If your Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Edge web-browser home page have modified to Searchsbay.com somehow, and you have tried to revert back your start page and search engine from web browser settings, but it did not help, then you need to know that the PUP (potentially unwanted program) from the browser hijacker family get installed on your personal computer. The hijacker infection is an one type of undesired software that imposes certain changes to some settings of installed internet browsers without your’s permission, to redirect you into unwanted web sites such as Searchsbay.com. The hijacker commonly rewrite the Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge current start page, search provider and new tab with its own.
Besides the fact that Searchsbay.com browser hijacker infection rewrites your homepage, this intrusive web site can set “http://searchsbay.com/element?k=” as your search provider. But, obviously, it does not give you a good search results, as they will consist of a ton of advertisements, links to undesired and ad pages and only the remaining part is search results for your query from the major search engines. Of course, the very fact that you encounter with the inability to properly search the Internet, is an unpleasant moment. Moreover, the Searchsbay.com hijacker be able to collect a wide variety of confidential data. This personal data, in the future, can be sold to third parties. What creates the risk of theft of confidential information.
The Searchsbay.com hijacker is not a virus, but the virus behaves similarly. As a rootkit hides in the system, can make changes to certain settings of installed web browsers, and blocks them from changing. Also this hijacker can install additional web browser extensions and modules that will display advertisements and popups. And finally, the Searchsbay.com browser hijacker be able to collect lots of personal info about you such as what web pages you are opening, what you are looking for the Net and so on. This information, in the future, can be transferred third party companies.
The Searchsbay.com browser hijacker infection usually affects only the Microsoft Edge, Chrome, IE and Mozilla Firefox. However, possible situations, when any other browsers will be affected too. The browser hijacker infection will perform a scan of the personal computer for web-browser shortcuts and modify 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 run the browser, you will see the Searchsbay.com undesired web-page.
We recommend you to remove Searchsbay.com startpage and clean your PC system of browser hijacker infection as soon as possible, until the presence of the browser hijacker has not led to even worse consequences. Complete the tutorial below that will assist you to completely remove Searchsbay.com start page, using only the built-in Windows features and a few of specialized free utilities.
Remove Searchsbay.com redirect (removal guide)
Fortunately, it’s not hard to get rid of the Searchsbay.com browser hijacker. In the following tutorial, we will provide two methods to clean your personal computer of this browser hijacker. One is the manual removal way and the other is automatic removal way. You can select the method that best fits you. Please follow the removal tutorial below to remove Searchsbay.com right now!
To remove Searchsbay.com, use the following steps:
- Manual Searchsbay.com homepage removal
- Scan your computer and remove Searchsbay.com with free utilities
- How to stop Searchsbay.com redirect
- Tips to prevent Searchsbay.com and other unwanted software
- To sum up
Manual Searchsbay.com homepage removal
The following instructions is a step-by-step guide, which will help you manually delete Searchsbay.com from the Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and MS Edge.
Remove dubious software using Windows Control Panel
First, go to Windows Control Panel and delete suspicious apps, all programs you do not remember installing. It’s important to pay the most attention to applications you installed just before Searchsbay.com browser hijacker infection appeared on your web-browser. If you do not know what a program does, look for the answer on the Web.
Press Windows button 
, then click Search 
. Type “Control panel”and press Enter. If you using Windows XP or Windows 7, then press “Start” and select “Control Panel”. It will show the Windows Control Panel as on the image below.
Further, click “Uninstall a program” 
It will open a list of all programs installed on your machine. Scroll through the all list, and delete any suspicious and unknown apps.
Delete Searchsbay.com redirect from Chrome
Like other modern browsers, the Chrome has the ability to reset the settings to their default values and thereby recover the browser default search engine, start page and newtab page that have been replaced by the Searchsbay.com hijacker.
- First start the Chrome and press Menu button (small button in the form of three dots).
- It will open the Google Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then press Extensions.
- You will see 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.
- Now open the Google Chrome menu once again, press the “Settings” menu.
- You will see the Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and click “Advanced” link.
- Scroll down again and press the “Reset” button.
- The Chrome will show the reset profile settings page as on the image above.
- Next click the “Reset” button.
- Once this procedure is complete, your web browser’s search engine, newtab and homepage will be restored to their original defaults.
- To learn more, read the article How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.
Get rid of Searchsbay.com search from Microsoft Internet Explorer
By resetting IE web browser you return your web-browser settings to its default state. This is first when troubleshooting problems that might have been caused by browser hijacker like Searchsbay.com.
First, start the IE, click 
) button. Next, click “Internet Options” as shown in the following example.
In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, click Reset button. The Internet Explorer will open the Reset Internet Explorer settings prompt. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and click Reset button.
You will now need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect. It will remove hijacker responsible for redirecting your internet browser to Searchsbay.com web page, disable malicious and ad-supported browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings like newtab page, homepage and search provider to default state.
Remove Searchsbay.com search from Firefox
The Firefox reset will keep your personal information such as bookmarks, passwords, web form auto-fill data and remove unwanted search engine and home page like Searchsbay.com, modified preferences, extensions and security settings.
First, run the Firefox and click 
button. It will show the drop-down menu on the right-part of the web-browser. Further, click the Help button (
) as shown in the following example.
In the Help menu, select the “Troubleshooting Information” option. Another way to open the “Troubleshooting Information” screen – type “about:support” in the web-browser adress bar and press Enter. It will open the “Troubleshooting Information” page as displayed on the screen below. In the upper-right corner of this screen, click the “Refresh Firefox” button.
