The Bettersearch.co instead of your start page is a sign of appearance of unwanted software from the browser hijacker category on your PC. It can bring a security risk to your system. So, do not ignore it! Of course, the Bettersearch.co is just a site, but the browser hijacker uses it to modify your newtab page, home page and default search provider, without your permission and desire to see it. The Bettersearch.co as your startpage can be just the beginning, because your computer is affected with a malicious software, that in the future can increase the amount of problems with the Firefox, Google Chrome, MS Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Its appearance will prevent you normally browse the World Wide Web, and more, may lead to crash the browser.
The Bettersearch.co hijacker infection will alter your web browser’s search engine so that all searches are sent through Bettersearch.co, that redirects to Bing, Yahoo or Google Custom Search engine which shows the search results for your query. The developers of this browser hijacker infection are utilizing legitimate search engine as they may make revenue from the advertisements that are shown in the search results.
It is not a good idea to have an unwanted application like Bettersearch.co hijacker on your PC. The reason for this is simple, it doing things you don’t know about. The hijacker infection can collect lots of your personal information which may be later sold to third party companies. You do not know if your home address, account names and passwords are safe. And of course you completely don’t know what will happen when you click on any ads on the Bettersearch.co web-page.
So, it’s very important to free your PC of browser hijacker infection as quickly as possible. The few simple steps, which is shown below, will allow you to delete Bettersearch.co redirect from the Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer and other web-browsers.
Remove Bettersearch.co from Windows 10 (8, 7, XP)
In the step by step guide below we will have a look at the browser hijacker and how to delete Bettersearch.co from Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, IE and MS Edge web browsers for Windows OS, natively or by using a few free removal tools. Read this manual carefully, bookmark or print it, because you may need to shut down your web browser or reboot your machine.
To remove Bettersearch.co, execute the steps below:
- Manual Bettersearch.co search removal
- How to remove Bettersearch.co with free applications
- Use AdBlocker to stop Bettersearch.co and stay safe online
- How did Bettersearch.co browser hijacker get on your system
- To sum up
Manual Bettersearch.co search removal
Steps to remove Bettersearch.co browser hijacker without any programs are presented below. Be sure to carry out the step-by-step tutorial completely to fully get rid of this unwanted Bettersearch.co .
Removing the Bettersearch.co, check the list of installed apps first
The process of hijacker infection removal is generally the same across all versions of Microsoft Windows OS from 10 to XP. To start with, it is necessary to check the list of installed programs on your system and remove all unused, unknown and dubious applications.
Windows 8, 8.1, 10
First, click the Windows button , then click Search . Type “Control panel”and press Enter.
Windows XP, Vista, 7
First, click “Start” and select “Control Panel”.
It will open the Windows Control Panel as shown on the image below.
Next, click “Uninstall a program”
It will open a list of all programs installed on your PC. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall any questionable and unknown programs. To quickly find the latest installed software, we recommend sort apps by date in the Control panel.
Remove Bettersearch.co from FF by resetting web-browser settings
If your Mozilla Firefox internet browser home page has changed to Bettersearch.co without your permission or an unknown search provider displays results for your search, then it may be time to perform the web browser reset.
Launch the Firefox and press the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the web-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 displayed in the following example.
Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation dialog box. The FF will begin a task to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker responsible for Bettersearch.co homepage. Once, it is finished, click the “Finish” button.
Remove Bettersearch.co search from Chrome
Reset Google Chrome settings is a easy way to remove the browser hijacker, harmful and ‘ad-supported’ extensions, as well as to recover the browser’s search engine by default, homepage and newtab that have been changed by Bettersearch.co browser hijacker infection.
- First, launch the Google Chrome and click the Menu icon (icon in the form of three dots).
- It will show the Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
- You’ll see the list of installed extensions. If the list has the addon labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following guidance: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
- Now open the Chrome menu once again, click the “Settings” menu.
- Next, click “Advanced” link, which located at the bottom of the Settings page.
- On the bottom of the “Advanced settings” page, click the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
- The Google Chrome will show the reset settings dialog box as on the image above.
- Confirm the internet browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
- To learn more, read the article How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.
Get rid of Bettersearch.co redirect from Internet Explorer
The Microsoft Internet Explorer reset is great if your web browser is hijacked or you have unwanted plugins or toolbars on your web browser, which installed by a malicious software.
First, run the Internet Explorer, then click ‘gear’ icon . It will show the Tools drop-down menu on the right part of the browser, then click the “Internet Options” as shown in the following example.
In the “Internet Options” screen, select the “Advanced” tab, then click the “Reset” button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will open the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” dialog box. Further, click the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. Next, press the “Reset” button as shown below.
After the task is finished, click “Close” button. Close the Internet Explorer and reboot your machine for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your browser’s new tab, homepage and search provider by default to default state.
How to remove Bettersearch.co with free applications
Run malicious software removal tools to get rid of Bettersearch.co automatically. The freeware utilities specially developed for hijacker, adware and other potentially unwanted applications removal. These tools can remove most of hijacker from Microsoft Edge, IE, Chrome and Firefox. Moreover, it can remove all components of Bettersearch.co from Windows registry and system drives.
