How to remove Sponsored Results [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

If you’ve ever found your web-browser search engine inexplicably changing to Sponsored Results, or notice that the homepage in your web-browser has replaced, then you could say that your computer has been a victim of the hijacker. The makers of the “Sponsored Results” browser hijacker do so in order to make money via Google, Yahoo or Bing search engine. Thus, in order to force you to use Sponsored Results as often as possible the browser hijacker can change your internet browsers settings such as start page, new tab page and search provider by default.

The browser hijacker will set up the Sponsored Results site as the Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Edge default search provider that cause search redirects via the web site. In this way, makers of the hijacker infection have an opportunity to display various ads together with the search results for your query. These unwanted ads will be summarized in the redirected web-page. This can bring lots of money for authors of the hijacker infection.

Also, adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) may be installed on the machine together with the Sponsored Results hijacker infection. It will insert a huge count of advertisements directly to the web pages that you view, creating a sense that ads has been added by the developers of the web page. Moreover, legal advertisements can be replaced on fake ads that will offer to download and install various unnecessary and malicious applications. Moreover, the Sponsored Results browser hijacker can be used to gather privacy data about you that can be later transferred to third parties.

Most often, the Sponsored Results browser hijacker infection affects most common internet browsers such as Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and MS Edge. But such browser hijackers as well can infect other web-browsers by changing its shortcuts (adding ‘http://site.address’ into Target field of web browser’s shortcut). So every time you run the internet browser, it’ll show Sponsored Results web page. Even if you setup your home page again, the undesired Sponsored Results web site will be the first thing that you see when you run the web browser.

We suggest you to free your computer of hijacker as quickly as possible. Use the step-by-step guidance below which will help to delete Sponsored Results redirect and malicious software, that may be installed onto your machine along with it.

How to remove Sponsored Results from Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge

In the instructions below, we will try to cover the Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox and Microsoft Edge and provide general advice to remove Sponsored Results redirect. You may find some minor differences in your Microsoft Windows install. No matter, you should be okay if you follow the steps outlined below: uninstall all suspicious and unknown software, reset internet browsers settings, fix internet browsers shortcuts, run free malware removal utilities. Certain of the steps will require you to restart your machine or close this page. So, read this tutorial carefully, then bookmark or print it for later reference.

To remove Sponsored Results, use the following steps:

1. How to remove Sponsored Results redirect without any software
   • Uninstall potentially unwanted programs using Microsoft Windows Control Panel
   • Delete Sponsored Results from Internet Explorer
   • Remove Sponsored Results redirect from Chrome
   • Delete Sponsored Results from Mozilla Firefox
   • Disinfect the web browser’s shortcuts to delete Sponsored Resultse
2. How to automatically get rid of Sponsored Results hijacker
   • How to delete Sponsored Results with Zemana
   • Scan and clean your computer of hijacker with Malwarebytes
   • Scan and free your PC system of hijacker with AdwCleaner
3. Block Sponsored Results redirect and other annoying web pages
4. Don’t know how your browser has been hijacked by Sponsored Results browser hijacker?
5. Finish words

How to remove Sponsored Results redirect without any software

The following instructions is a step-by-step guide, which will help you manually delete Sponsored Results from the FF, Google Chrome, IE and Edge.

Uninstall potentially unwanted programs using Microsoft Windows Control Panel

We suggest that you begin the personal computer cleaning procedure by checking the list of installed programs and remove all unknown or suspicious software. This is a very important step, as mentioned above, very often the harmful software such as adware and hijackers may be bundled with free programs. Delete the unwanted programs can remove the undesired ads or web-browser redirect.

It will show the Windows Control Panel as displayed on the image below.

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

Delete Sponsored Results from Internet Explorer

If you find that Internet Explorer web-browser settings such as new tab, startpage and search engine by default having been hijacked, then you may restore your settings, via the reset browser process.

First, open the Microsoft Internet Explorer, click ) button. Next, press “Internet Options” as on the image below.

