How to remove Defend Search [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

If you’re reading this article, the chances are, you are doing so via the web browser that is infected with something named Defend Search browser hijacker. The Defend Search is categorized as hijacker (also known as hijackware). Most commonly it’s installed without your permission. It takes control of your web browser and changes your newtab page, search provider and home page to its own. So, you will notice a new homepage and search engine installed in the IE, Firefox, Google Chrome and Edge internet browsers.

Being affected by the Defend Search browser hijacker you’ll be forced to use its own search engine. It could seem not to be dangerous, but you still should be very careful, since it may display undesired and malicious advertisements made to trick you into buying certain questionable apps or products, provide search results which may redirect your web-browser to some deceptive, misleading or malicious sites. We recommend that you use only the reliable search provider such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.

It is not a good idea to have an unwanted program such as the Defend Search hijacker on your personal computer. The reason for this is simple, it doing things you do not know about. The browser hijacker infection has the ability to gather confidential information about you which may be later transferred 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 Defend Search webpage.

If the Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer have been infected with the Defend Search, you must have finished any of the steps above. Once you’ve cleaned your system by following our instructions below, make sure not to commit the same mistakes again in the future.

How to remove Defend Search from Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge

The answer is right here on this web-page. We have put together simplicity and efficiency. It will allow you easily to clean your PC of hijacker infection. Moreover, you can select manual or automatic removal solution. If you are familiar with the PC then use manual removal, otherwise run the free anti malware utility designed specifically to remove browser hijacker such as the Defend Search. Of course, you may combine both methods. Read it once, after doing so, please print this page as you may need to exit your browser or reboot your computer.

To remove Defend Search, use the steps below:

1. Manual Defend Search removal
   • Delete Defend Search related software through the Control Panel of your computer
   • Remove Defend Search from Firefox by resetting browser settings
   • Remove Defend Search from Internet Explorer
   • Remove Defend Search from Google Chrome
2. Scan your computer and get rid of Defend Search with free tools
   • Automatically remove Defend Search redirect with Zemana Anti Malware
   • Run HitmanPro to delete Defend Search
   • Use MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) to remove Defend Search
3. How to block Defend Search
4. How to prevent Defend Search from getting inside your PC
5. Finish words

Manual Defend Search removal

To remove Defend Search, ad supported software and other unwanted programs you can try to do so manually. Unfortunately some of the browser hijackers won’t show up in your program list, but some hijackers may. In this case, you may be able to delete it via the uninstall function of your personal computer. You can do this by following the steps below.

Delete Defend Search related software through the Control Panel of your computer

First of all, check the list of installed software on your PC and delete all unknown and recently installed software. If you see an unknown program with incorrect spelling or varying capital letters, it have most likely been installed by malicious software and you should clean it off first with malware removal tool like Zemana Anti-malware.

Carefully browse through the list of installed software and remove all suspicious and unknown programs. We suggest to press ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed software by date. After you’ve found anything questionable that may be the Defend Search hijacker or other PUP (potentially unwanted program), then select this program and press ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the suspicious application blocked from removal, then use Revo Uninstaller Freeware to completely get rid of it from your computer.

Remove Defend Search from Firefox by resetting browser settings

If the Mozilla Firefox settings such as new tab, default search engine and home page have been modified by the hijacker infection, then resetting it to the default state can help. When using the reset feature, your personal information like passwords, bookmarks, browsing history and web form auto-fill data will be saved.

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 below.

A small menu will appear, click the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, click “Refresh Firefox” button as shown on the image below.

Follow the onscreen procedure to revert back your Mozilla Firefox web browser settings to their default state.

Remove Defend Search from Internet Explorer

First, open the Internet Explorer, click ) button. Next, click “Internet Options” as displayed on the image below.

In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, click Reset button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will display the Reset Internet Explorer settings dialog box. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and click Reset button.

You will now need to restart your PC for the changes to take effect. It will get rid of hijacker that redirects your web-browser to intrusive Defend Search webpage, disable malicious and ad-supported web-browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings such as homepage, newtab page and search engine to default state.

Get rid of Defend Search from Google Chrome

Reset Google Chrome settings to remove Defend Search. If you are still experiencing issues with Defend Search redirect, you need to reset Google Chrome browser to its original state. This step needs to be performed only if browser hijacker has not been removed by the previous steps.

1. First, run the Chrome and press the Menu icon (icon in the form of three dots).
2. It will show the Google Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then press Extensions.
3. You’ll 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 steps: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
4. Now open the Google Chrome menu once again, click the “Settings” menu.
5. Next, press “Advanced” link, which located at the bottom of the Settings page.
6. On the bottom of the “Advanced settings” page, press the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
7. The Chrome will open the reset settings prompt as shown on the image above.
8. Confirm the browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
9. To learn more, read the blog post How to reset Chrome settings to default.

