Search.searchvzc.com

What is Search.searchvzc.com?

If your web browser’s homepage, new tab page and/or search provider was replaced by Search.searchvzc.com without your authorization, then you are in some trouble. However, there is nothing you cannot fix on your own. Our malicious software analysts have classified this search engine as a browser hijacker and suggest that you remove it from your PC because of the fact that it can hijack your browser’s settings and also potentially show commercial advertisements in its search results. The developers have to make money from this search engine because there is no reason for them to make it and then pay for the servers and so on.

Where does Search.searchvzc.com come from?

Search.searchvzc.com comes from the infamous Polarity Technologies Ltd. This fake company has recently reappeared with a new batch of browser hijacker releases. This developer is responsible for publishing other hijackers such as Search.yourmapscenter.com, Search.youremailnow.com, Search.yourclassifiedscenter.com, and many others. All of its hijackers look and work in a similar manner, but some of them are distributed using different channels. Apparently, this hijacker is distributed Descargar.es, Filewon.com, and Malavida.es that are software distributing websites. The featured software is bundled with Search.searchvzc.com and installed along the primary program by default. However, you can opt for advanced or custom installation settings and uncheck this hijacker’s installation.

What does Search.searchvzc.com do?

The bundled installers featured on the websites above have been configured to inject this malicious search engine into your web browser. Researchers say that the installers have been set to inject this hijacker if you use Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. It is designed to replace the homepage address, new tab page and search provider to make you use Search.searchvzc.com to search the web. If you ignore the fact that your browsing-related settings have been hijacked and use it, then you will get modified search results. Search.searchvzc.com is not a real search engine because it redirects all entered search queries to a modified Yahoo search engine. As a result, you will get Yahoo’s search results, but the downside is that the results can be modified and promotional links can be added by this hijacker to generate its developer’s ad revenue. However, we want to warn you that the promoted links can redirect you to unknown and potentially malicious websites. So that is one of the reasons why you should not keep this hijacker on your PC.

Before we move on to this hijacker’s deletion, we think it is important to discuss its privacy policy. According to the policy, “we may collect personally-identifiable information through the use of our Services upon your contacting us so that we may respond to your questions or comments, such as your name, email or mailing address, or other information you include when contacting us.” As you can see, in some instances, this hijacker may require you to provide some personal information. However, the policy does not outline how this personal information is obtained. In addition to that, Search.searchvzc.com has been set to collect information such as your browsing history automatically, search queries, browser type, operating system type, Internet Service Provider (ISP,) geographic location, IP address, and some other bits of information. The developers use all of this collected information to present you with personalized search results and ads. You should disable browser cookies to minimize the amount of collected non-personally identifiable information.

How do I remove Search.searchvzc.com?

Evidently, Search.searchvzc.com is one highly unreliable search engine that you can do without having because its developers distribute it in a deceptive way to make money off advertising. The search results of this hijacker can feature ads that can put your computer’s security in jeopardy. Therefore, we suggest that you remove it using the instructions provided below this article.

Manual Removal Instructions

Microsoft Internet Explorer

1. Press Windows+R keys.
2. Type regedit in the dialog box and press OK.
3. Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
4. Find the Start Page sub key.
5. Right-click it and click Modify.
6. Replace Search.searchvzc.com with your preferred search engine.
7. Click OK.
8. Then go to the following sub keys at HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}
   • FaviconURL
   • FaviconURLFallback
   • TopResultURL
   • URL
9. Right-click each of them and click Modify.
10. Replace http://Search.searchvzc.com/favicon.ico and http://Search.searchvzc.com with your preferred search engine URL.
11. Click OK.
12. Close the Registry Editor.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Windows+E keys.
2. Type %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ and hit Enter.
3. Enter the randomly named folder.
4. Find a file named prefs.js and open it using Notepad.
5. Locate user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://Search.searchvzc.com");
6. Replace http://Search.searchvzc.com with your preferred search engine address.
7. Save and Close.

Google Chrome

1. Press Windows+E keys.
2. Type %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default and hit Enter.
3. Find Preferences, Secure Preferences and Web Data files.
4. Open them using Notepad.
5. Find and replace http://Search.searchvzc.com with your preferred search engine in all strings.
6. Save and Close. Download Removal Tool100% FREE spyware scan and
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