How to Remove Discretesearch.com Hijacker (Discrete Search)

Can’t Remove Discretesearch.com hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Discretesearch.com Removal instructions!

Discretesearch.com is the privacy based search engine. Or so you’ll read if you visit its official website. Unfortunately, this program isn’t the only one that promises bogus functionalities. Instead of enhancing your online experience, Discretesearch.com messes with your default browser settings. It goes without saying that you shouldn’t believe any of the search results brought to you by the virus. Classified as a browser hijacker, this nuisance has nothing but trouble to offer. It lies to your face and pretends to be an attractive search engine. However, we have never come across a hijacker that actually helps PC users browse the Web. The Discretesearch.com virus is light years away from being the harmless program it was supposed to be. As soon as the parasite gets downloaded, it starts making modifications. Unauthorized modifications, to be more specific. Your default browser settings get altered completely behind your back. Hijackers aren’t going to seek your permission beforehand. Remember, Discretesearch.com wasn’t developed to be helpful for you. Its one goal is to boost web traffic to some pages and help hackers gain profit. As you could imagine, gaining effortless revenue is every crook’s dream. Cyber criminals use hijackers to inject the victim’s browsers with sponsored web links. In other words, the profit hackers gain comes solely at your expense. Are you willing to support their illegal business? Crooks don’t really have to be rewarded for messing with your browsers. Clicking each web link provided by the parasite, though, helps them become a little bit richer. Discretesearch.com replaces your search engine and homepage with its own domain. It also installs an extension or a plugin to your browsers. As a result, you end up in quite a tricky situation. You’re unable to find anything you search for because you constantly get redirected. The virus might also start generating some sponsored pop-ups and various commercials. Hence, Discretesearch.com makes it impossible to surf the Internet at peace. There is no getting rid of aggravating, sneaky web links. All of them are potentially corrupted and dangerous so don’t be naive. Clicking the links brought to you by a hijacker is anything but a good idea. You may land on unverified pages full of malware. You might also attempt to purchase a non-existent product and get involved in a cyber scam. Either way, the virus has to go.

How did I get infected with?

Hijackers follow the classic malware distribution methods. Therefore, the Discretesearch.com infection probably didn’t rely on your consent. Most parasites travel the Web attached to freeware or shareware bundles. Do you often download such program packages? And do you check out the Terms and Conditions of what you agree to install? There you go. Hackers are perfectly aware that people don’t tend to pay attention during the installation process. If there is some bonus virus hidden in the bundle and you skip steps, the parasite gets installed. You will then have to waste much more time and energy dealing with the consequences of your negligence. We strongly recommend that you opt for the Custom or Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. By doing so, you will be able to spot any potentially unwanted intruder. Deselect what you don’t find reliable instead of letting it get to your machine. The Internet is filled with dangerous programs that are spread online via stealth. To make sure your PC remains infection-free in the future, watch out for malicious programs. You certainly will not regret it.

Why is this dangerous?

The Discretesearch.com program is indeed a pest. Your favorite, preferred browsers get sneakily modified. Eventually, you’ll notice that you’re no longer in control of your own online experience. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer are now unreliable. They redirect you to unknown, unsafe websites. They might also start freezing and/or crashing on occasions. In addition to that, the hijacker could start generating some misleading commercials. Restrain yourself from clicking any advertisements brought to your PC screen by Discretesearch.com. These web links are all sponsored and highly questionable. Hackers even find a way to make money out of your private details. The hijacker steals your browsing history, IP addresses, passwords and usernames. If you’re unlucky enough, that could cause serious privacy issues such as identity theft. Please follow our detailed manual removal guide down below.

How to Remove Discretesearch.com virus

The Discretesearch.com infection is specifically designed to make money to its creators one way or another. The specialists from various antivirus companies like Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Norton, Avast, ESET, etc. advise that there is no harmless virus.

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to remove the Discretesearch.com infection. Please, follow the procedures in the exact order. Please, consider to print this guide or have another computer at your disposal. You will NOT need any USB sticks or CDs.

WARNING! Stopping the wrong file or deleting the wrong registry key may damage your system irreversibly.
If you are feeling not technical enough just use Spyhunter Professional Malware Removal Tool to deal with the problem!
>>Download SpyHunter – a Professional Remover.

Please, keep in mind that SpyHunter’s scanner tool is free. To remove the Discretesearch.com infection, you need to purchase its full version.

STEP 1: Track down Discretesearch.com related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Discretesearch.com startup location

STEP 3: Delete Discretesearch.com traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Discretesearch.com related processes in the computer memory

• Open your Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys simultaneously
• Carefully review all processes and stop the suspicious ones.

• Write down the file location for later reference.

Step 2: Locate Discretesearch.com startup location

Reveal Hidden Files

• Open any folder
• Click on “Organize” button
  
• Choose “Folder and Search Options”
• Select the “View” tab
• Select “Show hidden files and folders” option
• Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”
• Click “Apply” and “OK” button

Clean Discretesearch.com virus from the windows registry

• Once the operating system loads press simultaneously the Windows Logo Button and the R key.

• A dialog box should open. Type “Regedit”

• WARNING! be very careful when editing the Microsoft Windows Registry as this may render the system broken.

Depending on your OS (x86 or x64) navigate to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

• and delete the display Name: [RANDOM]

• Then open your explorer and navigate to: %appdata% folder and delete the malicious executable.

Clean your HOSTS file to avoid unwanted browser redirection

Navigate to %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/host

If you are hacked, there will be foreign IPs addresses connected to you at the bottom. Take a look below:

STEP 3 : Clean Discretesearch.com traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Discretesearch.com by clicking on the little recycle bin
• Reset Google Chrome by Deleting the current user to make sure nothing is left behind

• Open Mozilla Firefox

• Press simultaneously Ctrl+Shift+A
• Disable the unwanted Extension
• Go to Help
• Then Troubleshoot information
• Click on Reset Firefox

• Open Internet Explorer

• On the Upper Right Corner Click on the Gear Icon
• Click on Internet options
• go to Toolbars and Extensions and disable the unknown extensions
• Select the Advanced tab and click on Reset

• Restart Internet Explorer

Step 4: Undo the damage done by Discretesearch.com

This particular Virus may alter your DNS settings.

Attention! this can break your internet connection. Before you change your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS for Discretesearch.com, be sure to write down the current server addresses on a piece of paper.

To fix the damage done by the virus you need to do the following.

• Click the Windows Start button to open the Start Menu, type control panel in the search box and select Control Panel in the results displayed above.
• go to Network and Internet
• then Network and Sharing Center
• then Change Adapter Settings
• Right-click on your active internet connection and click properties. Under the Networking tab, find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Left click on it and then click on properties. Both options should be automatic! By default it should be set to “Obtain an IP address automatically” and the second one to “Obtain DNS server address automatically!” If they are not just change them, however if you are part of a domain network you should contact your Domain Administrator to set these settings, otherwise the internet connection will break!!!

You must clean all your browser shortcuts as well. To do that you need to

• Right click on the shortcut of your favorite browser and then select properties.

• in the target field remove Discretesearch.com argument and then apply the changes.
• Repeat that with the shortcuts of your other browsers.
• Check your scheduled tasks to make sure the virus will not download itself again.

How to Permanently Remove Discretesearch.com Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your whole system or network and let all doors wide open for many other infections. To make sure manual removal is successful, we recommend to use a free scanner of any professional antimalware program to identify possible registry leftovers or temporary files.