How to remove Searchfort Plus Search [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

If your Chrome, IE, Firefox and Microsoft Edge web-browser search engine or homepage have replaced to Searchfort Plus Search somehow, and you have tried to restore your default browser settings, but it did not help, then most probably that a malware from the browser hijacker family get installed on your PC system. The browser hijacker is an one type of unwanted programs that may impose some undesired changes to settings of all your typical web browsers without your’s permission, to redirect you into unwanted pages. The Searchfort Plus Search hijacker commonly change the Firefox, Chrome, IE and Microsoft Edge current newtab page, default search provider and homepage with its own.

Except that the Searchfort Plus Search imposes changes to web-browser’s start page and new tab page, it also replaces your search provider, which leads to the fact that use of the internet browser’s search becomes uncomfortable. The reason for this is that the search results will consist of a huge number of ads, links to unwanted and ad web-pages and only the remaining part is search results for your query from well-known search providers like Google or Bing.

Some browser hijackers also contain adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) which be able to open intrusive advertisements or collect confidential info about you that may be transferred to third parties. These undesired ads may be displayed in the form of pop-unders, pop-ups, in-text advertisements, video advertisements, text links or banners or even massive full page advertisements. Most of the adware is designed to open advertisements, but some adware is form of spyware that often used to track users to collect a wide variety of confidential info.

In addition to that, as was mentioned earlier, certain hijacker infections like Searchfort Plus Search to also change all internet browsers shortcuts which located on your Desktop or Start menu. So, every affected shortcut will try to redirect your web browser to intrusive web-sites, certain of which might be harmful. It can make the whole computer more vulnerable to hacker attacks.

So, it’s very important to free your machine of hijacker as quickly as possible. The step by step instructions, which is shown below, will assist you to remove Searchfort Plus Search from the Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer and other web browsers.

How to remove Searchfort Plus Search from Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge

Fortunately, it’s not hard to remove the Searchfort Plus Search browser hijacker. In the following tutorial, we will provide two methods to clean your personal computer of this hijacker infection. One is the manual removal way and the other is automatic removal solution. You can select the solution that best fits you. Please follow the removal steps below to remove Searchfort Plus Search right now!

To remove Searchfort Plus Search, perform the following steps:

1. Manual Searchfort Plus Search redirect removal
   • Deleting the Searchfort Plus Search, check the list of installed programs first
   • Remove Searchfort Plus Search from Microsoft Internet Explorer
   • Delete Searchfort Plus Search redirect from Google Chrome
   • Delete Searchfort Plus Search from Mozilla Firefox by resetting internet browser settings
   • Fix web-browser shortcuts, changed by Searchfort Plus Search browser hijacker
2. How to automatically get rid of Searchfort Plus Search hijacker
   • Use Zemana to delete hijacker
   • Automatically remove Searchfort Plus Search startpage with Malwarebytes
   • Run AdwCleaner to remove Searchfort Plus Search home page
3. How to block Searchfort Plus Search
4. How to Searchfort Plus Search browser hijacker infection get installed onto personal computer
5. To sum up

Manual Searchfort Plus Search redirect removal

Read this section to know how to manually get rid of the Searchfort Plus Search hijacker. Even if the few simple steps does not work for you, there are several free malicious software removers below which can easily handle such hijackers.

Deleting the Searchfort Plus Search, check the list of installed programs first

Some of PUPs, adware and browser hijacker can be uninstalled using the Add/Remove programs utility which is located in the Microsoft Windows Control Panel. So, if you are running any version of Windows and you have noticed an unwanted application, then first try to remove it through Add/Remove programs.

Make sure you have closed all web-browsers and other software. Press CTRL, ALT, DEL keys together to open the Windows Task Manager.

Click on the “Processes” tab, look for something questionable that is the browser hijacker infection responsible for redirects to Searchfort Plus Search then right-click it and select “End Task” or “End Process” option. In many cases, malware masks itself to avoid detection by imitating legitimate MS Windows processes. A process is particularly suspicious: it is taking up a lot of memory (despite the fact that you closed all of your programs), its name is not familiar to you (if you’re in doubt, you can always check the program by doing a search for its name in Google, Yahoo or Bing).

