How to Remove Search Anonymous Redirect

Can’t Remove Search Anonymous hijacker virus? This page includes detailed Search Anonymous Removal instructions!

If you’re stuck with a dubious program called Search Anonymous, you’re in trouble. This nuisance has been classified as a browser hijacker. It is immensely problematic, tricky and obnoxious. Are you willing to overlook the threat and keep a virus on board? Trust us when we say, things could get from bad to terrible if you hesitate. The more time this program spends on your computer system, the more dangerous it becomes. Search Anonymous is supposed to be a perfectly safe search engine that takes care of your privacy online. However, the one thing this parasite is really focused on is helping hackers gain profit. Crooks use the pay-per-click mechanism to make money online. As you could imagine, their revenue comes solely at your expense. That means the hijacker takes control over your machine and exposes you to threats. Once your computer gets infected, Search Anonymous starts making modifications. None of them involve your authorization or permission of any kind. Have you already noticed the brand new browser extension added by the virus? That’s just the first of many changes in your browser settings this pest is capable of making. The hijacker also replaces both your favorite search engine as well as homepage with its domain. By doing that, Search Anonymous effectively injects your browsers with sponsored links. You are now forced to use the parasite’s search engine when surfing the Web. Whether you want to be dealing with Search Anonymous or not is irrelevant. Hackers are currently using your device to achieve their questionable goals. As mentioned, their main concern is gaining profit. However, in order to gain revenue, hackers need you to click the sponsored links Search Anonymous generates. Do you now see why the hijacker originally promised to enhance your online experience? It pretends to be a reliable program just to trick you into clicking. You should know better than to trust the devious web links displayed by a virus. Search Anonymous isn’t trying to provide accurate search results, let alone harmless ones. You could be more than positive some of these links are corrupted and fake. To make the mess even bigger, this parasite could also generate random pop-up ads and other commercials. It collects browsing-related data as well thus jeopardizing your privacy. To sum up, Search Anonymous is an immensely troublesome infection which must be immediately deleted.

How did I get infected with?

The virus was most likely bundled. How can we tell? Because bundled freeware and shareware are hackers’ favorite methods to spread infections online. You should keep in mind how dangerous such bundles could be and take your time. Many PC users prefer to rush and accidentally give green light to malware. To prevent that, you have to keep an eye out for bonus programs. If you deselect the potential intruder before it gets installed, you’ll save yourself quite the hassle. Make sure no additional infections land on board. It would be your responsibility to remove the parasite afterwards so make no mistake. Opt for the Custom or Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. Instead of skipping important installation steps, do the exact opposite. Take your time and watch out for sneaky bonus viruses. Stay away from random messages and/or email attachments too. Those might turn out to be filled with infections so be careful what you click open. Also, many parasites travel the Web via fake program updates or bogus torrents. Don’t be negligent because protecting your machine from malware is your job.

Why is this dangerous?

The Search Anonymous infection will get out of hand quickly. You can’t afford to underestimate its malicious potential because a hijacker has plenty of that. Take action on the spot and get rid of this intruder. All your browsers are now hijacked. They continually redirect you, crash, freeze and generate unsafe links. Search Anonymous also causes your device to underperform and could affect your Internet connection as well. The virus covers your PC screen with sponsored search results and potentially fake product deals/offers. It’s beyond intrusive so wave your everyday online experience goodbye. Clicking the wrong link open would automatically worsen your situation so stay away from anything generated by the hijacker. Search Anonymous must be deleted. To do so manually, please follow our detailed removal guide down below.

How to Remove Search Anonymous virus

The Search Anonymous 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 Search Anonymous 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.

STEP 1: Track down Search Anonymous related processes in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Search Anonymous startup location

STEP 3: Delete Search Anonymous traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Search Anonymous 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 Search Anonymous 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 Search Anonymous 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 Search Anonymous traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Search Anonymous 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 Search Anonymous

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 Search Anonymous, 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 Search Anonymous 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 Search Anonymous 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.