Are you facing a problem with the Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer internet browsers that constantly redirects to a suspicious web-site named Search.playnsearch.com? Then, there are chances that are your system is infected by browser hijacker. It is created for the purpose of modifying some web-browser settings (like search provider by default, newtab and homepage) without the user’s consent or knowledge. If you want to change web browser home page or search engine back to default, you will not succeed, because the Search.playnsearch.com browser hijacker is very stubborn. Using the following steps, you surely can remove Search.playnsearch.com completely from your web-browsers.
The browser hijacker can also set up the Search.playnsearch.com web site as the Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Edge default search provider that cause search redirects via the web-site. In this way, creators of the hijacker have an opportunity to display various advertisements together with the search results for your query. These annoying advertisements will be combined in the redirected page. This can bring a huge number of revenue for creators of the browser hijacker.
Also, ‘ad-supported’ software (also known as adware) can be installed on the machine together with Search.playnsearch.com hijacker. It will insert lots of ads directly to the pages that you view, creating a sense that advertisements has been added by the makers of the web page. Moreover, legal ads may be replaced on fake advertisements that will offer to download and install various unnecessary and harmful apps. Moreover, the Search.playnsearch.com hijacker has the ability to gather your privacy data that can be later sold to third parties.
Therefore it is very important to free your personal computer of browser hijacker as soon as possible. Follow the step-by-step instructions below to remove Search.playnsearch.com homepage, as well as other malware and adware, which may be installed onto your computer along with it.
Remove Search.playnsearch.com from Windows 10 (8, 7, XP)
There are a simple manual steps below which will help you to delete Search.playnsearch.com from your Microsoft Windows computer. The most effective way to get rid of this hijacker is to follow the manual removal instructions and then run Zemana, MalwareBytes Anti Malware or HitmanPro automatic tools (all are free). The manual solution will assist to weaken this hijacker infection and these malicious software removal utilities will completely remove Search.playnsearch.com and restore the Google Chrome, Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer settings to default.
To remove Search.playnsearch.com, follow the steps below:
- How to manually delete Search.playnsearch.com
- Search.playnsearch.com automatic removal
- How to block Search.playnsearch.com redirect
- Why is my browser redirected to Search.playnsearch.com?
- To sum up
How to manually delete Search.playnsearch.com
If you perform exactly the guidance below you should be able to delete the Search.playnsearch.com from the Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge, Internet Explorer and Chrome web browsers.
Removing the Search.playnsearch.com, check the list of installed software first
First method for manual hijacker removal is to go into the Microsoft Windows “Control Panel”, then “Uninstall a program” console. Take a look at the list of applications on your personal computer and see if there are any questionable and unknown programs. If you see any, you need to uninstall them. Of course, before doing so, you can do an Internet search to find details on the program. If it is a potentially unwanted application, ad-supported software or malware, you will likely find information that says so.
Windows 8, 8.1, 10
First, click Windows button
, then click Search 
. Type ‘Control panel’and press Enter as shown in the following example.
Once the ‘Control Panel’ opens, click the ‘Uninstall a program’ link under Programs category as shown on the screen below.
You will see the ‘Uninstall a program’ panel as on the image below.
Very carefully look around the entire list of apps installed on your machine. Most probably, one of them is the Search.playnsearch.com browser hijacker and other internet browser’s malicious extensions. If you’ve many software installed, you can help simplify the search of harmful apps by sort the list by date of installation. Once you have found a dubious, unwanted or unused program, right click to it, after that click ‘Uninstall’.
Windows XP, Vista, 7
First, click ‘Start’ button and select ‘Control Panel’ at right panel as shown on the image below.
When the Windows ‘Control Panel’ opens, you need to click ‘Uninstall a program’ under ‘Programs’ as displayed in the following example.
You will see a list of programs installed on your machine. We recommend to sort the list by date of installation to quickly find the software that were installed last. Most probably, it’s the browser hijacker which made to reroute your internet browser to the Search.playnsearch.com website. If you’re in doubt, you can always check the program by doing a search for her name in Google, Yahoo or Bing. After the application which you need to delete is found, simply click on its name, and then click ‘Uninstall’ as shown on the screen below.
Remove Search.playnsearch.com from Firefox by resetting web browser settings
The Mozilla Firefox reset will remove unwanted search engine and homepage such as Search.playnsearch.com, modified preferences, extensions and security settings. It will save your personal information such as saved passwords, bookmarks, auto-fill data and open tabs.
Click the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and click the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu as displayed below.
A small menu will appear, click the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, click “Refresh Firefox” button as shown in the figure below.
Follow the onscreen procedure to revert back your Firefox internet browser settings to their original state.
Delete Search.playnsearch.com from Google Chrome
Run the Reset browser tool of the Google Chrome to reset all its settings like newtab page, home page and search provider to original defaults. This is a very useful utility to use, in the case of web-browser hijacks such as Search.playnsearch.com.
Open the Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal dotes (
). It will show the drop-down menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
Carefully browse through the list of installed addons. 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 otherwise, just go to the step below.
Open the 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 figure below and click the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
Confirm your action, click the “Reset” button.
Get rid of Search.playnsearch.com from Internet Explorer
If you find that Internet Explorer web browser settings like home page, new tab and search engine by default had been hijacked, then you may return your settings, via the reset browser procedure.
First, start the Internet Explorer, click 
) button. Next, press “Internet Options” as on the image below.
In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, press Reset button. The IE will show the Reset Internet Explorer settings dialog box. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and click Reset button.
