What is Search.starttab.co?
If you notice that the home page of your browsers changes to a search page like Search.starttab.co, you should always double-check what you are up against. Our malware specialists at anti-spyware-101.com say that this is indeed a browser hijacker that comes from a notorious family that is also responsible for dozens of other infections, including Search.sonicpdfconverter.com and Search.searchiswt.com. This hijacker can collect information about you and introduce you to potentially unreliable customized content through the search results it may show. Right now it seems that the web server is down because this search engine does not display any results whatsoever. Still, since most of the other hijackers from this family appear to be working, it is possible that this is just temporary. In any case, we advise you to remove Search.starttab.co from your computer because it is just not safe to have it on board.
Where does Search.starttab.co come from?
It is quite likely that most of the PCs around the world have been infected with hijackers at some point. Such an infection is quite easy to install even without noticing it. The main reason behind this is that third-party software installers can be quite tricky to hide or make it a bit difficult for you to see the checkboxes and notifications about the browser setting changes. These checkboxes are ticked in the majority of the cases to make sure that if the unsuspecting user ignores them, those changes and additional tools will be installed by default. Some installers may not even let you install your target software unless you tick these boxes. This is obviously aggressive marketing and should not be tolerated; you can simply cancel the whole installation process if you experience this, because it may be all the safer for you.
It is quite simple to download such a bundle if you download free files from questionable file-sharing sites or you tend to click on third-party ads and other misleading content, such as fake update notifications. We always recommend that you download software and updates only and exclusively from official and reputable websites. It also helps to determine whether a site is safe to use if you run a web search on your target application and the website as well. If there is any possible issue with these, you would definitely find a few hits right on the first search results page that tell you what you should delete Search.starttab.co or any other questionable threat.
Another possibility is that your system has already been infiltrated by malware threats, such as adware. In this case you are never secure to use your browsers and go online because even reputable websites can display potentially harmful third-party ads that are compromised by the infection on your system. No wonder why we advise you to frequently run a malware scan on your computer to be up-to-date about your malware situation. But when you find this hijacker in your browsers, you should definitely run a scan right after you remove Search.starttab.co.
How does Search.starttab.co work?
Once this hijacker manages to slither onto your system, it changes your home page settings in your Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox browsers. Therefore, you will be exposed to this potentially harmful featured search website every time you launch any of these browsers. This search site has the very same pseudo-toolbar at the top of the page as all others in this family. On the left, starting with the search tool, the news and local weather links, and then, a few other links redirecting to e-mail servers and popular pages, including Gmail and Facebook. Obviously, you can easily bookmark any preferred page you want to reach with a click if you use the bookmark function of your browsers. We advise you to do that instead of letting such unreliable tools offer such links for you because reaching any sites through this hijacker could mean potentially unreliable third-party ads on promoted sites.
The same is true for the search engine because its results could contain unreliable ads and sponsored links. The creators of this search page can only make money if they promote their affiliates and drive web traffic to their pages. This would not be a problem if cyber criminals could not exploit it to lure you onto their malicious pages. Since this hijacker can be misused by crooks to display compromised ads and links, you could easily drop further infections or end up on malicious websites and lose your money by being scammed online. This is actually one of the main reasons why we tell you to remove Search.starttab.co from your system.
How do I delete Search.starttab.co?
We have included the necessary instructions below if you want to eliminate this threat manually. In fact, all you need to do is undo the home page setting changes or set a new URL you want to see when you open your browsers. This is really not that difficult to do even if you are not an advanced computer user. But it is still possible that you would prefer to use a professional anti-malware program (e.g., SpyHunter) to take all the burden of virtual security protection off your shoulders. Even if you decide to install such a program, we still recommend that you update all your programs and drivers regularly to avoid further cyber attacks.
How to remove Search.starttab.co from your browsers
Mozilla Firefox
- Open the Tools menu by tapping Alt+T.
- Navigate to Options.
- In the left panel, choose General.
- Click Restore to Default.
Google Chrome
- Open the menu by tapping Alt+F.
- Navigate to Settings.
- In the On Startup section, select Open a specific page or set of pages.
- Click Set pages and in the pop-up, enter a new home page URL.
- Delete the undesirable URL from the list.
- Click OK.
Internet Explorer
- Open the Tools menu by tapping Alt+T.
- Go to Internet options.
- Select the General tab and click Use default.
- Click OK.
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