What is Time-search2016.com?
Time-search2016.com is a potentially harmful search engine that seems to behave like a sleeping cell. Similarly to other identical search engines from the same creators, including Paper-search2016.com, Newsearch2016.com, and Mim-search2016.com, this page does not function either. Our malware researchers at anti-spyware-101.com say that the creators could be waiting till several of their search pages start to spread more widely and only then will they activate the server. We have categorized this threat as a browser hijacker since it can modify your home page setting in your Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer browsers. When fully functioning, this hijacker may spy on you and display potentially unreliable third-party web content on your screen. Another bad piece of news about its presence on your computer is that it is quite likely that you will find other malware infections on your system endangering your virtual security. If you want to protect your PC, we advise you to remove Time-search2016.com from your browsers even if it looks innocent to you right now.
Where does Time-search2016.com come from?
Similarly to most of its peers, this browser hijacker can also infiltrate your system after you click on the wrong third-party content, which can be banner or pop-up advertisements or simple links as well. Unfortunately, when you click on such commercials, there is a good chance that Time-search2016.com will not be the only uninvited guest on your system. It is more likely that you find this browser hijacker travelling the web in free software bundles packed with a number of other malware threats, such as adware programs, fake alerts, browser hijackers, and potentially unwanted programs as well.
Being exposed to an annoying number of potential traps, i.e., unsafe third-party advertisements can have two main reasons. First, your computer could have been infected previously with adware programs or hijackers, which are capable of generating such unreliable ads. Second, you visit questionable websites relating to gambling, gaming, and file sharing (torrent and shareware). In both cases, it only takes a single click from your part to drop a malicious package onto your computer. Therefore, we suggest that you only use official and reputable websites whenever you want to download free programs and any other free files, including music, video, book, or movie files. Ending up with a bundle of threats can cause multiple system security issues. This is why we suggest that you scan your system with a proper malware scanner to identify all possible threats after you remove Time-search2016.com.
How does Time-search2016.com work?
The question should be how this browser hijacker is supposed to work since as we have said, similarly to all its predecessors in the family, this search engine does not do anything for the time being. This hijacker has a very unique design that makes it easy to recognize and distinguish from the others. On a greenish blue background, you can see eight brown panels or boxes below the search field. These boxes are search categories, such as Arts, Health, Business, and Games. All these contain 5-5 keywords. If you click on these, they appear in the search box but no real search takes place. In fact this is the only thing that actually seems to work on this page.
When active, this browser hijacker could collect information about your online activities, including your search keywords, to build a profile on you, which could be shared with third parties. This way, cyber criminals could have a weapon against you and use your curiosity to lure you onto malicious websites in an attempt to scam you. How could you say no, for example, to an advertisement that claims to have the best price on a product you have been looking for lately? This search engine could modify search results to include such ads and sponsored links since this is the only way for it to generate revenue for its creators. Even if it does not seem to work temporarily, we believe that you should remove Time-search2016.com from your browsers.
How to delete Time-search2016.com
There are two main options for you if you want to clean your computer. First, you can reset the affected browsers, which would restore the factory default state so you would lose all your preferred settings and newly downloaded extensions as well. Second, you can try to manually remove Time-search2016.com by following our instructions below. If you do not think you can protect your system effectively by avoiding questionable websites and clicking on random third-party ads, we suggest that you find a reliable anti-malware program, such as SpyHunter, and install it as soon as possible to prevent malicious programs from entering your virtual world.
Time-search2016.com removal from browsers
Mozilla Firefox
- Tap Win+E.
- Open “C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{Unique Mozilla user ID}” folder.
- Edit prefs.js in a text editor.
- Replace “time-search2016.com” in the user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://time-search2016.com/") string with a URL of your liking.
Google Chrome
- Tap Win+E.
- Open “C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default” folder.
- Delete Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data files.
Internet Explorer
- Tap Win+Q and enter regedit. Press Enter.
- Overwrite “http://time-search2016.com” value data in these registry keys:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page (64-bit)
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page - Exit the registry editor.
tested removal of Time-search2016.com*
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