How to remove Hide My Searches redirect [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

Is your browser redirected to Hide My Searches web site? This problem can be caused due to potentially unwanted application (PUA) from the family of browser hijackers. The hijacker infection is a type of malicious software which is designed to alter your browsers settings. You may experience any of the following behaviors: your search engine, new tab page and startpage is replaced to Hide My Searches, web-pages load slowly, you see multiple toolbars on the Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer and Chrome that you didn’t install, you get a lot of popups.

When you perform a search through Hide My Searches, in addition to search results from Yahoo, Bing or Google Custom Search that provide links to web pages, news articles, images or videos you will also be shown a large amount of annoying advertisements. The creators of Hide My Searches doing this to generate advertising profit from these ads.

Some browser hijacker infections also contain adware (also known as ‘adware software’) which has the ability to show unwanted advertisements or gather lots of marketing-type data about you which can be sold to third parties. These undesired advertisements can be displayed in the form of pop-unders, pop-ups, in-text advertisements, video ads, text links or banners or even massive full page ads. Most of the adware is designed to show ads, but certain adware is form of spyware that often used to track users to collect lots of confidential data.

Threat Summary

Name	Hide My Searches
Type	browser hijacker, search provider hijacker, start page hijacker, toolbar, unwanted new tab, redirect virus
Symptoms	unwanted advertisements appear on web pages that you are visiting when you go to a webpage, you are automatically redirected to another web site that you do not intend to visit your system starts automatically installing unexpected software unexpected icons on your desktop your internet browser home page has modified and you cannot modify it back
Removal	Hide My Searches removal guide

It is important, do not use Hide My Searches webpage and do not click on ads placed on it, as they can lead you to a more harmful or misleading web-pages. The best option is to use the few simple steps posted below to clean your PC of hijacker, delete the Hide My Searches start page, and thus revert back your previous homepage and search provider.

How to Remove Hide My Searches (Redirect virus removal tutorial)

Fortunately, we’ve an effective method that will assist you manually or/and automatically delete Hide My Searches from your personal computer and bring your web browser settings, including new tab, default search engine and homepage, back to normal. Below you will find a removal steps with all the steps you may need to successfully remove this hijacker and its traces. Certain of the steps below will require you to exit this web-page. So, please read the few simple steps carefully, after that bookmark or print it for later reference.

To remove Hide My Searches, complete the steps below:

1. Delete Hide My Searches without any tools
   • Uninstall potentially unwanted apps through the Windows Control Panel
   • Remove Hide My Searches from Mozilla Firefox by resetting internet browser settings
   • Delete Hide My Searches from Internet Explorer
   • Remove Hide My Searches from Chrome
2. How to automatically remove Hide My Searches
   • Run Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) to delete Hide My Searches browser hijacker
   • Scan your PC system and delete Hide My Searches redirect with HitmanPro
   • Scan and clean your computer of hijacker with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM)
3. Use AdBlocker to block Hide My Searches and stay safe online
4. Don’t know how your browser has been hijacked by Hide My Searches?
5. To sum up

Delete Hide My Searches without any tools

Manually removing the Hide My Searches is also possible, although this approach takes time and technical prowess. You can sometimes locate browser hijacker in your computer’s list of installed applications and uninstall it as you would any other unwanted program.

Uninstall potentially unwanted apps through the Windows Control Panel

In order to remove Hide My Searches, first thing you need to do is to delete unknown and dubious programs from your PC system using Microsoft Windows control panel. When deleting this browser hijacker, check the list of installed apps and try to find suspicious applications and uninstall them all. Pay special attention to recently installed software, as it is most likely that the Hide My Searches hijacker сame along with it.

Carefully browse through the list of installed apps and remove all dubious and unknown applications. We suggest to click ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed programs by date. When you have found anything suspicious that may be the browser hijacker responsible for redirecting user searches to Hide My Searches or other PUP (potentially unwanted program), then select this application and click ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the suspicious program blocked from removal, then run Revo Uninstaller Freeware to completely remove it from your PC.

