Cyber threat analysts has determined that Search.stosgame.com is defined as browser hijacker. The so-called browser hijacker is created to manipulate your internet browser’s settings such as newtab page, start page and search engine, to modify your start page or search engine, so that the affected web browser visits an unwanted web page instead of your selected one. In the step-by-step tutorial below, we will explain all the general features of the Search.stosgame.com hijacker and it’s typical behavior on the computer, as well as best possible solutions of removing Search.stosgame.com from your Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
The Search.stosgame.com hijacker takes over your web browser’s default search provider and controls what will be displayed to you whenever you do a searching. Other than the search results, it also provides lots of undesired ads on the search page. Some of these advertisements created to force you into buying certain questionable products and applications. Moreover, sometimes, those advertisements could redirect you to misleading or malicious web sites.
As well as undesired browser redirects to Search.stosgame.com, the browser hijacker infection can gather your Web surfing activity by saving URLs visited, IP addresses, internet browser version and type, cookie information, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and web-sites visited. Such kind of behavior can lead to serious security problems or confidential information theft. This is another reason why the hijacker that redirects the web browser to Search.stosgame.com, is defined as PUP (potentially unwanted program).
Therefore, the Search.stosgame.com does not really have beneficial features. So, we recommend you remove Search.stosgame.com start page from the Chrome, Safari and Firefox web browsers as soon as possible. This will also prevent the browser hijacker from tracking your online activities. A full Search.stosgame.com removal can be easily carried out using manual or automatic solution listed below.
How to remove Search.stosgame.com from Chrome, Firefox, Safari
There are several steps to removing Search.stosgame.com , because it installs itself so deeply into Mac. You need to uninstall all suspicious and unknown apps, then remove malicious extensions from the Safari, Firefox and Chrome and other web browsers you’ve installed. Finally, you need to reset your web-browser settings to remove any changes Search.stosgame.com hijacker has made, and then check your computer with MalwareBytes Free to ensure the browser hijacker is fully removed. It will take a while.
To remove Search.stosgame.com, complete the steps below:
- Get rid of Search.stosgame.com homepage without any tools
- Search.stosgame.com automatic removal
- Run AdBlocker to stop Search.stosgame.com and stay safe online
- Why is my browser redirected to Search.stosgame.com?
- To sum up
Get rid of Search.stosgame.com homepage without any tools
Most common browser hijacker infections may be removed without any antivirus applications. The manual browser hijacker removal is steps that will teach you how to delete the Search.stosgame.com home page.
Remove potentially unwanted software using the Finder
It is of primary importance to first identify and remove all potentially unwanted apps, ‘ad supported’ software programs and hijackers through ‘Applications’ section of your Finder.
Open Finder and click “Applications”.
Carefully browse through the list of installed apps and remove all dubious and unknown applications.
When you’ve found anything questionable that may be the browser hijacker responsible for Search.stosgame.com search or other potentially unwanted application (PUA), then right click this application and select “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.
Remove Search.stosgame.com search from Safari
If you find that Safari web-browser settings like search engine by default, home page and newtab having been hijacked, then you may return your settings, via the reset web browser process.
Click Safari menu and select “Preferences”.
It will open the Safari Preferences window. Next, click the “Extensions” tab. Look for unknown and suspicious add-ons on left panel, select it, then click the “Uninstall” button. Most important to get rid of all unknown extensions from Safari.
Once complete, click “General” tab. Change the “Default Search Engine” to Google.
Find the “Homepage” and type into textfield “https://www.google.com”.
Remove Search.stosgame.com from Chrome
Reset Google Chrome settings is a easy way to delete the browser hijacker infection, harmful and ‘ad-supported’ extensions, as well as to restore the internet browser’s newtab page, search provider and homepage that have been replaced by Search.stosgame.com hijacker.
- First, start the Chrome and press the Menu icon (icon in the form of three dots).
- It will open the Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then press Extensions.
- You will see the list of installed addons. If the list has the add-on 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, 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 open the reset settings dialog box as on the image above.
- Confirm the browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
- To learn more, read the article How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.
Delete Search.stosgame.com from Mozilla Firefox by resetting web-browser settings
The Firefox reset will get rid of unwanted search provider and startpage like Search.stosgame.com, modified preferences, extensions and security settings. It’ll keep your personal information like browsing history, bookmarks, passwords and web form auto-fill data.
Click the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and press the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu as displayed on the screen below.
A small menu will appear, press the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, press “Refresh Firefox” button as shown on the screen below.
Follow the onscreen procedure to revert back your Firefox internet browser settings to their default state.
Search.stosgame.com automatic removal
There are not many good free anti malware applications 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 malicious software, adware, hijackers and other potentially unwanted apps. We suggest to use several applications, not just one. These applications which listed below will help you get rid of all components of the browser hijacker from your disk and system folders and thereby delete Search.stosgame.com search.
Use MalwareBytes to delete Search.stosgame.com search
You can remove Search.stosgame.com search automatically with a help of MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM). We suggest this free malicious software removal tool because it can easily delete browser hijackers, adware, PUPs and toolbars with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.
Installing the MalwareBytes Free is simple. First you’ll need to download MalwareBytes Free on your MAC by clicking on the following link.
20841 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: September 10, 2020
When the downloading process is done, run it and follow the prompts. Click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the browser hijacker infection that cause a reroute to Search.stosgame.com web site. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your machine. While the MalwareBytes program is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified as threat. In order to delete all items, simply click “Remove Selected Items” button.
The MalwareBytes Free is a free program that you can use to delete all detected folders, files, malicious services and so on.
Run AdBlocker to stop Search.stosgame.com and stay safe online
In order to increase your security and protect your MAC against new undesired advertisements and malicious web-sites, you need to use ad-blocking application that stops an access to harmful ads and web sites. Moreover, the application can stop the display of intrusive advertising, which also leads to faster loading of web-pages and reduce the consumption of web traffic.
- Installing the AdGuard is simple. First you’ll need to download AdGuard on your machine by clicking on the following link.
AdGuard for Mac download
3677 downloads
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: January 17, 2018
- Once the download is complete, run the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
- Once the installation is done, click “Skip” to close the setup program and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
- In most cases, the default settings are enough and you don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you start your MAC, AdGuard will run automatically and block advertisements, web-sites like Search.stosgame.com, as well as other malicious or misleading pages.
Why is my browser redirected to Search.stosgame.com?
These days some free applications authors bundle third-party programs that could be PUPs such as the Search.stosgame.com browser hijacker, with a view to making some money. These are not freeware as install an unwanted applications on to your MS Windows MAC. So whenever you install a new free program that downloaded from the Web, be very careful during setup. Carefully read the EULA (a text with I ACCEPT/I DECLINE button), choose custom or manual setup option, disable all additional apps.
To sum up
Once you have finished the few simple steps outlined above, your machine should be clean from this hijacker and other malware. The Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox will no longer show annoying Search.stosgame.com web-page on startup. Unfortunately, if the guide does not help you, then you have caught a new hijacker, and then the best way – ask for help.
Please create a new question by using the “Ask Question” button in the Questions and Answers. 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 Search.stosgame.com homepage.