The go.searchlock.com popup ads should not be underestimated, because the reason for their appearance within your web browser may be an installed ‘ad-supported’ software (also known as adware) onto your PC. It can bring a security risk to your system. So, do not ignore it! Of course, the go.searchlock.com is just a web page, but the adware uses it to display intrusive and unwanted ads, even without your permission and desire to see it. The unwanted ads can be just the beginning, because your PC is hijacked by dangerous software, so the amount of pop-up ads in the future may increase. Its appearance will prevent you normally browse the pages, and more, can lead to crash the web-browser.
The malicious software from the ‘ad-supported’ software family that alters the settings of web browsers usually affects only the Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, FF and Microsoft Edge. However, possible situations, when any other browsers will be affected too. The adware may change the Target property of a browser’s shortcut, so every time you run the internet browser, instead of your start page, you will see the unwanted go.searchlock.com ads.
The ad supported software is the part of the software that is used as an online promotional tool. It’s created with the sole purpose to open dozens of pop-up ads, and thus to promote the goods and services in an open internet browser window. So, the go.searchlock.com is just one of the many web-sites of the so-called ‘ad-support’ type. It is designed to fill the internet browser’s constant stream of advertisements. Moreover, the ad supported software can substitute the legitimate advertising banners on misleading or even banners that can offer to visit malicious web-sites. The reason is simple, many advertisers agree on any ways to attract users to their web pages, so the creators of adware, often forcing users to click on an advertising link. For each click on a link, the authors of the adware receive income. It’s the so-called ‘Pay-Per-Click’ method.
We suggest you to remove adware and clean your computer from go.searchlock.com popup ads ASAP, until the presence of the adware has not led to even worse consequences. You need to follow the step-by-step instructions below that will allow you to completely remove the reroute to go.searchlock.com unwanted web-site, using only the built-in Windows features and a few of specialized free tools.
How does go.searchlock.com ads get installed onto computer
Just as the beginning of this post, if you have ever seen the go.searchlock.com web site appear in your web browser, it means your system has been infected with the adware. Most often adware is bundled with free programs. So, think back, have you ever download and start any freeware? Because most users, in the Setup Wizard, simply press the Next button and don’t read any information such as ‘Terms of use’ and ‘Software license’. This leads to the fact that the computer is infected, the web browser’s configured to open lots of the go.searchlock.com unwanted advertisements. Even removing the free programs that contains this adware, the unwanted ads does not disappear. Therefore, you must follow the steps below to clean your PC system from the ad-supported software and thereby delete go.searchlock.com redirect.
How to manually remove go.searchlock.com
If you perform exactly the step-by-step instructions below you should be able to remove the go.searchlock.com redirect. Read it once, after doing so, please print this page as you may need to close your web-browser or reboot your PC system.
- Remove suspicious and unknown software by using Windows Control Panel
- Disinfect the browser’s shortcuts to get rid of go.searchlock.com redirect
- Get rid of go.searchlock.com advertisements from Chrome
- Remove go.searchlock.com advertisements from Mozilla Firefox
- Get rid of go.searchlock.com ads from Internet Explorer
- Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks
Delete suspicious and unknown software by using Windows Control Panel
First, you should try to identify and remove the program that causes the appearance of unwanted ads and web-browser redirect to unwanted web-pages, using the ‘Uninstall a program’ which is located in the ‘Control panel’.
Windows 8, 8.1, 10
, then click Search 
. Type ‘Control panel’and press Enter as on the image below. 
When the ‘Control Panel’ opens, click the ‘Uninstall a program’ under Programs category as shown below. 
You will see the ‘Uninstall a program’ panel as shown below. 
Very carefully look around the entire list of installed software. Most likely, one or more of them are responsible for the internet browser redirect to unwanted go.searchlock.com popup ads. If you have many programs installed, you can help simplify the search of malicious applications by sort the list by date of installation. Once you have found a suspicious, unwanted or unused program, right click to it and press ‘Uninstall’.
Windows XP, Vista, 7
When the Windows ‘Control Panel’ opens, you need to press ‘Uninstall a program’ under ‘Programs’ as on the image below. 
You will see a list of software installed on your PC system. We recommend to sort the list by date of installation to quickly find the applications that were installed last. Most likely they responsibility for the appearance of annoying pop-up ads and web-browser redirect. If you are in doubt, you can always check the application by doing a search for her name in Google, Yahoo or Bing. When the application, you need to delete, is found, simply press on its name, and then click ‘Uninstall’ as shown in the figure below. 
Disinfect the browser’s shortcuts to get rid of go.searchlock.com redirect
When installed, the ad-supported software may add an argument similar “http://site.address” into the Target property of the desktop shortcut for the Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. Due to this, every time you open the browser, it will show the go.searchlock.com annoying web site.
Right click on the browser’s shortcut, click Properties option. On the Shortcut tab, locate the Target field. Click inside, you will see a vertical line – arrow pointer, move it (using -> arrow key on your keyboard) to the right as possible. You will see a text which starts with “http://”. Remove it or everything after .exe. An example, for Google Chrome you should remove everything after chrome.exe.
Next, click OK to save changes. You need to clean all web browser’s shortcuts. So, repeat this step for the FF, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge.
Get rid of go.searchlock.com advertisements from Chrome
Reset Chrome settings is a simple way to get rid of the malicious and ad-supported extensions, as well as to restore the browser’s start page and search provider by default that have been changed by adware.
- Open the Google Chrome, then click the Menu icon (icon in the form of three horizontal stripes).
- It will show the Chrome main menu. Click the “Settings” menu.
- Next, click the “Show advanced settings” link, that located at the bottom of the Settings page.
- Further, click the “Reset settings” button, which located at the bottom of the Advanced settings page.