Scan and free your computer of Bettersearch.co with Zemana Free
Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) is a free program for MS Windows operating system to scan for and delete PUPs, adware, harmful web browser extensions, browser toolbars, and other unwanted apps like browser hijacker which redirects your internet browser to unwanted Bettersearch.co page, installed on your machine.
Installing the Zemana Free is simple. First you will need to download Zemana AntiMalware from the following link. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop.
164032 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
Once the download is finished, 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 Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup like below.
When the install starts, you will see the “Setup wizard” which will help you install Zemana AntiMalware on your personal computer.
Once installation is complete, you will see window as on the image below.
Now press the “Scan” button . Zemana Free application will scan through the whole PC for the hijacker infection responsible for Bettersearch.co search. This task can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the Zemana Anti Malware application is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.
After Zemana has completed scanning your PC, Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) will display a scan report. In order to remove all items, simply click “Next” button.
The Zemana Anti Malware will remove browser hijacker that responsible for web-browser redirect to the annoying Bettersearch.co web-site and add items to the Quarantine.
Use Malwarebytes to get rid of Bettersearch.co redirect
Manual Bettersearch.co removal requires some computer skills. Some files and registry entries that created by the browser hijacker may be not completely removed. We suggest that run the Malwarebytes Free that are completely clean your computer of hijacker. Moreover, the free program will help you to remove malware, potentially unwanted applications, ‘ad supported’ software and toolbars that your computer can be infected too.
Visit the page linked below to download the latest version of MalwareBytes for Windows. Save it directly to your MS Windows Desktop.
326384 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
After downloading is finished, close all windows on your system. Further, run the file named mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as displayed on the image below, click the “Yes” button.
It will display the “Setup wizard” which will assist you install MalwareBytes AntiMalware on the computer. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
Once install is complete successfully, click Finish button. Then MalwareBytes will automatically launch and you can see its main window like below.
Next, click the “Scan Now” button to begin scanning your computer for the hijacker that changes web-browser settings to replace your startpage, newtab page and search engine by default with Bettersearch.co web site. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the count of files on your PC and the speed of your machine. While the MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) is checking, you can see number of objects it has identified either as being malicious software.
Once finished, a list of all items found is created. In order to remove all threats, simply press “Quarantine Selected” button.
The MalwareBytes Anti Malware will remove hijacker infection that responsible for web-browser redirect to the unwanted Bettersearch.co web-page. After that process is done, you can be prompted to reboot your computer. We suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the procedure of using the MalwareBytes Free to remove hijackers, adware and other malicious software.
Run AdwCleaner to remove Bettersearch.co from the PC
The AdwCleaner tool is free and easy to use. It can scan and remove browser hijacker that designed to redirect your browser to the Bettersearch.co web page, malware, PUPs and ad supported software from computer (Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, XP) and thereby revert back browsers default settings (startpage, new tab page and search engine). AdwCleaner is powerful enough to search for and delete malicious registry entries and files that are hidden on the PC system.
Installing the AdwCleaner is simple. First you’ll need to download AdwCleaner on your Windows Desktop from the following link.
225260 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. Once the tool is started, you will see a screen as on the image below.
Further, press “Scan” button to start scanning your computer for the browser hijacker infection related to Bettersearch.co homepage. Depending on your computer, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. When finished, AdwCleaner will open a list of found threats as shown in the following example.
All detected threats will be marked. You can get rid of them all by simply press “Clean” button. It will open a dialog box like below.
You need to click “OK”. When that process is finished, the AdwCleaner may ask you to reboot your personal computer. When your personal computer is started, you will see an AdwCleaner log.
These steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.
Use AdBlocker to stop Bettersearch.co and stay safe online
We suggest to install an ad blocker application which can block Bettersearch.co and other annoying sites. The adblocker tool like AdGuard is a program which basically removes advertising from the Internet and stops access to malicious web-sites. Moreover, security experts says that using adblocker programs is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Internet.
Please go to the link below to download the latest version of AdGuard for Windows. Save it to your Desktop.
26627 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
Once the download is finished, double-click the downloaded file to start it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as displayed 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 guide as shown on the image below.
Press “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.
Each time, when you launch your system, AdGuard will start automatically and block popup advertisements, pages such as Bettersearch.co, 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, which may be found on your desktop.
How did Bettersearch.co browser hijacker get on your system
Most commonly, the Bettersearch.co hijacker come bundled with the installers from a free hosting and file sharing web sites. So, install a free programs 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 installation, select the Custom or Advanced installation type. Next, click ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install third-party 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 machine like this hijacker.
To sum up
Once you’ve finished the steps outlined above, your system should be free from Bettersearch.co browser hijacker and other browser’s harmful add-ons and other malicious software. The MS Edge, IE, Google Chrome and Firefox will no longer show intrusive Bettersearch.co page on startup. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step tutorial does not help you, then you have caught a new hijacker, and then the best way – ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.