Remove Hide My Searches from Mozilla Firefox by resetting internet browser settings

Resetting your Mozilla Firefox is good initial troubleshooting step for any issues with your internet browser program, including the reroute to Hide My Searches web-site. Your saved bookmarks, form auto-fill information and passwords won’t be cleared or changed.

First, run the Firefox and click button. It will show the drop-down menu on the right-part of the web browser. Further, press the Help button () as shown below.

In the Help menu, select the “Troubleshooting Information” option. Another way to open the “Troubleshooting Information” screen – type “about:support” in the internet browser adress bar and press Enter. It will show the “Troubleshooting Information” page as on the image below. In the upper-right corner of this screen, click the “Refresh Firefox” button.

It will show the confirmation prompt. Further, click the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Firefox will start a process to fix your problems that caused by the Hide My Searches browser hijacker. Once, it’s done, click the “Finish” button.

Delete Hide My Searches from Internet Explorer

If you find that Internet Explorer browser settings such as default search engine, startpage and new tab had been hijacked, then you may revert back your settings, via the reset browser procedure.

First, open the Internet Explorer, press ) button. Next, press “Internet Options” as shown in the following example.

In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, press Reset button. The Internet Explorer will display the Reset Internet Explorer settings prompt. 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 browser hijacker infection that causes web browsers to show annoying Hide My Searches web-site, disable malicious and ad-supported browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings such as startpage, search engine by default and newtab to default state.

Remove Hide My Searches from Chrome

Resetting Chrome to original state is useful in removing the Hide My Searches browser hijacker from your web browser. This solution is always effective to complete if you have trouble in removing changes caused by hijacker.

1. First launch the Google Chrome and click Menu button (small button in the form of three dots).
2. It will open the Google Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
3. You will see the list of installed addons. If the list has the plugin labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following tutorial: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
4. Now open the Google Chrome menu once again, click the “Settings” menu.
5. You will see the Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and press “Advanced” link.
6. Scroll down again and click the “Reset” button.
7. The Chrome will open the reset profile settings page as shown on the image above.
8. Next click the “Reset” button.
9. Once this process is finished, your web browser’s newtab page, default search provider and homepage will be restored to their original defaults.
10. To learn more, read the post How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.

How to automatically remove Hide My Searches

Anti-Malware software differ from each other by many features such as performance, scheduled scans, automatic updates, virus signature database, technical support, compatibility with other antivirus software and so on. We advise you use the following free software: Zemana, MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) and HitmanPro. Each of these programs has all of needed features, but most importantly, they can look for the browser hijacker and get rid of Hide My Searches from the Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Edge.

Run Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) to delete Hide My Searches browser hijacker

Zemana Anti-Malware is extremely fast and ultra light weight malware removal utility. It will allow you delete Hide My Searches browser hijacker infection, adware, potentially unwanted programs and other malware. This application gives real-time protection which never slow down your computer. Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) is designed for experienced and beginner computer users. The interface of this utility is very easy to use, simple and minimalist.

1. Visit the following page to download the latest version of Zemana for Windows. Save it on your Desktop.
   
   

   Zemana AntiMalware
   164032 downloads
   Author: Zemana Ltd
   Category: Security tools
   Update: July 16, 2019
   
2. Once you have downloaded the installation file, make sure to double click on the Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. This would start the Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) install on your computer.
3. Select installation language and click ‘OK’ button.
4. On the next screen ‘Setup Wizard’ simply click the ‘Next’ button and follow the prompts.
   
5. Finally, once the setup is complete, Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) will start automatically. Else, if doesn’t then double-click on the Zemana Free icon on your desktop.
6. Now that you have successfully install Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM), let’s see How to use Zemana Anti-Malware to remove Hide My Searches homepage from your computer.
7. After you have started the Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM), you will see a window as displayed on the image below, just click ‘Scan’ button . Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) program will scan through the whole system for the hijacker infection.
   
8. Now pay attention to the screen while Zemana scans your machine.
   
9. As the scanning ends, Zemana Anti Malware will open a list of detected threats. In order to delete all items, simply click ‘Next’ button.
   
