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HotStartSearch Removal Guide

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Do you know what HotStartSearch is?

HotStartSearch is the name of a search engine that is promoted via various free applications. If you launch the installer of some program and pay no attention to the information given, there is a great possibility that you may not notice some check boxes which enable you to choose what changes should be made. When the user finds that the home page and search engine of such browsers as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox are changed, they believed that the computers have been infected. They think that the changes have been introduced without their permission, which is why such terms as browser hijacker and virus are used to discuss the suspicious search provider.

We recommend that you remove HotStartSearch or hotstartsearch.com/searchy as instead of relevant search results which you would be provided with on Google, you will find links to advertising websites, and this is how various websites earn money. If you want to get relevant hits, you need to change the search provider. In order to do so, you can either try deleting the so-called hijacker manually or remove it using anti-spyware software.

HotStartSearch may also generate pop-up advertisements which are presented for the same purpose which is to attract as many visitors as possible. Sometime such advertisements may help the user to find what he or she is looking for, but it is always important to keep in mind that behind some pop-up ads there might be cyber criminals seeking to infect computers with malware.

The sooner you remove HotStartSearch, the sooner you can use the Internet as usual. If you are sure that the changes of the settings have been made without your approval, the instructions provided below may be insufficient, especially if the system contains some infections. Hence a powerful spyware removal tool should be implemented. We recommend using SpyHunter as this software has been used for the removal of even more complex threats than the application that has made HotStartSearch your home page.

HotStartSearch removal

Windows Vista and Windows 7

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Click Control Panel - > Uninstall a program.
  3. Double-click the unwanted program.

Windows XP

  1. Open the Start menu and click Control Panel.
  2. Select Add or Remove Programs.
  3. Mark the program that you want to remove and click the Remove button.

Windows 8

  1. Hover the mouse over the lower left corner of the screen.
  2. Right-click.
  3. Select Control Panel.
  4. Click Uninstall a program.
  5. Double-click the unwanted application.

How to remove HotStartSearch from the browsers

Internet Explorer

  1. Press Alt+T.
  2. Click Internet Options.
  3. Open the Advanced tab and click Reset.
  4. Click the check box given and click Reset - > Close.

Mozilla Firefox

  1. Press Alt+H.
  2. Click Troubleshooting Information.
  3. Click Reset Firefox.
  4. When a new window pops up, click Reset Firefox and then click Finish.

Google Chrome

  1. Press Alt+T.
  2. Point to Tools and click Extensions.
  3. Remove the unwanted add-on.
  4. Click Settings.
  5. In the On startup section, click Set pages and change the startup page.
  6. In the Search section, click Manage search engines and type a new URL.

In non-techie terms:

HotStartSearch is a search engine that can be set as your search provider if some unwanted browser add-on is installed. In order to restore the settings of the browsers, it is necessary to remove the application that has altered the browsers.

Aliases: Hot Start Search.