How to remove Search.starttab.co [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

Some browser hijackers also contain adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) that may be used to show undesired advertisements and or gather a wide variety of user info that can be used for marketing purposes. These unwanted advertisements can be shown as pop-unders, pop-ups, in-text ads, video advertisements, text links or banners or even massive full page ads. Most of the adware is made to display ads, but some ‘ad supported’ software is form of spyware that often used to track users to gather lots of personal info.

Most often, the Search.starttab.co browser hijacker affects most common web-browsers like Chrome, FF, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. But such hijacker infections as well may infect other web browsers by changing its shortcuts (adding ‘http://site.address’ into Target field of web-browser’s shortcut). So every time you open the web browser, it’ll display Search.starttab.co web site. Even if you setup your home page again, the annoying Search.starttab.co page will be the first thing that you see when you run the web-browser.

We recommend you to remove Search.starttab.co redirect and clean your PC of browser hijacker as quickly as possible, until the presence of the hijacker infection has not led to even worse consequences. Follow the guidance below that will help you to completely remove Search.starttab.co home page, using only the built-in Windows features and a few of specialized free tools.

How to remove Search.starttab.co from PC system

The Search.starttab.co is a browser hijacker infection that you might have difficulty in removing it from your computer. Luckily, you have found the effective removal guide in this post. Both the manual removal way and the automatic removal method will be provided below and you can just choose the one that best for you. If you’ve any questions or need help then type a comment below. Certain of the steps below will require you to exit the web site. So, please read the few simple steps carefully, after that bookmark or print it for later reference.

How to remove Search.starttab.co startpage without any software

The following instructions is a step-by-step guide, which will help you manually delete Search.starttab.co start page from the Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Delete all adware and other potentially unwanted programs through the Microsoft Windows Control Panel

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 programs on your PC system and see if there are any suspicious and unknown software. If you see any, you need to uninstall them. Of course, before doing so, you can do an Web search to find details on the application. If it is a potentially unwanted application, adware or malicious software, you will likely find information that says so.

Press Windows button , then press Search . Type “Control panel”and press Enter. If you using Windows XP or Windows 7, then press “Start” and select “Control Panel”. It will display the Windows Control Panel as shown on the image below.

Further, click “Uninstall a program”
It will show a list of all software installed on your machine. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall any suspicious and unknown applications.

Clean up the web browsers shortcuts which have been hijacked by Search.starttab.co

When installed, this hijacker may add an argument similar “http://site.address” into the Target property of the desktop shortcut for the Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and MS Edge. Due to this, every time you start the web browser, it will open the intrusive homepage.

Right click on the shortcut of infected internet browser as shown on the image below.

Select the “Properties” option and it’ll open a shortcut’s properties. Next, click the “Shortcut” tab and then delete the “http://site.address” string from Target field as shown on the image below.

Then click OK to save changes. Repeat the step for all web-browsers that are rerouted to the Search.starttab.co unwanted web site.

Get rid of Search.starttab.co startpage from Firefox

Resetting your Firefox is first troubleshooting step for any issues with your web-browser program, including the redirect to Search.starttab.co web page.

Launch the FF and click 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 display the slide-out menu.

Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you are 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 dialog box. The FF will start a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the Search.starttab.co hijacker infection. Once, it’s done, click the “Finish” button.

Remove Search.starttab.co homepage from Google Chrome

Like other modern web-browsers, the Google Chrome has the ability to reset the settings to their default values and thereby recover the internet browser startpage, new tab page and default search provider that have been changed by the Search.starttab.co browser hijacker.

First start the Chrome. Next, click the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (). It will show the main menu. Further, click the option named “Settings”. Another way to open the Google Chrome’s settings – type chrome://settings in the browser adress bar and press Enter.

The web-browser will open the settings screen. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “Show advanced settings” link. Now scroll down until the “Reset settings” section is visible, like below and press the “Reset settings” button.

The Google Chrome will display the confirmation dialog box. You need to confirm your action, click the “Reset” button. The browser will start the process of cleaning. When it is done, the browser’s settings including startpage, new tab and default search provider back to the values that have been when the Chrome was first installed on your machine.

Get rid of Search.starttab.co from IE

If you find that Internet Explorer web-browser settings such as start page, newtab page and search provider by default having been hijacked, then you may restore your settings, via the reset internet browser process.

First, open the IE, click ) button. Next, click “Internet Options” like below.

In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, press Reset button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer 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 for the changes to take effect. It will get rid of Search.starttab.co hijacker, disable malicious and ad-supported web browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings such as start page, newtab page and search provider by default to default state.

How to get rid of Search.starttab.co redirect with free programs

In order to completely get rid of Search.starttab.co, you not only need to uninstall it from the browsers, but also get rid of all its components in your PC including Windows registry entries. We suggest to download and use free removal tools to automatically clean your personal computer of Search.starttab.co hijacker.