Next, remove any unwanted and suspicious applications from your Control panel.

Windows 10, 8.1, 8

Now, click the Windows button, type “Control panel” in search and press Enter. Choose “Programs and Features”, then “Uninstall a program”.

Look around the entire list of programs installed on your computer. Most probably, one of them is the browser hijacker infection related to Searchfort Plus Search redirect. Choose the dubious application or the program that name is not familiar to you and remove it.

Windows Vista, 7

From the “Start” menu in Windows, select “Control Panel”. Under the “Programs” icon, choose “Uninstall a program”.

Choose the suspicious or any unknown programs, then click “Uninstall/Change” button to uninstall this unwanted application from your computer.

Windows XP

Click the “Start” button, select “Control Panel” option. Click on “Add/Remove Programs”.

Choose an unwanted program, then click “Change/Remove” button. Follow the prompts.

Remove Searchfort Plus Search from Microsoft Internet Explorer

If you find that IE web browser settings such as search engine by default, newtab and startpage having been hijacked, then you may restore your settings, via the reset web browser process.

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

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

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

Delete Searchfort Plus Search redirect from Google Chrome

In order to be sure that there is nothing left behind, we suggest you to reset Chrome browser. It will restore Chrome settings including startpage, newtab page and default search engine to defaults.

1. First, start the Google Chrome and click the Menu icon (icon in the form of three dots).
2. It will show the Chrome main menu. Select More Tools, then click Extensions.
3. You will see 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.
4. Now open the Google Chrome menu once again, click the “Settings” menu.
5. Next, click “Advanced” link, that located at the bottom of the Settings page.
6. On the bottom of the “Advanced settings” page, press the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
7. The Google Chrome will display the reset settings dialog box as on the image above.
8. Confirm the browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
9. To learn more, read the article How to reset Chrome settings to default.

Delete Searchfort Plus Search from Mozilla Firefox by resetting internet browser settings

First, launch the FF and press button. It will display 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 display 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 prompt. Further, click the “Refresh Firefox” button. The FF will begin a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the hijacker that cause Searchfort Plus Search web-page to appear. When, it is done, press the “Finish” button.

Fix web-browser shortcuts, changed by Searchfort Plus Search browser hijacker

The hijacker infection responsible for Searchfort Plus Search , can hijack various Windows shortcuts on your desktop (most often, all web-browsers shortcuts), so in this step you need to check and clean them by removing the argument like http://site.address/.

Right click on the internet browser’s shortcut, click Properties option. 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 “http://site.address” which has been added here. Remove everything after .exe. An example, for Google Chrome you should remove everything after chrome.exe.

To save changes, click OK . You need to clean all web-browser’s shortcut files. So, repeat this step for the Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome and MS Edge.

How to automatically get rid of Searchfort Plus Search hijacker

Many antivirus companies have created apps that help detect and delete browser hijacker, and thereby restore all your typical internet browsers settings. Below is a a few of the free programs you may want to run. Your PC may have a large amount of potentially unwanted programs, ad supported software and browser hijackers installed at the same time, so we suggest, if any unwanted or malicious application returns after rebooting the PC, then launch your system into Safe Mode and use the antimalware utility once again.

Use Zemana to delete hijacker

Zemana Free is a free application for MS Windows OS to scan for and remove potentially unwanted applications, adware, harmful web-browser extensions, browser toolbars, and other unwanted apps such as browser hijacker infection that developed to redirect your web browser to the Searchfort Plus Search site, installed on your system.

Download Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) by clicking on the following link. Save it to your Desktop.

When downloading is finished, close all apps and windows on your PC system. Double-click the setup file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as displayed on the screen below, click the “Yes” button.

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

Once installation is complete successfully, Zemana will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown in the figure below.

Now click the “Scan” button to begin checking your computer for the hijacker responsible for Searchfort Plus Search redirect. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your machine. When a threat is found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is complete.

