Do you know what ForSearch.net is?
ForSearch.net (users usually see forsearch.net/home opened for them) is an untrustworthy domain which is presented as a search service, so if your web browsers ever start opening it for you, you should go to remove it. In most cases, such dubious search providers like ForSearch.net are set on users’ browsers when a browser hijacker successfully enters their computers, so you might need to erase it too in order to remove ForSearch.net from all web browsers. Some researchers say that it might pretend to be a decent Bing search engine, but you, undoubtedly, need to erase it no matter how it looks. Since ForSearch.net applies changes on all popular browsers, including Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox, it will not be very easy to delete it manually, especially if you know nothing about the system registry and have never even opened it before, but try not to worry now – it should become clear after reading this article what your next moves should be.
Some users do not go to delete ForSearch.net from their browsers until they find out the whole truth about this browser hijacker. Let us start by saying that this URL only pretends to be a powerful search engine. According to our experienced specialists, it is more likely that it shows up on users’ browsers to display them ads and generate money for the developer (the more clicks on ads, the more money the developer receives). Although it has a search box and returns search results, it has become clear after looking at its search results page closer that it mainly displays the modified search results for users. They have nothing in common with the entered search query and are only shown for users so that they would click on them. Clicking on these modified search results is considered a dangerous activity because they might redirect straight to bad websites administered by cyber criminals. Unfortunately, search results do not have labels informing users which of them are good and which of them are not, so, generally speaking, it will be impossible to avoid these modified search results if you decide to continue using ForSearch.net.
You should be aware of the fact that ForSearch.net does not contain any information about the ownership and does not have links opening such important documents as the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. This immediately puts it into the category of suspicious search tools because legitimate pages allow users to read these documents and thus find out how they are going to act on their computers. Since such important documents do not exist, ForSearch.net might perform activities behind a user’s back too. For example, it might collect personally-identifiable information and record other details about Internet-browsing habits and online activities without permission. You are the one who can decide whether to let it act like this on your system or not, but, of course, it is highly recommended to remove it as soon as possible.
ForSearch.net screenshot
Scroll down for full removal instructions
Users do not set ForSearch.net on their browsers, and it, without a doubt, does not have an official website, so, according to our specialists, it must be true that it is distributed through bundled malicious installers. Most probably, this browser hijacker is only one of several items that have been installed on your computer from this bundle. As a consequence, you might need to erase other undesirable applications from your PC too next to the ForSearch.net browser hijacker.
Please follow our manual removal guide to erase ForSearch.net fully from your web browsers. Since you will have to undo the changes applied in the system registry, it will not be easy to delete this threat. If our manual removal instructions do not help you at all to take care of this threat too, use an automatic malware remover. The one you have is, evidently, untrustworthy if the ForSearch.net browser hijacker is inside your system, so go to replace it with another reputable antimalware scanner.
Delete ForSearch.net manually
Internet Explorer
- Launch Run (press Win+R).
- Type regedit in the box and click OK.
- Move to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main and find the Start Page value.
- Right-click on this value, select Modify, and clear the Value data field.
- Do the same (use the 4th step of this removal guide) with Values located in HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A} too:
- FaviconURL
- FaviconURLFallback
- TopResultURL
- URL
Mozilla Firefox
- Press Win+E.
- Open %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles and check all folders you find there in order to locate the prefs.js file.
- Right-click on it, select Open with, and choose Notepad.
- After you open this file, find the string user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http:// forsearch.net "); inside it and remove it.
- Save the changes.
Google Chrome
- Tap Win+E.
- Open %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default.
- Locate three files there: Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data.
- Delete them all one after the other.
In non-techie terms:
As you can find mentioned in the fourth paragraph of this article, the ForSearch.net browser hijacker could have been installed on your computer together with other malicious items. Leaving them installed on the computer might result in the entrance of additional bad software, and they might perform activities behind your back which might result in all kinds of problems and the decreased computer speed and performance. What we want to say here is that you cannot leave them installed on your PC either.