How to remove Safe.search.tools [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

The Safe.search.tools browser hijacker can also alter the default search provider that will virtually block the possibility of finding information on the Internet. The reason for this is that the Safe.search.tools search results may show a huge count of advertisements, links to unwanted and ad web sites. Only the remaining part is the result of your search request, loaded from the major search providers like Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Also, ‘ad-supported’ software (also known as adware) can be installed on the PC together with Safe.search.tools hijacker. It will insert a large count of ads directly to the web sites which you view, creating a sense that advertisements has been added by the developers of the site. Moreover, legal ads can be replaced on fake advertisements which will offer to download and install various unnecessary and malicious applications. Moreover, the Safe.search.tools browser hijacker has the ability to collect a wide variety of user data that can be later transferred to third parties.

In addition to that, as was mentioned earlier, some hijackers like Safe.search.tools to also modify all internet browsers shortcuts which located on your Desktop or Start menu. So, every infected shortcut will try to redirect your browser to annoying pages, certain of which might be harmful. It can make the whole computer more vulnerable to hacker attacks.

We recommend you to get rid of Safe.search.tools home page and clean your personal computer of browser hijacker as quickly as possible, until the presence of the browser hijacker infection has not led to even worse consequences. You need to follow the steps below that will assist you to completely get rid of Safe.search.tools , using only the built-in Windows features and a few of specialized free utilities.

How to remove Safe.search.tools from personal computer

In the step-by-step tutorial below, we will try to cover the Chrome, FF, MS Edge and Internet Explorer and provide general advice to delete Safe.search.tools . You may find some minor differences in your Windows install. No matter, you should be okay if you follow the steps outlined below: delete all suspicious and unknown software, reset internet browsers settings, fix internet browsers shortcuts, run free malware removal tools. Read this manual carefully, bookmark or print it, because you may need to close your browser or restart your system.

How to manually delete Safe.search.tools

Read this section to know how to manually remove the Safe.search.tools hijacker. Even if the steps does not work for you, there are several free malicious software removers below that can easily handle such browser hijackers.

Remove Safe.search.tools associated software by using Microsoft Windows Control Panel

First, go to Windows Control Panel and delete suspicious software, all applications you do not remember installing. It is important to pay the most attention to applications you installed just before Safe.search.tools hijacker appeared on your internet browser. If you don’t know what a program does, look for the answer on the Net.

Carefully browse through the list of installed programs and remove all software which has the name such as “Safe.search.tools”. We recommend to press ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed applications by date. After you have found anything suspicious that may be the hijacker, adware or potentially unwanted software, then choose this program and click ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the suspicious program blocked from removal, then run Revo Uninstaller Freeware to fully get rid of it from your machine.

Disinfect the web-browser’s shortcuts to remove Safe.search.tools start page

Once the browser hijacker is started, it can also alter the internet browser’s shortcuts, adding an argument similar to “http://site.address” into the Target field. Due to this, every time you open the web-browser, it will display an intrusive web-page.

To clear the web-browser shortcut, right-click to it and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, locate the Target field. Click inside, you will see a vertical line – arrow pointer, move it (using -> arrow key on your keyboard) to the right as possible. You will see a text similar to “http://site.address” which has been added here. You need to delete it.

When the text is removed, press the OK button. You need to clean all shortcuts of all your internet browsers, as they may be infected too.

Get rid of Safe.search.tools redirect from Internet Explorer

If you find that Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser settings like homepage, newtab and default search engine having been hijacked, then you may restore your settings, via the reset web browser procedure.

First, start the IE. Next, press the button in the form of gear (). It will open the Tools drop-down menu, click the “Internet Options” as displayed on the screen below.

In the “Internet Options” window click on the Advanced tab, then click the Reset button. The Internet Explorer will open the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” window like below. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click “Reset” button.

You will now need to restart your system for the changes to take effect.

Remove Safe.search.tools redirect from Chrome

If your Chrome browser is re-directed to undesired Safe.search.tools web-page, it may be necessary to completely reset your web browser application to its default settings.

1. First start the Chrome and press Menu button (small button in the form of three horizontal stripes).
2. It will display the Chrome main menu. Select “Settings” option.
3. You will see the Google Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and click “Show advanced settings” link.
4. Scroll down again and click the “Reset settings” button.
5. The Google Chrome will open the reset profile settings page as shown on the image above.
6. Next click the “Reset” button.
7. Once this task is finished, your web-browser’s new tab, start page and search engine by default will be restored to their original defaults.
8. To learn more, read the blog post How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.

Get rid of Safe.search.tools search from Mozilla Firefox

If the Mozilla Firefox settings such as start page, newtab page and default search engine have been replaced by the browser hijacker infection, then resetting it to the default state can help.

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

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

It will show the confirmation prompt. Further, press the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Mozilla Firefox will begin a task to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker infection which cause a reroute to Safe.search.tools web site. Once, it is complete, click the “Finish” button.

