How to remove Safe For Search [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

Besides the fact that Safe For Search hijacker changes your home page, this intrusive page may set yourself as your search engine. But, obviously, it does not give you a good search results, as they will consist of a lot of ads, links to unwanted and ad web sites and only the remaining part is search results for your query from the major search engines. Of course, the very fact that you encounter with the inability to properly search the Net, is an unpleasant moment. Moreover, the Safe For Search hijacker can collect user info, and in the future to transfer it to third parties. What creates the risk of theft of your personal data.

Some hijackers also contain adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) that can be used to open annoying advertisements and or gather personal information which can be sold to third parties. These unwanted advertisements can be opened as pop-unders, pop-ups, in-text advertisements, video advertisements, text links or banners or even massive full page advertisements. Most of the ad supported software is designed to open ads, but some ‘ad supported’ software is form of spyware that often used to track users to gather lots of user information.

The hijacker infection such as Safe For Search often alter all web-browser shortcuts that located on your Desktop to force you visit some intrusive sites and show undesired popups. As a result, your browser can still redirect you to an undesired web-site despite your browser is actually clean of browser hijacker.

The tutorial below explaining steps to remove Safe For Search problem. Feel free to use it for removal of the hijacker that may attack Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge and other popular web-browsers. The step by step guide will allow you revert back your some settings of all your typical browsers which previously changed by hijacker.

Remove Safe For Search (removal steps)

The answer is right here on this web page. We have put together simplicity and efficiency. It will help you easily to clean your PC of hijacker. Moreover, you can select manual or automatic removal solution. If you’re familiar with the computer then use manual removal, otherwise run the free anti-malware tool designed specifically to delete browser hijacker like Safe For Search. Of course, you can combine both methods. Read this manual carefully, bookmark or print it, because you may need to close your browser or restart your PC.

Delete Safe For Search redirect without any tools

If you perform exactly the tutorial below you should be able to remove the Safe For Search from the Google Chrome, FF, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge web-browsers.

Remove potentially unwanted applications using Windows Control Panel

In order to remove Safe For Search, first thing you need to do is to uninstall unknown and suspicious programs from your computer using MS Windows control panel. When removing this browser hijacker infection, check the list of installed programs and try to find suspicious applications and delete them all. Pay special attention to recently installed applications, as it’s most likely that the Safe For Search hijacker infection сame along with it.

1. If you are using Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 then click Windows button, next click Search. Type “Control panel”and press Enter.
2. If you are using Windows XP, Vista, 7, then click “Start” button and click “Control Panel”.
3. It will show the Windows Control Panel.
4. Further, click “Uninstall a program” under Programs category.
5. It will open a list of all programs installed on the computer.
6. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall suspicious and unknown applications. To quickly find the latest installed software, we recommend sort software by date.

See more details in the video guidance below.

Fix infected web-browsers shortcuts to remove Safe For Search homepage

Important to know, most anti-malware software which are able to remove hijacker, but unable to find and recover changed shortcuts. So, you need to fix the desktop shortcuts for your Chrome, FF, Edge and Internet Explorer web-browsers manually.

Right click on the shortcut of infected internet browser as displayed on the screen below.

Select the “Properties” option and it will open a shortcut’s properties. Next, click the “Shortcut” tab and then delete the “http://site.address” string from Target field as displayed in the following example.

Then click OK to save changes. Repeat the step for all web-browsers which are redirected to the Safe For Search intrusive site.

Get rid of Safe For Search from Firefox

Launch the Firefox and click the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the internet browser screen. Next, click 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 like below.

Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation prompt. The FF will start a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the browser hijacker infection that designed to redirect your web-browser to the Safe For Search site. Once, it’s done, press the “Finish” button.

Remove Safe For Search redirect from Microsoft Internet Explorer

If you find that IE browser settings like start page, newtab page and default search provider having been hijacked, then you may return your settings, via the reset internet browser procedure.

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

In the “Internet Options” window click on the Advanced tab, then press the Reset button. The Internet Explorer will display the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” window as displayed on the image below. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click “Reset” button.

You will now need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

Get rid of Safe For Search from Chrome

Run the Reset web-browser utility of the Google Chrome to reset all its settings like start page, new tab and search provider by default to original defaults. This is a very useful utility to use, in the case of browser hijacks such as Safe For Search.

Open the Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (). It will show the drop-down menu. Next, click to “Settings” option.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Show advanced settings” link. Now scroll down until the Reset settings section is visible, as displayed in the following example and click the “Reset settings” button.

Confirm your action, press the “Reset” button.

How to get rid of Safe For Search startpage with free software

There are not many good free anti-malware programs with high detection ratio. The effectiveness of malware 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 hijackers and other PUPs. We suggest to run several programs, not just one. These programs that listed below will help you delete all components of the hijacker infection from your disk and Windows registry and thereby remove Safe For Search .