10. Zemana Free may require a restart PC in order to complete the Hide My Searches removal process.
11. If you want to permanently delete hijacker from your personal computer, then press ‘Quarantine’ icon, select all malicious software, adware software, PUPs and other items and press Delete.
12. Restart your PC to complete the browser hijacker removal process.

Scan your PC system and delete Hide My Searches redirect with HitmanPro

HitmanPro frees your computer from adware software, PUPs, unwanted toolbars, browser add-ons and other undesired applications like browser hijacker responsible for Hide My Searches . The free removal utility will help you enjoy your PC system to its fullest. Hitman Pro uses advanced behavioral detection technologies to scan for if there are unwanted apps in your computer. You can review the scan results, and select the items you want to uninstall.

Visit the page linked below to download HitmanPro. Save it on your Desktop.

After the downloading process is complete, open the directory in which you saved it. You will see an icon like below.

Double click the Hitman Pro desktop icon. Once the utility is launched, you will see a screen as shown in the following example.

Further, click “Next” button to perform a system scan for the browser hijacker that cause a reroute to Hide My Searches web page. Depending on your personal computer, the scan may take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. After the system scan is finished, Hitman Pro will display a screen which contains a list of malware that has been found as displayed in the figure below.

All found items will be marked. You can delete them all by simply click “Next” button. It will display a prompt, click the “Activate free license” button.

Scan and clean your computer of hijacker with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM)

We suggest using the MalwareBytes which are fully clean your PC system of the browser hijacker. The free tool is an advanced malicious software removal program developed by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular anti malware technology. It’s able to help you remove browser hijacker, PUPs, malicious software, adware, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your computer for free.

First, visit the page linked below, then click the ‘Download’ button in order to download the latest version of MalwareBytes.

After the downloading process is finished, close all applications and windows on your system. Double-click the install file called mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as displayed on the image below, click the “Yes” button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” which will help you install MalwareBytes Anti Malware on your computer. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.

Once installation is complete successfully, press Finish button. MalwareBytes Free will automatically start and you can see its main screen as on the image below.

Now click the “Scan Now” button to begin checking your PC for the browser hijacker that made to reroute your internet browser to the Hide My Searches web page. This process can take some time, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes Free program is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified as threat.

As the scanning ends, you can check all threats detected on your PC. Review the report and then click “Quarantine Selected” button. The MalwareBytes will begin to get rid of hijacker which designed to reroute your web browser to the Hide My Searches web site. After that process is done, you may be prompted to restart the computer.

We recommend you look at the following video, which completely explains the procedure of using the MalwareBytes Free to remove adware software, browser hijacker infection and other malware.

Use AdBlocker to block Hide My Searches and stay safe online

One of the worst things is the fact that you cannot stop all those unwanted webpages like Hide My Searches using only built-in Windows capabilities. However, there is a application out that you can use to block intrusive web-browser redirects, ads and pop ups in any modern web browsers including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Chrome. It’s called Adguard and it works very well.

Please go to the link below to download AdGuard. Save it to your Desktop.

After downloading it, double-click the downloaded file to launch 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 such as the one below.

Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick instructions which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your personal computer, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop undesired ads, block Hide My Searches, as well as other harmful or misleading web-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 is located on your desktop.

Don’t know how your browser has been hijacked by Hide My Searches browser hijacker infection?

The Hide My Searches most likely to occur during the installation of free applications due the fact that potentially unwanted applications like this are usually hidden in the setup file. Thus, if you have installed some free applications using Quick(Standard) mode, you may have let a hijacker infection get inside the machine. Keep in mind that the Quick mode is unreliable because it do not warn about optional software. Thus, third-party software will be installed automatically unless you select Advanced/Custom mode and disable its installation.

To sum up

Once you’ve complete the step-by-step guide above, your machine should be clean from this hijacker infection and other malicious software. The Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Edge and Firefox will no longer open unwanted Hide My Searches web page on startup. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step tutorial does not help you, then you have caught a new hijacker infection, 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 unwanted Hide My Searches redirect.