Is your web-browser rerouted to Search.excite.com site? This problem may be caused due to a potentially unwanted program from the browser hijacker category. The hijacker is a type of undesired software which is created to alter your settings of installed browsers. You may experience any of the following behaviors: your home page, new tab page and default search provider is replaced to Search.excite.com, web pages load slowly, you see multiple toolbars on the Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Edge that you did not install, you get a ton of popups.
Being infected with Search.excite.com hijacker you will be forced to use its own search provider. It could seem not to be dangerous, but you still should be very careful, since it may show intrusive and malicious advertisements developed to force you into buying some questionable programs or products, provide search results which may reroute your web browser to certain deceptive, misleading or malicious pages. We suggest that you use only the reliable search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing.
Also, adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) can be installed on the machine together with Search.excite.com browser hijacker. It will insert tons of advertisements directly to the web pages which you view, creating a sense that ads has been added by the creators of the site. Moreover, legal ads can be replaced on fake ads which will offer to download and install various unnecessary and harmful programs. Moreover, the Search.excite.com hijacker has the ability to collect lots of user info that can be later transferred to third parties.
Thus, it is clear that the presence of browser hijacker infection on your computer is not desirable, and you need to clean up your system as soon as possible. Follow the instructions below in order to remove Search.excite.com from Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Edge.
How to remove Search.excite.com
Fortunately, we have an effective solution that will assist you manually or/and automatically remove Search.excite.com from your system and bring your web browser settings, including newtab, start page and search provider by default, back to normal. Below you will find a removal instructions with all the steps you may need to successfully remove this hijacker and its components. Read it once, after doing so, please print this page as you may need to close your browser or restart your system.
To remove Search.excite.com, execute the steps below:
- Get rid of Search.excite.com redirect without any tools
- How to get rid of Search.excite.com homepage with free applications
- Block Search.excite.com and other intrusive sites
- Why has my start page and search provider changed to Search.excite.com?
- To sum up
Get rid of Search.excite.com redirect without any tools
The useful removal instructions for the Search.excite.com redirect. The detailed procedure can be followed by anyone as it really does take you step-by-step. If you follow this process to remove Search.excite.com search let us know how you managed by sending us your comments please.
Removing the Search.excite.com, check the list of installed applications first
The process of browser hijacker infection removal is generally the same across all versions of Windows OS from 10 to XP. To start with, it’s necessary to check the list of installed software on your computer and delete all unused, unknown and dubious software.
Windows 10, 8.1, 8
Click the MS Windows logo, and then click Search . Type ‘Control panel’and press Enter as displayed in the figure below.
After the ‘Control Panel’ opens, click the ‘Uninstall a program’ link under Programs category as shown on the image below.
Windows 7, Vista, XP
Open Start menu and choose the ‘Control Panel’ at right as displayed below.
Then go to ‘Add/Remove Programs’ or ‘Uninstall a program’ (Windows 7 or Vista) as displayed in the figure below.
Carefully browse through the list of installed programs and delete all questionable and unknown programs. We recommend to press ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed applications by date. After you have found anything suspicious that may be the Search.excite.com browser hijacker infection and other web-browser’s malicious extensions or other potentially unwanted application (PUA), then choose this program and press ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the suspicious application blocked from removal, then use Revo Uninstaller Freeware to fully get rid of it from your PC.
Delete Search.excite.com from IE
By resetting Microsoft Internet Explorer browser you return your web browser settings to its default state. This is basic when troubleshooting problems that might have been caused by hijacker like Search.excite.com.
First, start the Internet Explorer, click ) button. Next, click “Internet Options” as displayed on the screen below.
In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, click Reset button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will show the Reset Internet Explorer settings prompt. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and press Reset button.
You will now need to restart your machine for the changes to take effect. It will delete Search.excite.com browser hijacker and other browser’s harmful plugins, disable malicious and ad-supported browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings such as home page, newtab and default search provider to default state.
Get rid of Search.excite.com search from Chrome
In order to be sure that there is nothing left behind, we advise you to reset Chrome web-browser. It’ll restore Chrome settings including newtab page, start page and search engine by default to defaults.
Open the Google Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal dotes (). It will open the drop-down menu. Select More Tools, then press Extensions.
Carefully browse through the list of installed extensions. If the list has the extension labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following tutorial: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy otherwise, just go to the step below.
Open the Google Chrome main menu again, click to “Settings” option.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Advanced” link. Now scroll down until the Reset settings section is visible, as shown in the following example and click the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
Confirm your action, click the “Reset” button.
Delete Search.excite.com home page from Mozilla Firefox
Resetting your FF is first troubleshooting step for any issues with your web-browser program, including the redirect to Search.excite.com site.
Start the Firefox and press the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the browser screen. Next, click the question-mark icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu. It will display the slide-out menu.
Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you are unable to access the Help menu, then type “about:support” in your address bar and press Enter. It bring up the “Troubleshooting Information” page as on the image below.
Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation dialog box. The Mozilla Firefox will start a process to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker that causes browsers to open annoying Search.excite.com site. Once, it is complete, press the “Finish” button.
