Cyber security experts named the Smart Music Search a PUP (potentially unwanted program) and a browser hijacker because it is created to take over the internet browser and control user’s browsing preferences. The Smart Music Search can sneak into the system unnoticed due to the fact that it is actively being promoted in free software. It mostly aims at Chrome internet browser, but it is possible that it can infect other web browsers too. We recommend you to remove Smart Music Search as soon as it hijacks your homepage or search engine.
In order to force you to use Smart Music Search as often as possible this hijacker can alter your web-browsers’ search provider. You may even find that your PC’s web-browser settings are hijacked without your knowledge and conscious permission. The developers of this browser hijacker do so in order to make profit via Google AdSense or another third-party ad network. Thus every your click on advertisements which placed on the Smart Music Search generates revenue for them.
While the Smart Music Search hijacker infection is active, you won’t be able to restore the Firefox, Chrome, IE and MS Edge’ settings like homepage, new tab page and search engine by default. If you try to set your homepage to be Google, Bing or Yahoo, those settings will be automatically modified to Smart Music Search with the next computer restart. But this does not mean that you should just ignore it or get along with this fact. Because this is not the best option, due to the Smart Music Search redirect you can have problems with the Edge, IE, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, unwanted ads and even user information theft.
Therefore, the Smart Music Search is a potentially unwanted program and should not be used. If you found any of the symptoms mentioned above, we recommend you to perform few simple steps below to remove the hijacker and delete Smart Music Search from your internet browser settings.
Remove Smart Music Search from Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge
Not all undesired software such as hijacker infection responsible for Smart Music Search are easily uninstallable. You might see a new start page, new tab page, search engine and other type of undesired changes to the Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and IE settings and might not be able to figure out the program responsible for this activity. The reason for this is that many unwanted apps neither appear in MS Windows Control Panel. Therefore in order to completely remove Smart Music Search home page, you need to execute the steps below. Some of the steps below will require you to close this page. So, please read the few simple steps carefully, after that bookmark or print it for later reference.
To remove Smart Music Search, execute the steps below:
- How to manually get rid of Smart Music Search
- How to get rid of Smart Music Search redirect with freeware
- Stop Smart Music Search redirect and other undesired websites
- Don’t know how your browser has been hijacked by Smart Music Search?
- To sum up
How to manually get rid of Smart Music Search
Most common browser hijackers may be uninstalled without any antivirus apps. The manual hijacker removal is step-by-step guidance that will teach you how to remove the Smart Music Search.
Uninstall potentially unwanted apps using MS Windows Control Panel
We recommend that you begin the machine cleaning procedure by checking the list of installed applications and remove all unknown or dubious software. This is a very important step, as mentioned above, very often the malicious software such as adware and hijackers may be bundled with free applications. Uninstall the unwanted applications can delete the intrusive ads or browser redirect.
Make sure you have closed all web-browsers and other applications. Next, uninstall any undesired and suspicious applications from your Control panel.
Windows 10, 8.1, 8
Now, press the Windows button, type “Control panel” in search and press Enter. Choose “Programs and Features”, then “Uninstall a program”.
Look around the entire list of programs installed on your computer. Most likely, one of them is the hijacker infection that cause a redirect to Smart Music Search site. Choose the questionable program or the application that name is not familiar to you and uninstall it.
Windows Vista, 7
From the “Start” menu in Microsoft Windows, choose “Control Panel”. Under the “Programs” icon, choose “Uninstall a program”.
Select the dubious or any unknown apps, then click “Uninstall/Change” button to remove this unwanted application from your personal computer.
Windows XP
Click the “Start” button, select “Control Panel” option. Click on “Add/Remove Programs”.
Select an undesired program, then click “Change/Remove” button. Follow the prompts.
Remove Smart Music Search startpage from Google Chrome
If Chrome search engine by default, newtab and home page were hijacked by Smart Music Search then ‘Reset Chrome’ is a way {which} helps to return the web-browser to its factory state. To reset Chrome to the original defaults, follow the few simple steps below.
Open the Google Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal dotes (). It will display 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 steps: Remove Google 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 following example and click the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
Confirm your action, click the “Reset” button.
Delete Smart Music Search from Microsoft Internet Explorer
In order to recover all web-browser newtab page, start page and search engine by default you need to reset the Internet Explorer to the state, which was when the Windows was installed on your computer.
First, open the Microsoft Internet Explorer, then click ‘gear’ icon . It will open the Tools drop-down menu on the right part of the internet browser, then press the “Internet Options” as shown in the figure below.
In the “Internet Options” screen, select the “Advanced” tab, then press the “Reset” button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will show the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” prompt. Further, click the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. Next, press the “Reset” button as shown in the following example.
When the procedure is complete, press “Close” button. Close the Internet Explorer and restart your computer for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your browser’s startpage, newtab page and default search provider to default state.
Remove Smart Music Search from Firefox by resetting web browser settings
If the Mozilla Firefox browser application is hijacked, then resetting its settings can help. The Reset feature is available on all modern version of Mozilla Firefox. A reset can fix many issues by restoring Mozilla Firefox settings like home page, search engine by default and new tab page to their original settings. It will save your personal information such as saved passwords, bookmarks, auto-fill data and open tabs.
Run the Mozilla Firefox and press the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the web browser screen. Next, press the question-mark icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu. It will show the slide-out menu.
Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you’re 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 shown in the figure below.
Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation prompt. The Firefox will begin a process to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker infection responsible for Smart Music Search . Once, it’s finished, click the “Finish” button.
How to get rid of Smart Music Search redirect with freeware
It is not enough to remove Smart Music Search from your browser by following the manual steps above to solve all problems. Some Smart Music Search hijacker related files may remain on your computer and they will restore the hijacker even after you remove it. For that reason we advise to run free anti malware utility like Zemana Anti Malware, MalwareBytes and HitmanPro. Either of those applications should can be used to scan for and delete hijacker that redirects your web-browser to annoying Smart Music Search web-site.
How to delete Smart Music Search with Zemana
We suggest you to use the Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) that are completely clean your PC system. Moreover, the utility will help you to delete potentially unwanted programs, malware, toolbars and adware that your PC can be infected too.
Visit the following page to download Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM). Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
164033 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
Once the downloading process is finished, close all programs and windows on your machine. Open a directory in which you saved it. Double-click on the icon that’s called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup as displayed in the following example.
When the installation starts, you will see the “Setup wizard” that will allow you setup Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) on your computer.
Once setup is finished, you will see window as shown on the image below.
Now press the “Scan” button to search for browser hijacker infection responsible for Smart Music Search . A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your PC system. While the Zemana is scanning, you can see number of objects it has identified either as being malware.
As the scanning ends, the results are displayed in the scan report. Next, you need to press “Next” button.
The Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will remove browser hijacker responsible for redirecting your web-browser to Smart Music Search page and add items to the Quarantine.
Scan and clean your personal computer of hijacker with HitmanPro
The Hitman Pro tool is free and easy to use. It can scan and delete hijacker that causes internet browsers to open annoying Smart Music Search webpage, malware, potentially unwanted apps and adware from machine (Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, XP) and thereby return browsers default settings (newtab, homepage and default search provider). HitmanPro is powerful enough to search for and remove malicious registry entries and files that are hidden on the machine.
Click the link below to download the latest version of HitmanPro for Microsoft Windows. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
Download and use HitmanPro on your computer. Once started, press “Next” button to look for hijacker which cause a redirect to Smart Music Search web page. This task can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the tool is checking, you can see how many objects and files has already scanned..
Once the scanning is finished, Hitman Pro will show a list of all threats detected by the scan.
All detected threats will be marked. You can delete them all by simply press Next button.
It will show a prompt, click the “Activate free license” button to begin the free 30 days trial to remove all malicious software found.
Use Malwarebytes to remove Smart Music Search redirect
You can remove Smart Music Search automatically with a help of Malwarebytes Free. We recommend this free malware removal utility because it can easily remove hijacker infections, adware, PUPs and toolbars with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.
Click the following link to download the latest version of MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) for Microsoft Windows. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
326387 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
Once the downloading process is complete, close all applications and windows on your personal computer. Open a directory in which you saved it. Double-click on the icon that’s called mb3-setup like below.
When the install begins, you will see the “Setup wizard” that will help you set up Malwarebytes on your PC.
Once setup is done, you will see window as shown below.
Now click the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes utility will begin scanning the whole PC to find out hijacker responsible for redirecting your web-browser to Smart Music Search site. This task can take some time, so please be patient. When a threat is found, the count of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the checking is finished.
After the scanning is done, MalwareBytes Free will show a list of found threats. Review the scan results and then click “Quarantine Selected” button.
The Malwarebytes will now remove browser hijacker infection responsible for redirecting your web browser to Smart Music Search webpage. When disinfection is complete, you may be prompted to reboot your machine.
The following video explains steps on how to remove hijacker infection, ad-supported software and other malicious software with MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM).
Stop Smart Music Search redirect and other undesired websites
We suggest to install an ad-blocker program which can block Smart Music Search and other unwanted webpages. The adblocker tool like AdGuard is a application which basically removes advertising from the Internet and stops access to malicious pages. Moreover, security experts says that using ad-blocking software is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Web.
Click the link below to download the latest version of AdGuard for Windows. Save it directly to your Windows Desktop.
26627 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
After the downloading process is finished, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen as displayed on the screen below.
Follow the prompts. When the installation is done, you will see a window as displayed in the following example.
You can click “Skip” to close the install application and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” button to see an quick tutorial which will assist 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 run your personal computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop popup ads, Smart Music Search redirect, 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 AdGuard icon, that can be found on your desktop.
Don’t know how your browser has been hijacked by Smart Music Search?
The browser hijacker usually spreads bundled with freeware that downloaded from the Net. Which means that you need to be proactive and carefully read the Terms of use and the License agreement properly. For the most part, the Smart Music Search hijacker will be clearly described, so take the time to carefully read all the information about the software that you downloaded and want to install on your PC system. In the Setup wizard, you should select the Advanced, Custom or Manual installation method to control what components and additional programs to be installed, otherwise you run the risk of infecting your PC system with an infection such as the Smart Music Search hijacker.
To sum up
Now your computer should be free of the browser hijacker infection responsible for modifying your web browser settings to Smart Music Search. We suggest that you keep Zemana AntiMalware (to periodically scan your PC for new browser hijackers and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you block annoying popups and harmful webpages). Moreover, to prevent any browser hijacker, please stay clear of unknown and third party apps, make sure that your antivirus program, turn on the option to look for potentially unwanted programs.
If you need more help with Smart Music Search related issues, go to here.