How to remove Personal Finder Search [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

Do you got Personal Finder Search on your web-browsers instead of your startpage or search provider? If yes, then you should known that it could mean a browser hijacker (sometimes named hijackware) is active on your PC causing the intrusive Personal Finder Search site to appear. You should get rid of this hijacker sooner. Here, in this article below, you can found the helpful guide on How to delete Personal Finder Search from your PC for free.

When your machine is infected with Personal Finder Search browser hijacker you will be forced to use its own search provider. It could seem not to be dangerous, but you still should be very careful, since it may show intrusive and malicious ads made to force you into buying certain questionable apps or products, provide search results that may reroute your web browser to certain deceptive, misleading or malicious web pages. We recommend that you use only the reliable search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Also, ‘ad-supported’ software (also known as adware) may be installed on the machine together with Personal Finder Search hijacker infection. It will insert tons of advertisements directly to the web sites that you view, creating a sense that advertisements has been added by the creators of the web site. Moreover, legal advertisements can be replaced on fake ads that will offer to download and install various unnecessary and malicious programs. Moreover, the Personal Finder Search hijacker infection can be used to gather a wide variety of your confidential data that can be later transferred to third parties.

The Personal Finder Search browser hijacker mostly affects only the Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge and IE. However, possible situations, when any other web browsers will be affected too. The hijacker will perform a scan of the system for web browser shortcuts and alter them without your permission. When it infects the web-browser shortcuts, it will add the argument such as ‘http://site.address’ into Target property. So, each time you open the internet browser, you will see the Personal Finder Search intrusive page.

The instructions below explaining steps to get rid of Personal Finder Search redirect problem. Feel free to use it for removal of the browser hijacker infection that may attack Firefox, IE, MS Edge and Chrome and other popular web-browsers. The step-by-step tutorial will help you revert back your settings of browsers that previously modified by browser hijacker.

How to remove Personal Finder Search

In the instructions below we will have a look at the hijacker and how to get rid of Personal Finder Search from Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox and MS Edge browsers for Microsoft Windows OS, natively or by using a few free removal tools. Read this manual carefully, bookmark or print it, because you may need to shut down your browser or reboot your PC system.

To remove Personal Finder Search, complete the following steps:

1. How to manually remove Personal Finder Search
   • Uninstall questionable apps using MS Windows Control Panel
   • Get rid of Personal Finder Search homepage from Firefox
   • Remove Personal Finder Search from Microsoft Internet Explorer
   • Delete Personal Finder Search redirect from Chrome
   • Fix hijacked web-browsers shortcuts to remove Personal Finder Search redirect
2. Run free malware removal tools to completely remove Personal Finder Search
   • Remove Personal Finder Search startpage with Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM)
   • How to automatically remove Personal Finder Search with Malwarebytes
   • Remove Personal Finder Search hijacker and malicious extensions with AdwCleaner
3. Use AdBlocker to stop Personal Finder Search and stay safe online
4. Don’t know how your web-browser has been hijacked by Personal Finder Search hijacker?
5. To sum up

How to manually remove Personal Finder Search

The following instructions is a step-by-step guide, which will help you manually remove Personal Finder Search startpage from the Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Uninstall questionable apps using MS Windows Control Panel

The best way to start the system cleanup is to remove unknown and suspicious applications. Using the MS Windows Control Panel you can do this quickly and easily. This step, in spite of its simplicity, should not be ignored, because the removing of unneeded programs can clean up the Firefox, Google Chrome, Edge and IE from advertisements hijackers and so on.

Carefully browse through the list of installed programs and remove all suspicious and unknown apps. We advise to press ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed applications by date. Once you have found anything dubious that may be the hijacker infection responsible for changing your web-browser settings to Personal Finder Search or other potentially unwanted application (PUA), then select this program and click ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the questionable program blocked from removal, then use Revo Uninstaller Freeware to completely delete it from your machine.

Get rid of Personal Finder Search homepage from Firefox

If your Mozilla Firefox web-browser startpage has modified to Personal Finder Search without your permission or an unknown search provider opens results for your search, then it may be time to perform the browser reset.

Press the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and click the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu as shown on the screen below.

A small menu will appear, press the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, click “Refresh Firefox” button as displayed on the screen below.

Follow the onscreen procedure to return your Mozilla Firefox web-browser settings to its original state.

Remove Personal Finder Search from Microsoft Internet Explorer

The Microsoft Internet Explorer reset is great if your web-browser is hijacked or you have unwanted plugins or toolbars on your browser, which installed by a malware.

First, start the IE, click ) button. Next, press “Internet Options” as displayed in the following example.

In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, press Reset button. The 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 restart your personal computer for the changes to take effect. It will remove browser hijacker related to Personal Finder Search startpage, disable malicious and ad-supported internet browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings like start page, newtab page and search provider to default state.

Delete Personal Finder Search redirect from Chrome

Like other modern web browsers, the Chrome has the ability to reset the settings to their default values and thereby recover the web-browser newtab, default search engine and home page that have been modified by the Personal Finder Search browser hijacker.

Open the Google Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal dotes (). It will show the drop-down menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.

Carefully browse through the list of installed extensions. If the list has the extension labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following guidance: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy otherwise, just go to the step below.

Open the Chrome main menu again, click to “Settings” option.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Advanced” link. Now scroll down until the Reset settings section is visible, as shown below and press the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.

Confirm your action, click the “Reset” button.

Fix hijacked web-browsers shortcuts to remove Personal Finder Search redirect

Important to know, most antimalware applications which are able to remove Personal Finder Search hijacker and other browser’s malicious plugins, but unable to look for and recover modified shortcut files. So, you need to fix the desktop shortcuts for your Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox web-browsers manually.