You will now need to reboot your PC system for the changes to take effect. It will remove browser hijacker responsible for redirecting your web browser to Search.playnsearch.com site, disable malicious and ad-supported browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings such as home page, default search provider and new tab to default state.
Search.playnsearch.com automatic removal
The easiest method to remove Search.playnsearch.com hijacker is to run an anti malware program capable of detecting hijackers including Search.playnsearch.com. We recommend try Zemana Anti Malware or another free malware remover which listed below. It has excellent detection rate when it comes to adware, browser hijackers and other potentially unwanted programs.
Delete Search.playnsearch.com with Zemana
Zemana Free is a utility that can get rid of adware, PUPs, hijackers and other malware from your PC system easily and for free. Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) is compatible with most antivirus software. It works under Windows (10 – XP, 32 and 64 bit) and uses minimum of personal computer resources.
- Installing the Zemana Free is simple. First you’ll need to download Zemana Anti-Malware from the link below. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
Zemana AntiMalware
164032 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
- When downloading is complete, close all programs and windows on your PC system. Open a directory 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 installation is done, press the “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the hijacker infection that responsible for web browser redirect to the undesired Search.playnsearch.com page. This task can take quite a while, so please be patient. During the scan Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) will scan for threats present on your PC.
- When the checking is complete, Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) will show you the results. All detected items will be marked. You can delete them all by simply click “Next”. Once that process is complete, you can be prompted to restart your machine.
Scan and free your machine of hijacker infection with HitmanPro
Hitman Pro is a completely free (30 day trial) tool. You don’t need expensive methods to delete hijacker which cause a redirect to Search.playnsearch.com web page and other malicious programs. Hitman Pro will delete all the unwanted programs like adware and browser hijackers at zero cost.
HitmanPro can be downloaded from the following link. Save it to your Desktop.
Once the download is finished, open the directory in which you saved it and double-click the HitmanPro icon. It will start the HitmanPro tool. If the User Account Control dialog box will ask you want to open the application, press Yes button to continue.
Next, click “Next” . HitmanPro application will scan through the whole system for the hijacker responsible for redirecting user searches to Search.playnsearch.com. Depending on your computer, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. During the scan Hitman Pro will search for threats exist on your PC.
Once that process is complete, Hitman Pro will prepare a list of undesired applications adware as displayed on the image below.
Review the scan results and then press “Next” button. It will open a prompt, press the “Activate free license” button. The Hitman Pro will remove hijacker responsible for modifying your web-browser settings to Search.playnsearch.com. Once that process is complete, the tool may ask you to restart your PC.
Automatically get rid of Search.playnsearch.com with Malwarebytes
You can get rid of Search.playnsearch.com search automatically with a help of Malwarebytes Free. We suggest this free malware removal tool because it may easily get rid of hijacker infections, adware, potentially unwanted apps and toolbars with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.
- Download MalwareBytes on your personal computer from the link below.
Malwarebytes Anti-malware
326384 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
- At the download page, click on the Download button. Your web browser will display the “Save as” dialog box. Please save it onto your Windows desktop.
- When downloading is finished, please close all software and open windows on your machine. Double-click on the icon that’s named mb3-setup.
- This will run the “Setup wizard” of MalwareBytes Free onto your personal computer. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
- When the Setup wizard has finished installing, the MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will launch and display the main window.
- Further, click the “Scan Now” button to look for hijacker responsible for Search.playnsearch.com startpage. Depending on your PC system, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. While the MalwareBytes Anti Malware program is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.
- When MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) has finished scanning your machine, MalwareBytes Free will produce a list of unwanted programs ad supported software.
- Make sure all threats have ‘checkmark’ and click the “Quarantine Selected” button. When the cleaning process is finished, you may be prompted to restart the computer.
- Close the AntiMalware and continue with the next step.
Video instruction, which reveals in detail the steps above.
How to block Search.playnsearch.com redirect
Use an adblocker tool like AdGuard will protect you from harmful ads and content. Moreover, you can find that the AdGuard have an option to protect your privacy and stop phishing and spam sites. Additionally, ad-blocker software will allow you to avoid unwanted pop-up ads and unverified links that also a good way to stay safe online.
Download AdGuard by clicking on the link below.
26627 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
After the downloading process is complete, run the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen as on the image below.
Follow the prompts. After the setup is done, you will see a window as shown in the following example.
You can click “Skip” to close the install program and use the default settings, or press “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 don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you run your PC, AdGuard will start automatically and block advertisements, Search.playnsearch.com redirect, as well as other malicious or misleading pages. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, which can be found on your desktop.
Why is my browser redirected to Search.playnsearch.com?
The Search.playnsearch.com browser hijacker actively distributed with freeware, as a part of the installer of these programs. Therefore, it’s very important, when installing an unknown program even downloaded from well-known or big hosting site, read the Terms of use and the Software license, as well as to select the Manual, Advanced or Custom install method. In this method, you can disable the install of unneeded modules and software and protect your computer from such hijacker infections as the Search.playnsearch.com. Unfortunately, most users when installing unknown software, simply press the Next button, and don’t read any information which the free programs open them during its setup. This leads to the fact that the web browser settings are changed and web browser’s start page, search engine by default and newtab set to Search.playnsearch.com.
To sum up
Once you’ve finished the guidance above, your computer should be free from hijacker infection responsible for redirecting your browser to Search.playnsearch.com site and other malicious software. The MS Edge, IE, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox will no longer display unwanted Search.playnsearch.com page on startup. Unfortunately, if the instructions does not help you, then you have caught a new hijacker, and then the best way – ask for help here.