Scan your computer and get rid of Defend Search with free tools

In order to get rid of Defend Search easily, you not only need to remove it from the web-browsers, but also remove all its components in your computer including Windows registry entries. We suggest to download and use free removal tools to automatically free your PC of Defend Search browser hijacker.

Automatically remove Defend Search redirect with Zemana Anti Malware

You can download and use the Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) for free. This anti-malware utility will scan all the Microsoft Windows registry keys and files in your system along with the system settings and internet browser extensions. If it finds any malware, adware or malicious extension that is responsible for redirections to the Defend Search then the Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) will remove them from your machine completely.

Click the following link to download Zemana Free. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop.

Once the download is finished, run it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the Zemana Free will try to update itself and when this procedure is complete, click the “Scan” button to detect hijacker which designed to redirect your internet browser to the Defend Search web site.

This process can take some time, so please be patient. When a threat is found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. In order to delete all threats, simply press “Next” button.

The Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) will start to remove browser hijacker responsible for Defend Search redirect.

Run HitmanPro to delete Defend Search

Hitman Pro cleans your PC from adware, PUPs, unwanted toolbars, web browser addons and other unwanted apps like the browser hijacker responsible for redirections to the Defend Search. The free removal tool will help you enjoy your personal computer to its fullest. Hitman Pro uses advanced behavioral detection technologies to search for if there are unwanted applications in your personal computer. You can review the scan results, and choose the items you want to erase.

1. Download HitmanPro by clicking on the following link. Save it on your Desktop.
   
   

   HitmanPro
   12066 downloads
   Author: Sophos
   Category: Security tools
   Update: June 28, 2018
   
2. After the download is finished, double click the HitmanPro icon. Once this tool is started, click “Next” button to detect the Defend Search browser hijacker. This process can take some time, so please be patient. While the Hitman Pro is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified either as being malicious software.
3. As the scanning ends, a list of all items detected is created. All detected threats will be marked. You can get rid of them all by simply press “Next” button. Now click the “Activate free license” button to begin the free 30 days trial to remove all malicious software found.

Use MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) to remove Defend Search

You can remove Defend Search automatically with a help of MalwareBytes Anti Malware. We suggest this free malicious software removal utility because it may easily remove browser hijacker, ad-supported software, PUPs and toolbars with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.

1. Please go to the following link to download MalwareBytes. Save it on your MS Windows desktop.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware
   326384 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: April 15, 2020
   
2. After the download is done, close all programs and windows on your personal computer. Open a file location. Double-click on the icon that’s named mb3-setup.
3. Further, click Next button and follow the prompts.
4. Once installation is finished, press the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes Free utility will start scanning the whole system to find out the Defend Search hijacker and other web-browser’s malicious add-ons. This process can take quite a while, so please be patient. When a malicious software, adware or potentially unwanted apps are found, the count of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is finished.
5. When the scan is done, MalwareBytes will display a list of all threats found by the scan. Next, you need to press “Quarantine Selected”. After finished, you can be prompted to reboot your machine.

The following video offers a guide on how to remove hijackers, ad-supported software and other malicious software with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.

How to block Defend Search

The AdGuard is a very good ad blocker program for the Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Chrome, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of undesired ads, popunders, pop-ups, undesired new tabs, and even full page ads and web-site overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can block the Defend Search redirect automatically or by using a custom filter rule.

AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link. Save it on your Desktop.

Once the downloading process is finished, double-click the downloaded file to start it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as displayed 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 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 guidance which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you run your personal computer, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop unwanted ads, block Defend Search, as well as other harmful or misleading 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.

How to prevent Defend Search browser hijacker from getting inside your PC

The Defend Search browser hijacker usually spreads bundled with some free programs that you download off of the Web. Once started, it will infect your PC and modify web-browser’s settings like default search provider, home page and newtab without your permission. To avoid infection, in the Setup wizard, you should be be proactive and carefully read the ‘Terms of use’, the ‘license agreement’ and other install screens, as well as to always choose the ‘Manual’ or ‘Advanced’ setup mode, when installing anything downloaded from the World Wide Web.

Finish words

Now your computer should be free of the browser hijacker responsible for Defend Search redirect. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted pop up advertisements and unwanted malicious pages) and Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) (to periodically scan your system for new malware, browser hijacker infections and ad supported software). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Microsoft Windows operating system. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new hijackers, malicious apps and adware are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to remove Defend Search redirect from your browser, then ask for help here.