According to computer security experts, Search.search-settings.com is a potentially unwanted program from the browser hijacker family. Once the browser hijacker get installed on your PC system, it takes over your web-browser like Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and MS Edge. The Search.search-settings.com hijacker makes changes to your browser’s settings, including home page, newtab page and default search provider, and installs unwanted addons deep inside your PC. This is the main reason why you need to remove Search.search-settings.com from your computer and restore your web browser search provider and home page back to the default.
Besides the fact that Search.search-settings.com browser hijacker infection changes your homepage, 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 large amount of advertisements, links to unwanted and ad 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 Internet, is an unpleasant moment. Moreover, the Search.search-settings.com browser hijacker be able to gather lots of personal information about you. This personal information, in the future, can be transferred to third parties. What creates the risk of theft of privacy info.
Often, the personal computer which has been infected by Search.search-settings.com hijacker, will be also affected with adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) that displays a ton of various ads. It can be pop-ups, text links in the web pages, banners where they never had. What is more, the adware can replace the legitimate ads with malicious ads which will offer to download and install malicious software and unwanted software or visit the various dangerous and misleading pages.
To find out how to remove Search.search-settings.com , we recommend to read the instructions added to this article below. The tutorial was prepared by experienced security experts who discovered a way to get rid of the annoying Search.search-settings.com browser hijacker out of the personal computer.
Remove Search.search-settings.com
Without a doubt, the browser hijacker infection is harmful to your PC. So you need to quickly and completely get rid of this malware. To get rid of this browser hijacker, you can use the manual removal guide which are given below or free malware removal utility such as Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM), MalwareBytes Anti Malware or AdwCleaner (all are free). We suggest you use automatic removal solution that will help you to get rid of Search.search-settings.com search easily and safely. Manual removal is best used only if you are well versed in PC system or in the case where browser hijacker is not removed automatically. Read it once, after doing so, please print this page as you may need to close your browser or restart your personal computer.
To remove Search.search-settings.com, perform the steps below:
- Remove Search.search-settings.com home page without any utilities
- How to remove Search.search-settings.com search with free software
- Block Search.search-settings.com and other intrusive web sites
- Don’t know how your web browser has been hijacked by Search.search-settings.com hijacker?
- To sum up
Remove Search.search-settings.com home page without any utilities
Read this section to know how to manually delete the Search.search-settings.com hijacker infection. Even if the guidance does not work for you, there are several free malicious software removers below which can easily handle such browser hijackers.
Removing the Search.search-settings.com, check the list of installed applications first
First of all, check the list of installed applications on your computer and uninstall all unknown and recently installed applications. If you see an unknown program with incorrect spelling or varying capital letters, it have most likely been installed by malicious software and you should clean it off first with malicious software removal tool such as Zemana Anti-malware.
Windows 8, 8.1, 10
First, click Windows button
, then click Search 
. Type ‘Control panel’and press Enter like below.
After the ‘Control Panel’ opens, press the ‘Uninstall a program’ link under Programs category as shown in the following example.
You will see the ‘Uninstall a program’ panel as shown on the screen below.
Very carefully look around the entire list of programs installed on your system. Most likely, one or more of them are responsible for the appearance of popups and browser redirect to the undesired Search.search-settings.com site. If you have many programs installed, you can help simplify the search of harmful programs by sort the list by date of installation. Once you have found a suspicious, unwanted or unused program, right click to it, after that click ‘Uninstall’.
Windows XP, Vista, 7
First, press ‘Start’ button and select ‘Control Panel’ at right panel as displayed in the following example.
After the Windows ‘Control Panel’ opens, you need to click ‘Uninstall a program’ under ‘Programs’ as shown in the figure below.
You will see a list of software installed on your PC. We recommend to sort the list by date of installation to quickly find the software that were installed last. Most likely they responsibility for the appearance of pop-up ads and web-browser redirect. If you are in doubt, you can always check the program by doing a search for her name in Google, Yahoo or Bing. After the program which you need to uninstall is found, simply click on its name, and then click ‘Uninstall’ as shown below.
Get rid of Search.search-settings.com start page from Chrome
Reset Google Chrome settings is a simple way to remove the hijacker, malicious and adware extensions, as well as to restore the web browser’s start page, newtab page and default search engine that have been modified by browser hijacker.
- First, start the Chrome and click the Menu icon (icon in the form of three horizontal stripes).
- It will show the Chrome main menu, click the “Settings” menu.
- Next, click “Show advanced settings” link, that located at the bottom of the Settings page.
- On the bottom of the “Advanced settings” page, click the “Reset settings” button.
- The Google Chrome will show the reset settings prompt as on the image above.
- Confirm the browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
- To learn more, read the article How to reset Chrome settings to default.
Remove Search.search-settings.com home page from IE
First, open the Microsoft Internet Explorer, then click ‘gear’ icon 
. It will display the Tools drop-down menu on the right part of the browser, then click the “Internet Options” as shown in the figure below.
In the “Internet Options” screen, select the “Advanced” tab, then click the “Reset” button. The Internet Explorer will open the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” prompt. Further, press the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. Next, press the “Reset” button as displayed below.
After the task is done, press “Close” button. Close the IE and restart your computer for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your web-browser’s start page, newtab page and default search provider to default state.
Get rid of Search.search-settings.com from Firefox
If the Firefox settings like home page, newtab and search provider by default have been replaced by the hijacker, then resetting it to the default state can help.
First, open the Firefox and click 
button. It will open the drop-down menu on the right-part of the web browser. Further, click 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 web browser adress bar and press Enter. It will open the “Troubleshooting Information” page as on the image below. In the upper-right corner of this screen, click the “Refresh Firefox” button.
