The Searchprivacy.co is a web page, already at the first sight of which there are various doubts. Its own kind and description claims to be a legitimate Internet search provider. But in reality, its appearance in your web browser means that a potentially unwanted program (PUP) from the browser hijacker family get installed on your computer. This type of unwanted applications does not delete files or infect them, but like a malicious software can modify certain personal computer settings such as the start page, newtab page and search provider by default. So, the Searchprivacy.co page is not created in order to show relevant search results. It’s designed to redirect users on various ads and other unwanted web pages.
http://searchprivacy.co/
When you’re performing searches using the web browser that has been affected with Searchprivacy.co, the search results will be returned from Bing, Yahoo or Google Custom Search. The devs behind Searchprivacy.co browser hijacker are most probably doing this to make advertisement money from the ads opened in the search results.
Often, the PC system which has been infected with Searchprivacy.co hijacker infection, will be also infected by adware (sometimes called ‘ad-supported’ software) that displays lots of various ads. It can be pop-ups, text links in the pages, banners where they never had. What is more, the adware can replace the legitimate ads with malicious advertisements which will offer to download and install malware and unwanted software or visit the various dangerous and misleading web-pages.
Most often, the Searchprivacy.co hijacker affects most common browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. But such browser hijackers as well may infect other web browsers by changing its shortcuts (adding ‘http://site.address’ into Target field of internet browser’s shortcut). So every time you launch the browser, it will display an unwanted page such Searchprivacy.co site. Even if you setup your homepage again, this intrusive page will be the first thing that you see when you run the internet browser.
We strongly advise that you perform the few simple steps below that will assist you to delete Searchprivacy.co using the standard features of Windows and some proven free software.
Remove Searchprivacy.co from system
There are several steps to deleting Searchprivacy.co, because it installs itself so deeply into Windows. You need to delete all suspicious and unknown applications, then get rid of malicious extensions from the Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer and other web browsers you’ve installed. Finally, you need to reset your web-browser settings to get rid of any changes Searchprivacy.co hijacker has made, and then scan your system with Zemana, Malwarebytes or AdwCleaner to ensure the hijacker is fully removed. It will take a while.
How to remove Searchprivacy.co start page without any software
Steps to remove Searchprivacy.co browser hijacker without any programs are presented below. Be sure to carry out the step-by-step guide completely to fully remove this annoying Searchprivacy.co redirect.
Delete potentially unwanted software through the MS Windows Control Panel
It’s of primary importance to first identify and remove all potentially unwanted software, ‘ad supported’ software programs and browser hijacker infections through ‘Add/Remove Programs’ (Windows XP) or ‘Uninstall a program’ (Windows 10, 8, 7) section of your MS Windows Control Panel.
Press Windows button 
, then click 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 on the image below.
Further, click “Uninstall a program” 
It will show a list of all applications installed on your PC system. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall any suspicious and unknown software.
Remove Searchprivacy.co redirect from Chrome
Like other modern internet browsers, the Chrome has the ability to reset the settings to their default values and thereby recover the internet browser start page, new tab page and search provider by default that have been modified by the Searchprivacy.co browser hijacker.
Open the Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (
). It will display the drop-down menu. Next, press 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 on the image below and press the “Reset settings” button.
Confirm your action, press the “Reset” button.
Delete Searchprivacy.co homepage from Mozilla Firefox
First, open the Firefox and click button. It will show the drop-down menu on the right-part of the web browser. Further, click the Help button (
) as on the image below
.
In the Help menu, select the “Troubleshooting Information” option. Another way to open the “Troubleshooting Information” screen – type “about:support” in the web browser adress bar and press Enter. It will open the “Troubleshooting Information” page as shown in the figure below. In the upper-right corner of this screen, click the “Refresh Firefox” button.
It will display the confirmation dialog box. Further, click the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Firefox will start a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker that alters web-browser settings to replace your newtab, startpage and search engine by default with Searchprivacy.co web-page. When, it is finished, press the “Finish” button.
Get rid of Searchprivacy.co homepage from Internet Explorer
If you find that Internet Explorer web browser settings such as home page, newtab page and default search engine having been hijacked, then you may return your settings, via the reset web-browser procedure.
First, start the IE, then click ‘gear’ icon 
. It will display the Tools drop-down menu on the right part of the web browser, then press the “Internet Options” as displayed in the following example.
In the “Internet Options” screen, select the “Advanced” tab, then click the “Reset” button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will display the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” dialog box. Further, click the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. Next, click the “Reset” button as shown below.
After the process is done, click “Close” button. Close the Internet Explorer and reboot your machine for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your web-browser’s homepage, new tab page and default search provider to default state.
Searchprivacy.co startpage automatic removal
The browser hijacker can hide its components which are difficult for you to find out and remove completely. This can lead to the fact that after some time, the browser hijacker once again infect your personal computer and alter settings of installed browsers to Searchprivacy.co. Moreover, I want to note that it is not always safe to delete hijacker manually, if you do not have much experience in setting up and configuring the Windows operating system. The best way to find and remove browser hijacker infections is to use free malicious software removal software.