Automatically remove Search.starttab.co with Zemana Anti-malware

We recommend using the Zemana Anti-malware. You can download and install Zemana Anti-malware to find and remove Search.starttab.co from your computer. When installed and updated, the malware remover will automatically scan and detect all threats present on the computer.

Download Zemana anti malware on your PC by clicking on the link below. Save it on your Windows desktop or in any other place.

Once the download is finished, close all programs and windows on your system. Double-click the set up file named Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up as shown below, click the “Yes” button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” which will help you install Zemana anti malware on your PC. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.

Once setup is finished successfully, Zemana anti malware will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown below.

Now press the “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this utility for the hijacker . This task may take quite a while, so please be patient. While the tool is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified either as being malware.

Once the system scan is finished, you’ll be shown the list of all found items on your machine. Make sure all entries have ‘checkmark’ and press “Next” button. The Zemana anti-malware will begin removing Search.starttab.co hijacker infection and other security threats. Once disinfection is finished, you may be prompted to restart the system.

Automatically get rid of Search.starttab.co with Malwarebytes

Manual Search.starttab.co removal requires some computer skills. Some files and registry entries that created by the browser hijacker infection can be not completely removed. We recommend that use the Malwarebytes Free that are completely free your computer of hijacker. Moreover, the free program will help you to remove malicious software, potentially unwanted programs, adware and toolbars that your machine can be infected too.

Download Malwarebytes Free from the link below.

Once the downloading process is done, run it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the Malwarebytes will try to update itself and when this task is complete, press the “Scan Now” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the Search.starttab.co browser hijacker infection . This task may take some time, so please be patient. While the tool is scanning, you can see count of objects it has identified as being infected by malware. Review the scan results and then click “Quarantine Selected” button.

The Malwarebytes is a free program that you can use to get rid of all detected folders, files, services, registry entries and so on. To learn more about this malware removal tool, we recommend you to read and follow the steps or the video guide below.

If the problem with Search.starttab.co homepage is still remained

AdwCleaner is a free removal utility that may be downloaded and use to remove hijackers, adware, malware, potentially unwanted programs, toolbars and other threats from your machine. You can run this tool to detect threats even if you have an antivirus or any other security program.

1. Download AdwCleaner from the following link.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225559 downloads
   Version: 8.4.1
   Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: October 5, 2024
   
2. Select the folder in which you saved it as Desktop, and then click Save.
3. Once downloading is complete, start the AdwCleaner, double-click the adwcleaner_xxx.exe file.
4. If the “User Account Control” prompts, click Yes to continue.
5. Read the “Terms of use”, and press Accept.
6. In the AdwCleaner window, click the “Scan” to perform a system scan with this tool for the Search.starttab.co browser hijacker and other malware and adware. This process can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the program is checking, you can see count of objects it has identified as threat.
7. Once the system scan is finished, it’ll display a list of all threats found by this tool. Review the scan results and then click “Clean”. If the AdwCleaner will ask you to restart your system, press “OK”.

The few simple steps shown in detail in the following video.

Stop Search.starttab.co home page and other intrusive web-pages

It is also critical to protect your web-browsers from malicious web-sites and ads by using an ad-blocker application like AdGuard. Security experts says that it’ll greatly reduce the risk of malicious software, and potentially save lots of money. Additionally, the AdGuard can also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.

Download AdGuard application from the following link.

Once the downloading process is complete, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen as on the image below.

Follow the prompts. Once the installation is finished, you will see a window as shown on the image below.

You can click “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or click “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 machine, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop advertisements, web-sites such Search.starttab.co, as well as other harmful or misleading sites. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that is located on your desktop.

How to avoid install of Search.starttab.co browser hijacker infection

Most often Search.starttab.co browser hijacker come bundled with free programs. So, think back, have you ever download and run any freeware? Because most users, in the Setup Wizard, simply click the Next button and don’t read any information such as ‘Terms of use’ and ‘Software license’. This leads to the fact that the system is infected, the web-browser’s settings are replaced and your’s home page, newtab and default search provider set to the Search.starttab.co. Even removing the free programs that contains this hijacker, your browser’s settings will not be restored. Therefore, you must follow the instructions above to return the Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge and Internet Explorer’s newtab, home page and search provider by default.

To sum up

Now your PC should be free of the Search.starttab.co . Uninstall AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep Malwarebytes (to periodically scan your machine for new malicious software, browser hijackers and ad-supported software) and AdGuard (to help you stop undesired pop-up ads and harmful web pages). Moreover, to prevent browser hijackers, please stay clear of unknown and third party programs, make sure that your antivirus application, turn on the option to scan for PUPs (potentially unwanted programs).

If you need more help with Search.starttab.co search related issues, go to our Spyware/Malware removal forum.