Safe.search.tools homepage automatic removal

There are not many good free anti malware applications with high detection ratio. The effectiveness of malicious software removal tools depends on various factors, mostly on how often their virus/malware signatures DB are updated in order to effectively detect modern malicious software, ad supported software, browser hijacker infections and other PUPs. We recommend to run several applications, not just one. These programs that listed below will help you remove all components of the hijacker from your disk and Windows registry and thereby delete Safe.search.tools .

Run Zemana AntiMalware to get rid of Safe.search.tools redirect

We recommend using the Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) which are completely clean your system of the browser hijacker infection. The tool is an advanced malicious software removal program created by (c) Zemana lab. It’s able to help you remove PUPs, hijackers, ad supported software, malicious software, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your computer for free.

Download Zemana Free from the link below.

When the downloading process is finished, start it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the Zemana AntiMalware will try to update itself and when this process is done, click the “Scan” button .Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) program will scan through the whole machine for the hijacker which redirects your web browser to annoying Safe.search.tools web-page.

A system scan may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your machine. While the Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified either as being malware. All detected threats will be marked. You can delete them all by simply click “Next” button.

The Zemana will delete hijacker infection which cause a redirect to Safe.search.tools site and move threats to the program’s quarantine.

Remove Safe.search.tools with Malwarebytes

Manual Safe.search.tools startpage removal requires some computer skills. Some files and registry entries that created by the hijacker infection may be not completely removed. We advise that run the Malwarebytes Free that are completely clean your PC of browser hijacker. Moreover, the free application will allow you to delete malware, PUPs, ad-supported software and toolbars that your machine may be infected too.

Download MalwareBytes Free from the following link. Save it on your Desktop.

After the download is finished, close all applications and windows on your personal computer. Double-click the install file called mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up as shown in the following example, click the “Yes” button.

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

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

Now click the “Scan Now” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the Safe.search.tools browser hijacker and other web browser’s harmful plugins. When a threat is found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the checking is done.

Once the scan is finished, you will be displayed the list of all found threats on your system. Review the report and then click “Quarantine Selected” button. The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will start to remove browser hijacker which cause Safe.search.tools web-page to appear. When that process is finished, you may be prompted to reboot the personal computer.

We recommend you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using the MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) to remove adware, browser hijacker and other malware.

Delete Safe.search.tools hijacker infection and malicious extensions with AdwCleaner

If MalwareBytes anti malware or Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) cannot remove this browser hijacker, then we suggests to run the AdwCleaner. AdwCleaner is a free removal tool for malware, adware, PUPs, toolbars as well as browser hijacker that cause a redirect to Safe.search.tools site.

1. Download AdwCleaner from the following link. Save it on your MS Windows desktop or in any other place.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225301 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 finished, run the AdwCleaner, double-click the adwcleaner_xxx.exe file.
4. If the “User Account Control” prompts, press Yes to continue.
5. Read the “Terms of use”, and press Accept.
6. In the AdwCleaner window, click the “Scan” for scanning your PC system for the browser hijacker infection that modifies web browser settings to replace your start page, new tab page and search provider by default with Safe.search.tools page. Depending on your PC system, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. While the AdwCleaner tool is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified as being infected by malware.
7. When the scanning is complete, AdwCleaner will display a list of found items. Review the scan results and then click “Clean”. If the AdwCleaner will ask you to reboot your machine, click “OK”.

The guide shown in detail in the following video.

Block Safe.search.tools and other unwanted pages

If you surf the Net, you can’t avoid malvertising. But you can protect your web-browser against it. Download and use an ad blocking program. AdGuard is an ad-blocking that can filter out a huge number of of the malicious advertising, blocking dynamic scripts from loading harmful content.

Installing the AdGuard ad-blocker program is simple. First you will need to download AdGuard from the following link. Save it on your Desktop.

When the download is done, double-click the downloaded file to run it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as shown in the following example.

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 guidance as displayed in the figure below.

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

Each time, when you start your system, AdGuard will run automatically and block ads, web-sites such Safe.search.tools, as well as other harmful 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, which is located on your desktop.

Tips to prevent Safe.search.tools and other unwanted programs

The Safe.search.tools hijacker spreads with a simple but quite effective way. It is integrated into the setup file of various freeware. Thus on the process of installation, it will infect your browser and change it’s settings on the Safe.search.tools. To avoid browser hijacker, you just need to follow a few simple rules: carefully read the Terms of Use and the license, select only a Manual, Custom or Advanced installation mode, which enables you to make sure that the program you want to install, thereby protect your machine from the browser hijacker infection like the Safe.search.tools.

Finish words

Once you’ve finished the tutorial above, your personal computer should be clean from hijacker infection that cause Safe.search.tools web page to appear and other malicious software. The Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and MS Edge will no longer show unwanted Safe.search.tools startpage on startup. Unfortunately, if the step by step guidance does not help you, then you have caught a new browser hijacker infection, and then the best way – ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.