Automatically remove Searchprivacy.co with Zemana Anti Malware
You can remove Searchprivacy.co redirect automatically with a help of Zemana Anti Malware. We advise this malware removal utility because it may easily remove hijackers, potentially unwanted software, ad supported software and toolbars with all their components such as folders, files and registry entries.
Now you can install and run Zemana to remove Searchprivacy.co from your browser by following the steps below:
Click the link below to download Zemana setup file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup on your PC.
164113 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
Launch the install package after it has been downloaded successfully and then follow the prompts to install this utility on your computer.
During installation you can change certain settings, but we suggest you do not make any changes to default settings.
When setup is finished, this malware removal tool will automatically run and update itself. You will see its main window as shown in the figure below.
Now press the “Scan” button . Zemana Anti-Malware tool will start scanning the whole computer to find out Searchprivacy.co hijacker and other internet browser’s harmful addons. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your computer and the speed of your computer. When a malicious software, adware or PUPs are found, the count of the security threats will change accordingly.
Once Zemana Free completes the scan, Zemana AntiMalware will display you the results. In order to remove all threats, simply press “Next” button.
The Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will get rid of browser hijacker which cause a redirect to Searchprivacy.co site and move items to the program’s quarantine. Once the procedure is finished, you can be prompted to reboot your PC system to make the change take effect.
Use Malwarebytes to remove Searchprivacy.co search
We recommend using the Malwarebytes Free. You may download and install Malwarebytes to find and get rid of Searchprivacy.co startpage from your machine. When installed and updated, the free malicious software remover will automatically scan and detect all threats present on the PC.
Download MalwareBytes Free from the following link.
326464 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
When downloading is complete, close all programs and windows on your PC system. Double-click the install file called mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as displayed below, click the “Yes” button.
It will open the “Setup wizard” that will help you setup MalwareBytes AntiMalware on your personal computer. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
Once install is finished successfully, click Finish button. MalwareBytes Free will automatically start and you can see its main screen as displayed in the following example.
Now click the “Scan Now” button for scanning your system for the browser hijacker that made to redirect your web-browser to the Searchprivacy.co web site. This procedure can take some time, so please be patient. When a malware, ad-supported software or potentially unwanted programs are found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the checking is done.
After the scan get finished, MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will display a screen which contains a list of malicious software that has been found. You may move threats to Quarantine (all selected by default) by simply click “Quarantine Selected” button. The MalwareBytes will remove hijacker which cause a reroute to Searchprivacy.co page and add items to the Quarantine. After the clean-up is done, you may be prompted to restart the PC.
We recommend you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using the MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to remove adware, hijacker and other malware.
Use AdwCleaner to delete Searchprivacy.co from the computer
AdwCleaner is a free removal tool that can scan your machine for a wide range of security threats such as adware, malicious software, potentially unwanted software as well as hijacker that cause Searchprivacy.co page to appear. It will perform a deep scan of your personal computer including hard drives and Microsoft Windows registry. Once a malware is found, it will allow you to delete all found threats from your computer by a simple click.
- Download AdwCleaner by clicking on the following link and save it directly to your Windows Desktop.
AdwCleaner download
225301 downloads
Version: 8.4.1
Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
Category: Security tools
Update: October 5, 2024
- After downloading is done, double click the AdwCleaner icon. Once this utility is started, press “Scan” button .AdwCleaner application will scan through the whole personal computer for the Searchprivacy.co hijacker infection and other browser’s harmful addons. This process may take some time, so please be patient. While the AdwCleaner is scanning, you can see number of objects it has identified either as being malware.
- Once AdwCleaner has finished scanning your system, the results are displayed in the scan report. You may move threats to Quarantine (all selected by default) by simply click “Clean” button. It will open a prompt, press “OK”.
These few simple steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.
How to stop Searchprivacy.co home page
If you browse the Internet, you cannot avoid malvertising. But you can protect your web browser against it. Download and run an ad blocking program. AdGuard is an adblocker that can filter out a ton of of the malvertising, blocking dynamic scripts from loading malicious content.
- Download AdGuard program from the link below. Save it on your Desktop.
Adguard download
26659 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
- When the download is done, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
- When the installation is done, press “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which 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 start your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop popup advertisements, web pages such Searchprivacy.co, 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 icon named AdGuard, which is located on your desktop.
Do not know how your internet browser has been hijacked by Searchprivacy.co hijacker?
Most often Searchprivacy.co browser hijacker spreads along with various free software, as a bonus. Therefore it’s very important at the stage of installing programs downloaded from the Internet carefully review the Terms of use and the License agreement, as well as to always choose the Advanced, Custom or Manual installation mode. In this mode, you can turn off all unwanted add-ons, including the Searchprivacy.co hijacker, which will be installed along with the desired program. Of course, if you uninstall the freeware from your system, your favorite internet browser’s settings will not be restored. So, to return the Firefox, Google Chrome, IE and Microsoft Edge’s startpage, newtab page and search provider by default you need to follow the step by step guidance above.
To sum up
After completing the step-by-step guide outlined above, your machine should be free from hijacker that causes web-browsers to open undesired Searchprivacy.co web-site and other malicious software. The Firefox, Chrome, IE and Edge will no longer open intrusive Searchprivacy.co start page on startup. Unfortunately, if the steps does not help you, then you have caught a new hijacker, and then the best way – ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.