It will show the confirmation prompt. Further, click the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Firefox will begin a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker infection responsible for redirecting your web-browser to Searchsbay.com web-page. When, it is complete, click the “Finish” button.
Fix web browser shortcuts, altered by Searchsbay.com hijacker infection
The Searchsbay.com hijacker infection and other browser’s malicious add-ons, can hijack various Windows shortcuts on your desktop (most often, all browsers shortcut files), 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 file, 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 shortcut files of all your web browsers, as they may be infected too.
Scan your computer and remove Searchsbay.com with free utilities
There are not many good free anti malware programs with high detection ratio. The effectiveness of malicious software removal tools depends on various factors, mostly on how often their virus/malware signatures DB are updated in order to effectively detect modern malware, ad supported software, hijackers and other potentially unwanted programs. We suggest to use several applications, not just one. These applications that listed below will help you delete all components of the browser hijacker from your disk and Windows registry and thereby get rid of Searchsbay.com home page.
Remove Searchsbay.com homepage with Zemana Free
We suggest using the Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM). You may download and install Zemana to detect and remove Searchsbay.com home page from your personal computer. When installed and updated, the malware remover will automatically scan and detect all threats present on the PC system.
- Click the following link to download Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM). Save it on your Desktop.
Zemana AntiMalware
164035 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
- When the downloading process is complete, close all apps and windows on your personal computer. Open a folder in which you saved it. Double-click on the icon that’s named Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup.
- Further, click Next button and follow the prompts.
- Once install is finished, click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the hijacker that cause a reroute to Searchsbay.com web site. This task can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified either as being malware.
- When the system scan is done, you can check all items detected on your system. You may move threats to Quarantine (all selected by default) by simply click “Next”. When the procedure is finished, you may be prompted to restart your machine.
Remove Searchsbay.com search with Malwarebytes
Manual Searchsbay.com home page removal requires some computer skills. Some files and registry entries that created by the hijacker can be not completely removed. We advise that run the Malwarebytes Free that are completely free your PC of hijacker infection. Moreover, the free program will help you to get rid of malicious software, PUPs, adware and toolbars that your personal computer may be infected too.
Download MalwareBytes Free on your MS Windows Desktop by clicking on the link below.
326388 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
After the downloading process is finished, close all windows on your computer. Further, run the file named mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up like below, click the “Yes” button.
It will open the “Setup wizard” that will allow you install MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) on the PC system. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
Once install is finished successfully, click Finish button. Then MalwareBytes will automatically run and you can see its main window as shown below.
Next, click the “Scan Now” button to find browser hijacker that responsible for web browser redirect to the undesired Searchsbay.com page. This task can take some time, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes program is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified as threat.
Once the scanning is complete, MalwareBytes AntiMalware will display a list of found threats. All detected threats will be marked. You can remove them all by simply press “Quarantine Selected” button.
The MalwareBytes will remove hijacker infection that cause Searchsbay.com web-site to appear. After disinfection is finished, you can be prompted to restart your personal computer. We suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the procedure of using the MalwareBytes to remove browser hijackers, adware and other malicious software.
Remove Searchsbay.com browser hijacker infection and malicious extensions with AdwCleaner
AdwCleaner is a free portable program that scans your computer for adware, PUPs and hijackers such as Searchsbay.com and helps delete them easily. Moreover, it’ll also help you remove any harmful internet browser extensions and add-ons.
- Click the following link to download AdwCleaner. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
AdwCleaner download
225264 downloads
Version: 8.4.1
Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
Category: Security tools
Update: October 5, 2024
- When the download is complete, double click the AdwCleaner icon. Once this utility is started, click “Scan” button to find hijacker infection that responsible for web browser redirect to the unwanted Searchsbay.com web site. Depending on your machine, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. When a threat is found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the checking is done.
- After AdwCleaner has completed scanning, AdwCleaner will show a list of all threats detected by the scan. When you’re ready, click “Clean” button. It will display a prompt, click “OK”.
These few simple steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.
How to stop Searchsbay.com redirect
The AdGuard is a very good adblocker program for the Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of annoying advertisements, popunders, pop ups, undesired new tabs, and even full page ads and web page overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can block the Searchsbay.com automatically or by using a custom filter rule.
Please go to the following link to download AdGuard. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
26627 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
When downloading is done, double-click the downloaded file to start it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as shown on the screen 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 tutorial as on the image below.
Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick instructions which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.
Each time, when you start your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop pop-ups, Searchsbay.com redirect, as well as other harmful or misleading sites. 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 can be found on your desktop.
Tips to prevent Searchsbay.com and other unwanted software
In many cases, the Searchsbay.com browser hijacker infection spreads together with the installers from a free hosting and file sharing web sites. So, install a freeware is a a good chance that you will find a bundled hijacker. If you don’t know how to avoid it, then use a simple trick. During the setup, select the Custom or Advanced installation option. Next, click ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install additional applications. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any software or otherwise you can end up with another unwanted application on your computer like this browser hijacker infection.
To sum up
After completing the steps outlined above, your PC should be clean from this hijacker infection and other malicious software. The Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer and Firefox will no longer show annoying Searchsbay.com web site on startup. Unfortunately, if the tutorial does not help you, then you have caught a new hijacker infection, and then the best way – ask for help.
Please start a new thread by using the “New Topic” button in the Spyware Removal forum. When posting your HJT log, try to give us some details about your problems, so we can try to help you more accurately. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the intrusive Searchsbay.com search.