How to get rid of Search.excite.com homepage with free applications
There are not many good free anti malware 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, browser hijackers and other PUPs. We suggest to run several programs, not just one. These programs which listed below will allow you get rid of all components of the hijacker infection from your disk and Windows registry and thereby get rid of Search.excite.com startpage.
How to remove Search.excite.com with Zemana
We recommend using the Zemana AntiMalware which are completely clean your system of the browser hijacker. The utility is an advanced malicious software removal program designed by (c) Zemana lab. It is able to help you remove PUPs, browser hijackers, ad-supported software, malicious software, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your machine for free.
Please go to the link below to download Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM). Save it on your Desktop.
164033 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
After downloading is done, close all windows on your computer. Further, launch the install file named Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up as displayed in the following example, click the “Yes” button.
It will show the “Setup wizard” which will allow you install Zemana AntiMalware on the PC. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
Once setup is done successfully, Zemana will automatically launch and you can see its main window as on the image below.
Next, press the “Scan” button . Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) tool will begin scanning the whole machine to find out browser hijacker infection responsible for redirections to Search.excite.com. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your PC.
As the scanning ends, you’ll be shown the list of all found threats on your computer. In order to delete all items, simply click “Next” button.
The Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will delete browser hijacker that developed to redirect your web-browser to the Search.excite.com web-page and add threats to the Quarantine. Once the cleaning process is complete, you can be prompted to reboot your computer.
Use Malwarebytes to delete Search.excite.com
We suggest using the Malwarebytes Free. You can download and install Malwarebytes to detect and get rid of Search.excite.com redirect from your personal 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) from the following link. Save it to your Desktop.
326387 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
Once the downloading process is complete, close all windows on your computer. Further, run the file named mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up as displayed below, press the “Yes” button.
It will display the “Setup wizard” which will help you install MalwareBytes Free on the PC system. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
Once install is done successfully, click Finish button. Then MalwareBytes will automatically start and you may see its main window as shown on the screen below.
Next, press the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes utility will start scanning the whole computer to find out hijacker responsible for Search.excite.com homepage. This task can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the utility is scanning, you may see how many objects and files has already scanned.
When the scan get completed, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) will show a scan report. In order to remove all items, simply click “Quarantine Selected” button.
The MalwareBytes Anti Malware will remove hijacker that cause Search.excite.com web-page to appear and move items to the program’s quarantine. Once the process is finished, you can be prompted to restart your machine. We suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the procedure of using the MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) to get rid of browser hijackers, adware and other malware.
If the problem with Search.excite.com redirect is still remained
AdwCleaner is a free removal tool. It deletes potentially unwanted applications, adware, hijackers and undesired web-browser extensions. Video guidance available here. It’ll find and remove hijacker infection responsible for modifying your web browser settings to Search.excite.com. AdwCleaner uses very small computer resources and is a portable program.
Visit the following page to download AdwCleaner. Save it on your MS Windows desktop.
225263 downloads
Version: 8.4.1
Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
Category: Security tools
Update: October 5, 2024
After the download is finished, open the folder in which you saved it. You will see an icon like below.
Double click the AdwCleaner desktop icon. After the utility is started, you will see a screen as shown on the screen below.
Further, click “Scan” button to begin checking your computer for the browser hijacker which cause Search.excite.com web-site to appear. After AdwCleaner completes the scan, AdwCleaner will display you the results as on the image below.
Review the scan results and then click “Clean” button. It will display a prompt as on the image below.
You need to press “OK”. After the clean-up is finished, the AdwCleaner may ask you to restart your computer. When your PC system is started, you will see an AdwCleaner log.
These steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.
Block Search.excite.com and other intrusive sites
It is also critical to protect your internet browsers from malicious web-pages and ads by using an adblocker program like AdGuard. Security experts says that it’ll greatly reduce the risk of malicious software, and potentially save lots of money. Additionally, the AdGuard can also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.
- Download AdGuard program from the following link. Save it to your Desktop.
Adguard download
26627 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
- Once the download is complete, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
- Once the installation is finished, click “Skip” to close the install program and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” 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 start your computer, AdGuard will run automatically and stop pop ups, sites such Search.excite.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 icon named AdGuard, that may be found on your desktop.
Why has my start page and search provider changed to Search.excite.com?
The hijacker which cause a redirect to Search.excite.com web-page, can be classified as PUP (potentially unwanted program) that mostly comes on the PC system with other free programs. In most cases, this undesired program comes without the user’s knowledge. Therefore, many users aren’t even aware that their computer has been infected by malware. Please follow the easy rules in order to protect your machine from any unwanted software: don’t install any suspicious applications, read the user agreement and select only the Custom, Manual or Advanced setup mode, do not rush to press the Next button. Also, always try to find a review of the program on the World Wide Web. Be careful and attentive! If Search.excite.com has already come into your computer, then you need to scan your PC system for browser hijacker and other malicious software. Use our detailed step by step guidance which are listed above.
To sum up
Now your PC system should be clean of the browser hijacker which alters internet browser settings to replace your homepage, new tab and search engine by default with Search.excite.com site. Delete AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted pop-ups and unwanted malicious web pages) and Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) (to periodically scan your personal computer for new browser hijackers and other malware). 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 remove Search.excite.com startpage from the Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer, then ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.