Once the scan is complete, the results are displayed in the scan report. Review the results once the utility has complete the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply press “Next” button. The Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will remove hijacker related to Searchfort Plus Search homepage and add items to the Quarantine. Once the clean up is finished, you may be prompted to restart the computer.

Automatically remove Searchfort Plus Search startpage with Malwarebytes

You can delete Searchfort Plus Search automatically with a help of Malwarebytes Free. We recommend this free malicious software removal tool because it may easily get rid of browser hijackers, ad supported software, potentially unwanted software and toolbars with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.

1. Click the link below to download the latest version of MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) for Windows. Save it to your Desktop.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware
   326464 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: April 15, 2020
   
2. At the download page, click on the Download button. Your internet browser will display the “Save as” dialog box. Please save it onto your Windows desktop.
3. After the downloading process is finished, please close all software and open windows on your personal computer. Double-click on the icon that’s called mb3-setup.
4. This will open the “Setup wizard” of MalwareBytes Free onto your PC system. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
5. When the Setup wizard has finished installing, the MalwareBytes will open and show the main window.
6. Further, press the “Scan Now” button to find hijacker responsible for Searchfort Plus Search redirect. While the MalwareBytes program is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.
7. Once the scan is finished, MalwareBytes will display a list of all threats found by the scan.
8. Review the scan results and then click the “Quarantine Selected” button. When that process is done, you may be prompted to reboot the PC system.
9. Close the Anti Malware and continue with the next step.

Video instruction, which reveals in detail the steps above.

Run AdwCleaner to remove Searchfort Plus Search home page

The AdwCleaner tool is free and easy to use. It can scan and remove hijacker related to Searchfort Plus Search home page, malicious software, PUPs and ad supported software from machine (Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, XP) and thereby return web browsers default settings (start page, newtab and search engine by default). AdwCleaner is powerful enough to find out and remove malicious registry entries and files that are hidden on the system.

1. Click the following link to download AdwCleaner. Save it on your Windows desktop.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225301 downloads
   Version: 8.4.1
   Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: October 5, 2024
   
2. When downloading is finished, double click the AdwCleaner icon. Once this tool is launched, click “Scan” button for scanning your PC system for the browser hijacker responsible for changing your internet browser settings to Searchfort Plus Search. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your computer and the speed of your personal computer. While the tool is checking, you may see how many objects and files has already scanned.
3. When finished, AdwCleaner will open a list of found items. Next, you need to click “Clean” button. It will open a prompt, click “OK”.

These few simple steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.

How to block Searchfort Plus Search

Enabling an ad-blocker program like AdGuard is an effective way to alleviate the risks. Additionally, adblocker apps will also protect you from harmful ads and web-pages, and, of course, stop redirection chain to Searchfort Plus Search and similar pages.

1. Visit the following page to download AdGuard. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
   
   

   Adguard download
   26659 downloads
   Version: 6.4
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: November 15, 2018
   
2. After the downloading process is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. After the installation is complete, press “Skip” to close the setup program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will help 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 machine, AdGuard will start automatically and block pop ups, Searchfort Plus Search redirect, as well as other harmful 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 icon named AdGuard, that is located on your desktop.

How to Searchfort Plus Search browser hijacker infection get installed onto personal computer

The Searchfort Plus Search browser hijacker gets on your machine along with various freeware. This means that you need to be very careful when installing apps downloaded from the Web, even from a large proven hosting. Be sure to read the Terms of Use and the Software license, choose only the Manual, Advanced or Custom setup option, switch off all additional modules and programs are offered to install.

To sum up

After completing the guide shown above, your machine should be clean from this browser hijacker and other malware. The Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge and Chrome will no longer open undesired Searchfort Plus Search web-page. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step instructions does not help you, then you have caught a new hijacker, and then the best way – ask for help.

Please start a new thread by using the “New Topic” button in the Spyware Removal forum. When posting your HJT log, try to give us some details about your problems, so we can try to help you more accurately. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the intrusive Searchfort Plus Search .