In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, click Reset button. The Internet Explorer will display the Reset Internet Explorer settings prompt. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and click Reset button.

You will now need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. It will get rid of hijacker that cause Sponsored Results web site to appear, disable malicious and ad-supported web-browser’s extensions and restore the Microsoft Internet Explorer’s settings like newtab page, homepage and search engine by default to default state.

Remove Sponsored Results redirect from Chrome

Reset Chrome settings is a simple way to remove the hijacker, malicious and adware extensions, as well as to recover the browser’s home page, newtab page and search provider by default that have been modified by hijacker infection.

First open the Chrome. Next, press the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (). It will display the main menu. Further, click the option named “Settings”. Another way to open the Chrome’s settings – type chrome://settings in the web-browser adress bar and press Enter.

The browser will display the settings screen. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Show advanced settings” link. Now scroll down until the “Reset settings” section is visible, as shown below and click the “Reset settings” button.

The Google Chrome will open the confirmation prompt. You need to confirm your action, click the “Reset” button. The browser will start the procedure of cleaning. After it’s complete, the internet browser’s settings including startpage, newtab and search provider by default back to the values that have been when the Google Chrome was first installed on your PC.

Delete Sponsored Results from Mozilla Firefox

If the FF settings such as new tab page, home page and search provider by default have been changed by the hijacker, then resetting it to the default state can help.

Click the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and click the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu like below.

A small menu will appear, click the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, click “Refresh Firefox” button as displayed on the image below.

Follow the onscreen procedure to restore your Firefox web-browser settings to its original state.

Disinfect the web browser’s shortcuts to delete Sponsored Results

Unfortunately, the hijacker can also hijack Windows shortcuts (mostly, your web browsers shortcuts), so that the Sponsored Results will be shown when you launch the Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge or another browser.

Open the properties of the web-browser shortcut. Right click on the shortcut of infected web-browser and choose the “Properties” option and it will show the properties of the shortcut. Next, choose the “Shortcut” tab and have a look at the Target field as displayed on the image below.

Normally, if the last word in the Target field is chrome.exe, iexplore.exe, firefox.exe. Be sure to pay attention to the extension, should be “exe”! All shortcuts that have been changed by the Sponsored Results browser hijacker usually point to .bat, .cmd or .url files instead of .exe as shown below

Another variant, an address has been added at the end of the line. In this case the Target field looks like …Application\chrome.exe” http://site.address as displayed in the following example.

In order to fix a shortcut, you need to insert right path to the Target field or remove an address (if it has been added at the end). You can use the following information to fix your shortcuts which have been modified by browser hijacker infection.

Google Chrome	C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
	C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
FF	C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
Microsoft Internet Explorer	C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
	C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
Opera	C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera\launcher.exe
	C:\Program Files\Opera\launcher.exe

Once is done, press OK to save changes. Repeat the step for all web browsers which are redirected to the Sponsored Results annoying web page.

How to automatically get rid of Sponsored Results hijacker

Manual removal tutorial does not always allow to completely remove the browser hijacker, as it’s not easy to identify and get rid of components of browser hijacker and all malicious files from hard disk. Therefore, it is recommended that you use malware removal tool to completely delete Sponsored Results off your machine. Several free malware removal tools are currently available that can be used against the browser hijacker. The optimum method would be to use Zemana Free, Malwarebytes Free and AdwCleaner.

How to delete Sponsored Results with Zemana

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

Download Zemana from the link below. Save it on your Desktop.

After the download is finished, start it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the Zemana will try to update itself and when this task is complete, press the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the hijacker infection that causes browsers to open undesired Sponsored Results web-site.

This process can take some time, so please be patient. When a threat is detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. You may move items to Quarantine (all selected by default) by simply click “Next” button.

The Zemana will begin to remove browser hijacker that cause Sponsored Results web page to appear.

Scan and clean your computer of hijacker with Malwarebytes

We suggest using the Malwarebytes Free. You may download and install Malwarebytes to scan for and get rid of Sponsored Results from your computer. When installed and updated, the free malicious software remover will automatically scan and detect all threats exist on the personal computer.