It will display the confirmation dialog box. Further, press the “Refresh Firefox” button. The FF will begin a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the browser hijacker that designed to redirect your web-browser to the Search.search-settings.com web page. After, it is done, click the “Finish” button.
How to remove Search.search-settings.com search with free software
The easiest way to remove Search.search-settings.com hijacker is to run an antimalware program capable of detecting browser hijacker infections including Search.search-settings.com. We advise try Zemana or another free malicious software remover which listed below. It has excellent detection rate when it comes to adware, hijacker infections and other PUPs.
Remove Search.search-settings.com with Zemana Anti Malware
We suggest you to run the Zemana Free which are completely clean your system. Moreover, the utility will help you to delete PUPs, malicious software, toolbars and adware that your computer can be infected too.
- Please download Zemana AntiMalware by clicking on the link below and save it directly to your Microsoft Windows Desktop.
Zemana AntiMalware
164113 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
- At the download page, click on the Download button. Your web-browser will display the “Save as” prompt. Please save it onto your Windows desktop.
- Once the downloading process is finished, please close all programs and open windows on your personal computer. Next, run a file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup.
- This will run the “Setup wizard” of Zemana AntiMalware onto your machine. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
- When the Setup wizard has finished installing, the Zemana AntiMalware will run and display the main window.
- Further, press the “Scan” button . Zemana utility will begin scanning the whole personal computer to find out browser hijacker infection that alters browser settings to replace your start page, new tab and search engine by default with Search.search-settings.com web page. Depending on your personal computer, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. While the Zemana AntiMalware program is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.
- Once the checking is complete, Zemana Free will open a scan report.
- Review the scan results and then press the “Next” button. The tool will start to get rid of hijacker that cause a redirect to Search.search-settings.com site. After that process is done, you may be prompted to restart the personal computer.
- Close the Zemana Free and continue with the next step.
Automatically get rid of Search.search-settings.com startpage with Malwarebytes
We recommend using the Malwarebytes Free that are completely clean your personal computer of the hijacker infection. The free tool is an advanced malicious software removal program created by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular anti malware technology. It’s able to help you remove browser hijacker infections, potentially unwanted software, malware, ad-supported software, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your personal computer for free.
Download MalwareBytes Free from the following link and save it to your Desktop.
326464 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
Once downloading is finished, run it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the MalwareBytes will try to update itself and when this task is finished, click the “Scan Now” button .MalwareBytes Anti Malware program will scan through the whole computer for the browser hijacker which redirects your web-browser to undesired Search.search-settings.com page. While the MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) tool is scanning, you can see number of objects it has identified as being infected by malware. Make sure all threats have ‘checkmark’ and click “Quarantine Selected” button.
The MalwareBytes is a free program that you can use to remove all detected folders, files, services, registry entries and so on. To learn more about this malicious software removal utility, we advise you to read and follow the steps or the video guide below.
Use AdwCleaner to get rid of Search.search-settings.com redirect
The AdwCleaner tool is free and easy to use. It can scan and delete hijacker that designed to redirect your web browser to the Search.search-settings.com web site, malware, potentially unwanted software and adware from PC (Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, XP) and thereby restore internet browsers default settings (startpage, new tab page and search provider by default). AdwCleaner is powerful enough to find and remove malicious registry entries and files that are hidden on the PC.
- Download AdwCleaner by clicking on the following link. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop.
AdwCleaner download
225301 downloads
Version: 8.4.1
Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
Category: Security tools
Update: October 5, 2024
- Select the folder in which you saved it as Desktop, and then press Save.
- When the downloading process is finished, launch the AdwCleaner, double-click the adwcleaner_xxx.exe file.
- If the “User Account Control” prompts, press Yes to continue.
- Read the “Terms of use”, and press Accept.
- In the AdwCleaner window, press the “Scan” . AdwCleaner utility will start scanning the whole computer to find out browser hijacker which redirects your web-browser to unwanted Search.search-settings.com web site. A system scan may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your system. During the scan AdwCleaner will detect all threats exist on your computer.
- When finished, a list of all threats detected is produced. Review the scan results and then click “Clean”. If the AdwCleaner will ask you to reboot your PC, click “OK”.
The step-by-step tutorial shown in detail in the following video.
Block Search.search-settings.com and other intrusive web sites
Enabling an ad blocker program such as AdGuard is an effective way to alleviate the risks. Additionally, ad-blocking programs will also protect you from harmful advertisements and web pages, and, of course, block redirection chain to Search.search-settings.com and similar web pages.
Installing the AdGuard ad-blocking application is simple. First you’ll need to download AdGuard by clicking on the link below.
26659 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
After the download is finished, double-click the downloaded file to start it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as shown on the image 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 instructions as displayed on the image below.
Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.
Each time, when you run your PC, AdGuard will run automatically and stop ads, pages such Search.search-settings.com, as well as other harmful or misleading web sites. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that can be found on your desktop.
Don’t know how your web browser has been hijacked by Search.search-settings.com hijacker?
Many software used to hijack a computer’s browser. So, when you installing free software, carefully read the disclaimers, choose the Custom or Advanced installation method to watch for optional software that are being installed, because some of the applications are ad supported software and PUPs.
To sum up
Now your PC system should be free of the browser hijacker that cause Search.search-settings.com site to appear. Delete AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted pop-up advertisements and annoying malicious sites) and Zemana Free (to periodically scan your PC system for new malware, browser hijackers and ‘ad supported’ software). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Windows OS. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijackers, malicious software and ad supported software are released.
If you are still having problems while trying to remove Search.search-settings.com home page from your internet browser, then ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.
