What is Search.searchwu.com?
Search.searchwu.com is a browser hijacker identical to many others, for instance, search.yourclassifiedscenter.com and search.yourpackagesnow.com. The first symptom of the presence of this browser hijacker on a user’s computer is a new URL (Search.searchwu.com) set in the place where a homepage should be. Users usually do not see a problem here, but they, surely, do not know that this new website might expose them to potential threats. Let us explain to you how this can happen in this article and then you could make a decision yourself about the future of Search.searchwu.com. If you decide that there is no place for this bothersome browser hijacker on your computer, we will help you to get rid of it too. Start reading!
What does Search.searchwu.com do?
Search.searchwu.com takes over all browsers, except Edge, so users are forced to make searches on it. Our specialists do not recommend doing that because this can bring many problems. Of course, users do not even suspect that Search.searchwu.com is not a trustworthy search provider despite the fact that it looks decent. As a consequence, they risk experiencing issues related to privacy and security every day by using it. According to malware analysts working at anti-spyware-101.com, the use of this dubious search tool belonging to a browser hijacker infection might be dangerous because it displays modified search results and might redirect users to unsafe websites. In most cases, users end up on these questionable websites after clicking on modified search results, so if Search.searchwu.com is not used as a default search provider, it should not cause security-related problems. Actually, ignoring this search provider is not the best solution to the problem because a) its presence will still not allow you to set a new homepage and b) it will continue performing activities on your PC even if it is not used as a tool for searching the web. As research has revealed, apart from modifying search results and redirecting users to third-party websites, Search.searchwu.com can record users’ browsing history and even collect the personal information. As a matter of fact, only personal details search queries contain will be recorded. More specifically, only those details entered in a search box by a user will be archived. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this does not make Search.searchwu.com less dangerous.
Actually, not everything about Search.searchwu.com is bad. Buttons on the bar at the top allow users with the click of a button to check the weather forecast, read the latest news on news.mynewswire.co (it is full of potentially dangerous ads), and, finally, check recent “pollen and allergy information.” Not all the websites it redirects users to are perfect, so, in the opinion of researchers, it would be silly to let Search.searchwu.com stay in the place of a homepage just because it contains the so-called easy-access buttons at its upper part.
Where does Search.searchwu.com come from?
Bundling is the main method used to distribute Search.searchwu.com. Specifically speaking, this browser hijacker infiltrates computers together with free software users download from the web. It can also enter a computer without users’ knowledge if a malicious website is visited or a user clicks on an ad-supported link. Needless to say, it does not ask for permission to enter a computer directly. If the Search.searchwu.com browser hijacker has successfully infiltrated your computer, you should be able to come across several changes it has made on the system. It has been noticed that it goes to change the data of the Start Page value in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main so that it could change a user’s preferred homepage. The second change is made inside the prefs.js file of Mozilla Firefox – it contains information about users’ preferences. Last but not least, three files (Web Data, Secure Preferences, and Preferences) of Google Chrome are modified to apply changes on this browser. What you can do to undo the changes made is to delete completely the Search.searchwu.com browser hijacker.
How do I remove Search.searchwu.com from browsers?
Further damage can be avoided by going to remove Search.searchwu.com immediately after finding it set as a homepage on all browsers. Use our professional removal instructions (find them below this report) to delete it manually from each of your web browsers separately or go straight to launch the automatic malware remover. Most likely, you do not have an antimalware tool installed on your PC, or it is not the most trustworthy one if it has allowed Search.searchwu.com to make changes on your browsers, so, if you make a decision to delete a browser hijacker from your PC automatically, you should first go to acquire a reputable scanner, such as SpyHunter.
Delete Search.searchwu.com manually
Internet Explorer
- Press Win+R simultaneously on your keyboard.
- Type regedit in the box you see and click OK.
- Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
- Locate the Value called Start Page there and right-click on it.
- Select Modify.
- Delete data from the Value data field or enter a new URL, e.g. http://www.google.com there.
- Click OK.
- Open HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}.
- Delete Value data fields from the following Values or set up a new URL:
- FaviconURL
- FaviconURLFallback
- TopResultURL
- URL
Mozilla Firefox
- Press Win+E.
- Open %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ and find a folder with random symbols as its name. Open it.
- Locate the prefs.js file in it.
- Open it with Notepad (right-click on a file, click Open with, and select Notepad from the list).
- Delete user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://Search.searchwu.com"); from this file.
- Save the changes.
Google Chrome
- Open the Windows Explorer by pressing Win+E.
- Move to %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default.
- Find three files in this folder: Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data.
- Open these files with Notepad (right-click on a file, click Open with, and choose Notepad) one after the other.
- Replace http://Search.searchwu.com lines inside them with http://www.google.com or the website you prefer to see.
- Save the changes.
tested removal of Search.searchwu.com*
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