Right click on the shortcut of hijacked internet browser as shown on the screen below.

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

Then click OK to save changes. Repeat the step for all internet browsers which are redirected to the Personal Finder Search annoying web-site.

Run free malware removal tools to completely remove Personal Finder Search

Manual removal guide does not always help to completely remove the hijacker, as it is not easy to identify and delete components of browser hijacker and all malicious files from hard disk. Therefore, it is recommended that you run malware removal tool to completely remove Personal Finder Search off your PC system. Several free malware removal utilities are currently available that can be used against the browser hijacker. The optimum way would be to use Zemana, Malwarebytes Free and AdwCleaner.

Remove Personal Finder Search startpage with Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM)

You can delete Personal Finder Search startpage automatically with a help of Zemana Free. We suggest this malware removal utility because it can easily remove browser hijacker infections, PUPs, adware and toolbars with all their components such as folders, files and registry entries.

Download Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) from the following link. Save it on your Desktop.

Once downloading is done, close all windows on your machine. Further, open the install file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as displayed on the image below, press the “Yes” button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” which will assist you install Zemana AntiMalware on the computer. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.

Once setup is finished successfully, Zemana will automatically run and you can see its main window as shown in the figure below.

Next, press the “Scan” button for scanning your system for the browser hijacker that causes web browsers to open intrusive Personal Finder Search web-page. While the Zemana Anti Malware program is scanning, you may see how many objects it has identified as threat.

As the scanning ends, Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will display a list of all threats found by the scan. Review the results once the tool has done the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply press “Next” button.

The Zemana Anti Malware will start to remove hijacker responsible for Personal Finder Search . Once the cleaning procedure is done, you can be prompted to reboot your personal computer.

How to automatically remove Personal Finder Search with Malwarebytes

We recommend using the Malwarebytes Free. You can download and install Malwarebytes to detect and get rid of Personal Finder Search start page from your PC system. When installed and updated, the free malware remover will automatically scan and detect all threats present on the computer.

Click the link below to download MalwareBytes. Save it on your Windows desktop or in any other place.

Once downloading is finished, run it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the MalwareBytes will try to update itself and when this procedure is finished, click the “Scan Now” button to begin scanning your PC for the browser hijacker infection that redirects your web browser to undesired Personal Finder Search web page. Depending on your system, the scan may take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. All detected items will be marked. You can remove them all by simply click “Quarantine Selected” button.

The MalwareBytes Anti Malware 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 guidance or the video guide below.

Remove Personal Finder Search hijacker and malicious extensions with AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner is a free removal tool. It removes potentially unwanted applications, ad supported software, hijacker infections and unwanted internet browser add-ons. Video instructions available here. It’ll scan for and delete browser hijacker responsible for Personal Finder Search. AdwCleaner uses very small personal computer resources and is a portable program.

Download AdwCleaner from the link below. Save it to your Desktop.

Download and use AdwCleaner on your PC. Once started, click “Scan” button .AdwCleaner program will scan through the whole PC system for the browser hijacker that causes web-browsers to display undesired Personal Finder Search web site. A scan may take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your computer and the speed of your PC system. While the AdwCleaner is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified either as being malware.. When the scan is finished, AdwCleaner will open you the results. Once you have selected what you want to remove from your machine, click Clean button.

All-in-all, AdwCleaner is a fantastic free tool to free your PC system from any undesired programs. The AdwCleaner is portable application that meaning, you do not need to install it to use it. AdwCleaner is compatible with all versions of Windows OS from Microsoft Windows XP to Windows 10. Both 64-bit and 32-bit systems are supported.

Use AdBlocker to stop Personal Finder Search and stay safe online

It’s also critical to protect your web-browsers from malicious web-pages and ads by using an ad blocker program like AdGuard. Security experts says that it will greatly reduce the risk of malware, and potentially save lots of money. Additionally, the AdGuard may also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.

1. Download AdGuard program on your PC by clicking on the link below.
   

   Adguard download
   26883 downloads
   Version: 6.4
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: November 15, 2018
   
2. Once downloading is complete, run the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. Once the install is done, click “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you start your personal computer, AdGuard will run automatically and stop pop-up advertisements, sites like Personal Finder Search, 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 icon called AdGuard, which can be found on your desktop.

Don’t know how your web-browser has been hijacked by Personal Finder Search hijacker?

The hijacker that designed to redirect your web browser to the Personal Finder Search web-site, can be defined as potentially unwanted application (PUA) which commonly comes on the PC system with other freeware. In most cases, this undesired program comes without the user’s knowledge. Therefore, many users aren’t even aware that their PC has been infected with malicious software. Please follow the easy rules in order to protect your PC system from any undesired programs: don’t install any suspicious apps, read the user agreement and choose only the Custom, Manual or Advanced installation type, do not rush to press the Next button. Also, always try to find a review of the application on the Web. Be careful and attentive! If Personal Finder Search home page has already come into your PC system, then you need to scan your system for browser hijacker and other malicious software. Use our detailed tutorial which are listed above.

To sum up

Now your personal computer should be clean of the browser hijacker infection that causes internet browsers to show unwanted Personal Finder Search web site. Uninstall AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep Zemana (to periodically scan your machine for new hijackers and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you block unwanted popup advertisements and harmful web-sites). Moreover, to prevent browser hijackers, please stay clear of unknown and third party apps, make sure that your antivirus application, turn on the option to look for PUPs (potentially unwanted programs).

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