Download MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) on your computer from the following link.

Once downloading is complete, run it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the MalwareBytes will try to update itself and when this task is done, press the “Scan Now” button to start scanning your PC system for the browser hijacker which changes web browser settings to replace your startpage, newtab and default search provider with Sponsored Results site. Depending on your system, the scan may take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. While the MalwareBytes Free tool is scanning, you may see count of objects it has identified as being affected by malicious software. In order to remove all items, simply press “Quarantine Selected” button.

The MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) is a free application that you can use to remove all detected folders, files, services, registry entries and so on. To learn more about this malicious software removal tool, we suggest you to read and follow the step-by-step tutorial or the video guide below.

Scan and free your PC system of hijacker with AdwCleaner

The AdwCleaner tool is free and easy to use. It can scan and remove hijacker infection which reroutes your web browser to annoying Sponsored Results web-site, malicious software, PUPs and adware from computer (Windows 10, 8, 7, XP) and thereby return web-browsers default settings (startpage, newtab page and search engine by default). AdwCleaner is powerful enough to find and delete malicious registry entries and files that are hidden on the PC system.

1. Download AdwCleaner on your system by clicking on the following link.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225263 downloads
   Version: 8.4.1
   Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: October 5, 2024
   
2. Select the directory in which you saved it as Desktop, and then press Save.
3. Once the downloading process is finished, start the AdwCleaner, double-click the adwcleaner_xxx.exe file.
4. If the “User Account Control” prompts, press Yes to continue.
5. Read the “Terms of use”, and press Accept.
6. In the AdwCleaner window, click the “Scan” .AdwCleaner application will scan through the whole machine for the hijacker infection that causes web-browsers to open annoying Sponsored Results site. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the count of files on your machine and the speed of your system. When a malware, ad-supported software or potentially unwanted applications are detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.
7. After finished, you’ll be displayed the list of all found threats on your personal computer. Next, you need to click “Clean”. If the AdwCleaner will ask you to reboot your computer, click “OK”.

The instructions shown in detail in the following video.

Block Sponsored Results redirect and other annoying web pages

Running an ad blocking program such as AdGuard is an effective way to alleviate the risks. Additionally, ad blocker software will also protect you from malicious advertisements and web-sites, and, of course, block redirection chain to Sponsored Results and similar pages.

Download AdGuard program on your personal computer from the following link.

Once the downloading process is done, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen as shown on the image below.

Follow the prompts. Once the installation is complete, you will see a window as displayed on the image below.

You can click “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” button to see an quick tutorial that 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 start your personal computer, AdGuard will run automatically and stop pop up ads, Sponsored Results redirect, as well as other harmful 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, that may be found on your desktop.

Don’t know how your browser has been hijacked by Sponsored Results browser hijacker?

Probably Sponsored Results browser hijacker infection get installed onto your personal computer when you have installed some free programs like E-Mail checker, PDF creator, video codec, etc. Because, in many cases, a browser hijacker infection can be bundled within the installers from Softonic, Cnet, Soft32, Brothersoft or other similar web-sites which hosts free applications. So, you should start any files downloaded from the Web with great caution! Always carefully read the ‘User agreement’, ‘Software license’ and ‘Terms of use’. In the procedure of installing a new program, you need to select a ‘Manual’, ‘Advanced’ or ‘Custom’ setup mode to control what components and bundled software to be installed. Nevertheless, even removing the program, which installs this Sponsored Results hijacker, you do not remove the browser hijacker infection itself. Your web-browser settings will not be restored. Therefore, you must follow the instructions above to revert back your start page, newtab and default search engine.

Finish words

Now your personal computer should be clean of the browser hijacker that causes web browsers to open annoying Sponsored Results web-site. Delete AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop up ads and undesired harmful pages) and Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) (to periodically scan your computer for new malware, browser hijackers and adware). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Windows OS. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijackers, harmful software and adware are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to remove Sponsored Results from your web browser, then ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.