How to remove OnlinePrivacy Search [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

In order to force you to use OnlinePrivacy Search as often as possible this browser hijacker can modify your browsers’ search provider. You may even find that your personal computer’s internet browser shortcuts and Microsoft Windows HOSTS file are hijacked without your knowledge and conscious permission. The developers of this hijacker do so in order to earn money via Google AdSense or another third-party ad network. Thus every your click on advertisements which placed on the OnlinePrivacy Search generates revenue for them.

Although, OnlinePrivacy Search browser hijacker infection is not a virus, but it does bad things, and it can make changes to settings of all your typical web browsers. Moreover, an adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) can be additionally installed on to your machine with this browser hijacker infection, which will display a ton of ads, or even massive full page ads that blocks surfing the Web. Often such these advertisements can recommend to install other unknown and unwanted applications or visit harmful web pages.

The OnlinePrivacy Search hijacker usually affects only the Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. However, possible situations, when any other internet browsers will be affected too. The browser hijacker infection will perform a scan of the computer for internet browser shortcuts and change them without your permission. When it infects the web-browser shortcuts, it’ll add the argument such as ‘http://site.address’ into Target property. So, each time you launch the browser, you will see the OnlinePrivacy Search annoying site.

We suggest you to get rid of OnlinePrivacy Search redirect and clean your PC system of hijacker ASAP, until the presence of the hijacker infection has not led to even worse consequences. You need to follow the guide below that will assist you to completely remove OnlinePrivacy Search redirect, using only the built-in Windows features and a few of specialized free tools.

Remove OnlinePrivacy Search (removal tutorial)

There are exist several free hijacker removal tools. Also it is possible to get rid of OnlinePrivacy Search manually. But we recommend to combine all these ways below into the one removal algorithm. Follow the steps of the tutorial. Some of the steps will require you to restart your machine or close this page. So, read this guide carefully, then bookmark or print it for later reference.

How to manually get rid of OnlinePrivacy Search

The few simple steps will help you remove OnlinePrivacy Search . These OnlinePrivacy Search removal steps work for the Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE and MS Edge, as well as every version of MS Windows operating system.

Remove potentially unwanted applications through the Windows Control Panel

Some PUPs, browser hijacking software and ad-supported software may be uninstalled by uninstalling the freeware they came with. If this way does not succeed, then looking them up in the list of installed software in MS Windows Control Panel. Use the “Uninstall” command in order to get rid of them.

It will display the Windows Control Panel like below.

Next, click “Uninstall a program”
It will show a list of all programs installed on your PC. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall any suspicious and unknown software. To quickly find the latest installed programs, we recommend sort programs by date in the Control panel.

Remove OnlinePrivacy Search home page from Internet Explorer

By resetting Internet Explorer web-browser you restore your browser settings to its default state. This is basic when troubleshooting problems that might have been caused by hijacker such as OnlinePrivacy Search.

First, launch the Internet Explorer. Next, click the button in the form of gear (). It will open the Tools drop-down menu, click the “Internet Options” as displayed in the following example.

In the “Internet Options” window click on the Advanced tab, then click the Reset button. The IE will show the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” window as displayed below. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click “Reset” button.

You will now need to reboot your personal computer for the changes to take effect.

Delete OnlinePrivacy Search from Google Chrome

Reset Chrome settings is a easy way to remove the browser hijacker, malicious and ‘ad-supported’ extensions, as well as to restore the browser’s start page, newtab and default search provider that have been replaced by OnlinePrivacy Search hijacker.

1. First, launch the Google Chrome and click the Menu icon (icon in the form of three horizontal stripes).
2. It will display the Google Chrome main menu, press the “Settings” menu.
3. Next, click “Show advanced settings” link, that located at the bottom of the Settings page.
4. On the bottom of the “Advanced settings” page, click the “Reset settings” button.
5. The Chrome will show the reset settings dialog box as shown on the screen above.
6. Confirm the browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
7. To learn more, read the post How to reset Chrome settings to default.

Remove OnlinePrivacy Search from Firefox by resetting web browser settings

Resetting your Mozilla Firefox is basic troubleshooting step for any issues with your web browser program, including the reroute to OnlinePrivacy Search page.

First, start the Firefox and press button. It will open the drop-down menu on the right-part of the web-browser. Further, click the Help button () as displayed below

.

In the Help menu, select the “Troubleshooting Information” option. Another way to open the “Troubleshooting Information” screen – type “about:support” in the browser adress bar and press Enter. It will display the “Troubleshooting Information” page as displayed below. In the upper-right corner of this screen, click the “Refresh Firefox” button.

It will display the confirmation dialog box. Further, press the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Firefox will begin a task to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker that causes web-browsers to show annoying OnlinePrivacy Search site. When, it is done, click the “Finish” button.

Disinfect the internet browser’s shortcuts to remove OnlinePrivacy Search

A browser hijacker can hijack various Windows shortcuts on your desktop (most often, all internet browsers shortcuts), so in this step you need to check and clean them by removing the argument like http://site.address/.

To clear the web-browser shortcut, right-click to it and select Properties. 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 like “http://site.address” which has been added here. You need to delete it.

When the text is removed, click the OK button. You need to clean all shortcuts of all your web browsers, as they may be infected too.

Scan your computer and remove OnlinePrivacy Search with free utilities

There are not many good free antimalware programs with high detection ratio. The effectiveness of malicious software removal utilities depends on various factors, mostly on how often their virus/malware signatures DB are updated in order to effectively detect modern malicious software, ad supported software, hijackers and other potentially unwanted programs. We suggest to use several applications, not just one. These programs which listed below will help you get rid of all components of the hijacker infection from your disk and Windows registry and thereby remove OnlinePrivacy Search startpage.