- The Chrome will display the reset settings dialog box as shown on the screen above.
- Confirm the internet browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
- To learn more, look the post How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.
Remove go.searchlock.com advertisements from Mozilla Firefox
First, start the Mozilla Firefox. Next, press the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (
). It will display the drop-down menu. Next, click the “Help” button (
).
In the Help menu, click the “Troubleshooting Information”. In the upper-right corner of the “Troubleshooting Information” page, click “Refresh Firefox” button.
Confirm your action, press the “Refresh Firefox”.
Get rid of go.searchlock.com ads from Internet Explorer
To get rid of the go.searchlock.com you need to reset the IE to the state, which was when the Windows was installed on your personal computer.
First, launch the Internet Explorer, then press ‘gear’ icon 
. It will display the drop-down menu on the right part of the web-browser, then click the “Internet Options” as shown below.
In the “Internet Options” screen, you need to select the “Advanced” tab and click the “Reset” button. The IE will open the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” prompt like below. Next, click the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. After that, click the “Reset” button.
Once the procedure is complete, click “Close” button. Close the Internet Explorer and reboot your PC system for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your internet browser’s settings to default state and disable ‘ad-supported’ extensions.
Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks
If the annoying go.searchlock.com web site opens automatically on Windows startup or at equal time intervals, then you need to check the Task Scheduler Library and remove all the tasks that have been created by ‘ad-supported’ program.
Press Windows and R keys on the keyboard simultaneously. This opens a prompt that titled with Run. In the text field, type “taskschd.msc” (without the quotes) and click OK. Task Scheduler window opens. In the left-hand side, press “Task Scheduler Library”, as shown in the following image.
Task scheduler
In the middle part you will see a list of installed tasks. Select the first task, its properties will be show just below automatically. Next, click the Actions tab. Pay attention to that it launches on your system. Found something like “explorer.exe http://site.address” or “chrome.exe http://site.address”, then you need remove it. If you are not sure that executes the task, check it through a search engine. If it is a component of the adware, then this task also should be removed.
Having defined the task that you want to delete, then click on it with the right mouse button and select Delete as on the image below.
Delete a task
Repeat this step, if you have found a few tasks that have been created by adware. Once is complete, close the Task Scheduler window.
Delete go.searchlock.com pop-ups with Malwarebytes
Delete go.searchlock.com manually is difficult and often the ad-supported software is not completely removed. Therefore, we recommend you to use the Malwarebytes Free which are completely clean your personal computer. The Malwarebytes is a reputable malware removal program. It can automatically detect and remove the adware (sometimes called ‘ad-supported’ software) of the your PC system. Moreover, this free program will help you to delete browser hijackers, malware and toolbars that your computer may be infected too. You can follow the step-by-step guide below to delete the go.searchlock.com annoying redirect completely.
Download Malwarebytes Free from the link below.
326382 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
Once downloaded, close all programs and windows on your personal computer. Open a directory in which you saved it. Double-click on the icon that’s named mb3-setup like below.
When the setup begins, you will see the “Setup wizard” that will help you install Malwarebytes on your machine.
When install is finished, you will see window as on the image below.
Now press on the “Scan Now” button to start checking your computer for the adware that causes the redirect to go.searchlock.com web site. This process can take some time, so please be patient.
Once the system scan is finished, make sure all entries have “checkmark” and click “Quarantine Selected” button. The Malwarebytes will start removing the ad-supported software related files, folders, registry keys. When the disinfection is finished, you may be prompted to restart the computer.
The following video explains the step-by-step instructions above on how to delete adware with Malwarebytes Anti-malware.
Stop go.searchlock.com and other unwanted web pages
To increase your security and protect your personal computer against new unwanted advertisements and malicious pages, you need to use program that stops access to dangerous ads and web pages. Moreover, the application can block the show of intrusive advertising, which also leads to faster loading of web-sites and reduce the consumption of web traffic.
Download AdGuard program from the following link.
26627 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
Once the downloading process is finished, run the file named adguardInstaller. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen as shown on the screen below.
Follow the prompts. When the installation is finished, you will see a window as shown in the following image.
You can click “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” button to see an quick tutorial which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you run your computer, AdGuard will launch automatically and block pop-ups, pages such as go.searchlock.com, as well as other malicious or misleading web-pages. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, which is located on your Windows desktop.
Get rid of go.searchlock.com pop-up ads and malicious extensions with AdwCleaner.
If MalwareBytes cannot delete the annoying go.searchlock.com pop-ups from the Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Edge, then we suggests to use the AdwCleaner. AdwCleaner is a free removal tool for adware, browser hijackers, PUPs and toolbars.
Download AdwCleaner using the link below.
225259 downloads
Version: 8.4.1
Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
Category: Security tools
Update: October 5, 2024
Once the downloading process is done, open the directory in which you saved it. Double click the AdwCleaner icon. Once this utility is opened, you will see a screen such as below.
Now, press the “Scan” button . This will start scanning the whole computer to find out malicious extensions and ‘ad-supported’ software that shows advertisements from go.searchlock.com site. Once the system scan is done, it will display a scan report as shown below.
Review the report and then press “Clean” button. It will open a prompt. Click “OK”. When the clean up is complete, AdwCleaner may ask you to reboot your computer.
Look at the following video, which completely explains the procedure of using the AdwCleaner to delete adware, browser hijackers and other malicious programs.
Finish words
Now your personal computer should be clean of the go.searchlock.com pop-ups. Remove AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted ads and annoying dangerous web-pages) and Malwarebytes (to periodically scan your machine for new malware and ‘ad-supported’ software). Probably you are running an older version of Java or Adobe Flash Player. This can be a security risk, so download and install the latest version right now.
If you are still having problems while trying to delete go.searchlock.com advertisements from your computer, then ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.