How to delete Safe For Search with Zemana Free

We suggest you to use the Zemana which are completely clean your computer. Moreover, the utility will allow you to get rid of potentially unwanted programs, malware, toolbars and adware that your PC may be infected too.

Now you can install and run Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) to remove Safe For Search from your web browser by following the steps below:

Click the following link to download Zemana setup package called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup on your computer.

Launch the installer after it has been downloaded successfully and then follow the prompts to install this utility on your system.

During installation you can change some settings, but we suggest you don’t make any changes to default settings.

When setup is complete, this malware removal utility will automatically launch and update itself. You will see its main window as on the image below.

Now click the “Scan” button . Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) utility will start scanning the whole computer to find out hijacker infection that modifies internet browser settings to replace your new tab page, home page and search engine by default with Safe For Search page. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your machine.

Once Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) has finished scanning your PC, Zemana will show a screen which contains a list of malicious software that has been found. When you are ready, click “Next” button.

The Zemana AntiMalware will get rid of hijacker which alters internet browser settings to replace your start page, new tab and default search provider with Safe For Search page and add threats to the Quarantine. Once that process is done, you can be prompted to restart your machine to make the change take effect.

Use Malwarebytes to remove Safe For Search home page

We suggest using the Malwarebytes Free which are completely clean your PC system of the browser hijacker. The free utility is an advanced malicious software removal program created by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular antimalware technology. It’s able to help you remove hijacker infections, PUPs, malicious software, ad supported software, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your computer for free.

Download MalwareBytes AntiMalware on your PC system by clicking on the link below.

Once the download is finished, close all software and windows on your personal computer. Open a directory in which you saved it. Double-click on the icon that’s named mb3-setup as shown on the screen below.

When the installation starts, you’ll see the “Setup wizard” that will help you install Malwarebytes on your PC system.

Once installation is complete, you will see window like below.

Now click the “Scan Now” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the Safe For Search hijacker and other web-browser’s harmful extensions. This procedure can take some time, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes AntiMalware is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified either as being malware.

When finished, MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will open a list of all threats detected by the scan. All found threats will be marked. You can delete them all by simply press “Quarantine Selected” button.

The Malwarebytes will now get rid of browser hijacker that causes internet browsers to display unwanted Safe For Search web-site and move threats to the program’s quarantine. After that process is finished, you may be prompted to reboot your system.

The following video explains few simple steps on how to get rid of hijacker infection, ‘ad supported’ software and other malicious software with MalwareBytes.

Get rid of Safe For Search browser hijacker infection and malicious extensions with AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner is a free removal tool that can scan your computer for a wide range of security threats such as ‘ad supported’ software, malicious software, potentially unwanted programs as well as hijacker that reroutes your browser to undesired Safe For Search site. It will perform a deep scan of your computer including hard drives and Microsoft Windows registry. After a malware is found, it will help you to remove all found threats from your PC by a simple click.

1. Download AdwCleaner from the link below.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225298 downloads
   Version: 8.4.1
   Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: October 5, 2024
   
2. Select the file location as Desktop, and then click Save.
3. When downloading is done, launch 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 for the hijacker which redirects your internet browser to annoying Safe For Search web-site. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your PC. When a threat is detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.
7. When the scan get completed, you may check all items found on your machine. When you are ready, click “Clean”. If the AdwCleaner will ask you to restart your computer, click “OK”.

The guide shown in detail in the following video.

Block Safe For Search and other intrusive web pages

By installing an ad blocking application such as AdGuard, you are able to stop Safe For Search, autoplaying video ads and remove tons of distracting and unwanted ads on pages.

Download AdGuard program from the link below. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop.

When the downloading process is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen like below.

Follow the prompts. After the installation is done, you will see a window as displayed on the image below.

You can click “Skip” to close the install program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” button to see an quick tutorial which will help 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 launch your machine, AdGuard will run automatically and stop pop-ups, Safe For Search redirect, as well as other malicious or misleading web-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, which may be found on your desktop.

Why is my browser redirected to Safe For Search?

The hijacker infection spreads as a part of certain free programs. So always read carefully the installation screens, disclaimers, ‘Terms of Use’ and ‘Software license’ appearing during the install process. Additionally pay attention for third-party software that are being installed along with the main program. Ensure that you unchecked all of them! Also, run an ad blocking application that will help to stop malicious, misleading, illegitimate or untrustworthy web-pages.

To sum up

Now your computer should be free of the Safe For Search browser hijacker and other web-browser’s unwanted add-ons. Remove AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep Zemana (to periodically scan your computer for new browser hijackers and other malware) and AdGuard (to help you block unwanted pop up advertisements and malicious pages). Moreover, to prevent hijackers, please stay clear of unknown and third party software, make sure that your antivirus program, turn on the option to detect PUPs (potentially unwanted programs).

If you need more help with Safe For Search redirect related issues, go to our Spyware/Malware removal forum.