Run Zemana AntiMalware to get rid of hijacker infection

Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) is a utility which can remove ad supported software, potentially unwanted applications, hijackers and other malicious software from your PC easily and for free. Zemana Free is compatible with most antivirus software. It works under Windows (10 – XP, 32 and 64 bit) and uses minimum of computer resources.

Download Zemana Free on your personal computer by clicking on the link below.

After the download is finished, close all software and windows on your PC. Double-click the install file named Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up like below, click the “Yes” button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” that will help you install Zemana AntiMalware on your computer. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.

Once install is done successfully, Zemana will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown on the screen below.

Now click the “Scan” button for checking your personal computer for the browser hijacker that causes web browsers to display annoying OnlinePrivacy Search web page. During the scan Zemana Free will detect all threats present on your system.

When the scan is complete, Zemana Free will display you the results. Review the results once the tool has done the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply press “Next” button. The Zemana Anti Malware will delete hijacker infection that causes internet browsers to display annoying OnlinePrivacy Search page. Once that process is complete, you may be prompted to restart the PC.

How to automatically remove OnlinePrivacy Search with Malwarebytes

We advise using the Malwarebytes Free. You can download and install Malwarebytes to find and delete OnlinePrivacy Search from your PC. When installed and updated, the free malicious software remover will automatically scan and detect all threats exist on the system.

1. Please download MalwareBytes from the following link. Save it on your Windows desktop.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware
   326384 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: April 15, 2020
   
2. At the download page, click on the Download button. Your web-browser will show the “Save as” prompt. Please save it onto your Windows desktop.
3. After the download is finished, please close all programs and open windows on your personal computer. Double-click on the icon that’s called mb3-setup.
4. This will open the “Setup wizard” of MalwareBytes Anti-Malware onto your PC system. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
5. When the Setup wizard has finished installing, the MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will launch and show the main window.
6. Further, click the “Scan Now” button to start scanning your computer for the browser hijacker that cause OnlinePrivacy Search web page to appear. This process can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the utility is checking, you can see how many objects and files has already scanned.
7. After the system scan is finished, the results are displayed in the scan report.
8. Next, you need to click the “Quarantine Selected” button. When disinfection is finished, you may be prompted to restart the system.
9. Close the AntiMalware and continue with the next step.

Video instruction, which reveals in detail the steps above.

Use AdwCleaner to delete OnlinePrivacy Search

AdwCleaner is a free removal utility that can be downloaded and use to delete browser hijacker infections, adware, malware, potentially unwanted applications, toolbars and other threats from your computer. You can run this tool to detect threats even if you have an antivirus or any other security application.

1. Download AdwCleaner on your PC system from the link below.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225260 downloads
   Version: 8.4.1
   Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: October 5, 2024
   
2. Select the file location as Desktop, and then press Save.
3. After the download is finished, run the AdwCleaner, double-click the adwcleaner_xxx.exe file.
4. If the “User Account Control” prompts, click Yes to continue.
5. Read the “Terms of use”, and click Accept.
6. In the AdwCleaner window, click the “Scan” .AdwCleaner application will scan through the whole computer for the hijacker infection that changes web browser settings to replace your home page, newtab and search provider by default with OnlinePrivacy Search web page. This task may take some time, so please be patient. When a threat is detected, the count of the security threats will change accordingly.
7. Once AdwCleaner has completed scanning, a list of all threats found is produced. In order to remove all items, simply click “Clean”. If the AdwCleaner will ask you to reboot your computer, press “OK”.

The guidance shown in detail in the following video.

Block OnlinePrivacy Search redirect and other undesired web-pages

If you browse the Internet, you cannot avoid malvertising. But you can protect your web browser against it. Download and run an ad-blocking program. AdGuard is an adblocker that can filter out a huge number of of the malicious advertising, blocking dynamic scripts from loading malicious content.

Installing the AdGuard ad-blocker program is simple. First you’ll need to download AdGuard by clicking on the link below. Save it on your Desktop.

When the downloading process is done, double-click the downloaded file to run it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen like below.

Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed and an icon will be placed on your desktop. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick instructions as shown in the figure below.

Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you run your PC system, AdGuard will run automatically and block ads, OnlinePrivacy Search redirect, as well as other harmful or misleading web-sites. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, which is located on your desktop.

How can you prevent your PC from the attack of OnlinePrivacy Search hijacker

A hijacker infections may be spread through the use of trojan horses and other forms of malware, but most commonly, the browser hijacker like OnlinePrivacy Search spreads along with certain free software. Many developers of free programs include optional programs in their setup file. Sometimes it is possible to avoid the install of any hijackers such as OnlinePrivacy Search: carefully read the Terms of Use and the Software license, select only Manual, Custom or Advanced install mode, unset all checkboxes before clicking Install or Next button while installing new free programs.

To sum up

Now your PC should be free of the hijacker that made to redirect your internet browser to the OnlinePrivacy Search web site. Delete AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep Zemana (to periodically scan your computer for new hijackers and other malware) and AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop up advertisements and harmful web-sites). Moreover, to prevent hijackers, please stay clear of unknown and third party programs, make sure that your antivirus program, turn on the option to detect PUPs (potentially unwanted programs).

If you need more help with OnlinePrivacy Search home page related issues, go to our Spyware/Malware removal forum.