to Yahoo! Search. This will happen if you use the search field available on the homepage.
Some of the search results provided by this extension will be related to your likes and preferences. Discover My Ancestry will be able to provide you with custom content because this extension employs tracking cookies to collect data on what websites you visit and what you usually search for online. Of course, it cannot collect personal information, and it cannot steal your financial data, so here you can breathe a sigh of relief. Nevertheless, it is not safe to see a lot of commercial and custom content all of the time. Not to mention that Discover My Ancestry does not review the content it promotes, and some of it could eventually redirect you to malware-related websites.
As you can see, even if you want to discover your family tree, this extension might not be the best tool for that. It has a lot more side effects that we would want. And computer security experts say that you would do yourself a favor if you removed it today.
How do I remove Discover My Ancestry?
There are at least two ways to get rid of this extension. You can delete it via the Extensions menu on your browser, but security experts recommend resetting your browser to default. That way, all the unwanted plug-ins will be deleted.
If you think that there might be more potential threats on your computer, you can always run a full system scan with a licensed antispyware tool. If you invest in a security application, you will also be able to secure your computer against similar intruders in the future.
Manual Discover My Ancestry Removal
Internet Explorer
- Press Alt+T and go to Internet options.
- Press the Advanced tab and click Reset.
- Mark Delete personal settings and press Reset.
- Click Close.
Firefox
- Press Alt+H and go to Troubleshooting information.
- At the top right of the new tab, click Refresh Firefox.
- Press Refresh Firefox again to confirm.
- Click Finish.
Chrome
- Press Alt+F and navigate to Settings.
- Press Advanced at the bottom of the page.
- Scroll down to the bottom and press Reset.
- Click Reset.
100% FREE spyware scan and
tested removal of Discover My Ancestry*
0 Comments.