Remove Search.searchetan.com Redirect (Removal Guide)

The pesky Search.searchetan.com is anything but harmless. This is actually one of the many browser hijackers out there. And those are quite a pest. The good news is that browser hijackers are among the relatively harmless types of viruses. However, no infection is completely harmless. Instead of tolerating this program’s shenanigans, take measures now. The sooner you manage to get rid of Search.searchetan.com, the better. Even though the parasite pretends to be a legitimate search engine, it is not. You should know better than to trust hackers’ empty promises. They don’t develop malware to help you browse the Internet. It’s the opposite, actually. As soon as the hijacker lands on board, your browsers start getting modified. They receive a brand new extension added by the parasite. Was you permission involved in any way? No. That is because the hijacker’s very last purpose was to be beneficial for you. It alters your default browser settings in silence. By doing so, the virus injects your browsers with sponsored, dangerous web links. Remember the accurate search results this program promised to generate? All of them are sponsored, potentially unsafe web links. There are some perfectly safe links on your PC screen. There are some corrupted ones as well, though. How can you tell which is which? You have to click it open. As you can see, that could jeopardize your safety immensely. Clicking a corrupted web link open would compromise your device even further. We assume that you’re not trying to install more infections on your already infected PC. Therefore, stay away from anything displayed by the virus. It is not a risk worth taking to keep the parasite. It also changes your default search engine and homepage. Both get replaced with the hijacker’s own domain. That is how you end up stuck with the parasite every time you surf the Web. Or, should we say, attempt to surf the Web. Your everyday online activities are effectively interrupted by the virus. It might also generate bogus commercials and other third-party advertisements. In addition, you may stumble across fake program updates as well. Search.searchetan.com turns your online experience into a cyber battlefield. It even spies on your browsing-related information and steals private details. For instance, the parasite collects browsing history, usernames and passwords, IP addresses, email address, etc. It may attempt to go one step further, though. To prevent serious privacy issues, tackle the intruder now.

How did I get infected with?

It’s very likely that the hijacker was bundled. When installing bundled programs, always be careful. You never know if a nasty parasite is attached to the other programs as a bonus. Stay away from such kind of bonuses. Opting for the Custom or Advanced option in the Setup Wizard is a rule of thumb. Check out the software that you’re going to give green light to. If you spot some unwanted infection, just deselect it. That’s a lot less troublesome than having to remove a parasite afterwards. Pay attention to what you download. Also, go through the Terms and Conditions. Same thing goes for the EULA (End User License Agreement). Unless you’re in control of the installation process, it may be hackers. There’s no such thing as being too cautious while surfing the Web. Be careful and don’t overlook any potential threat. Stay away from unverified freeware/shareware bundles as well. Another technique to watch out for involves spam messages and spam emails. Delete what you don’t trust instead of letting a vicious parasite loose. We would also recommend that you avoid illegitimate websites/torrents. Make sure you protect your machine from malware. It’s your job to outwit hackers every time they attempt to harass you.

Why is this dangerous?

This program hijacks all your once trustworthy browsers. It messes with Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. As a result, all three now generate a huge pile of sponsored, unsafe web links. You also get redirected to random, unknown, unsafe websites. You’re practically one click away from malware as long as the virus is present. As if that wasn’t enough, the hijacker leads to a poor PC performance and causes your browsers to crash and freeze. Even your Internet connection becomes unstable all of a sudden. The Search.searchetan.com virus steals personal information too. As mentioned already, if it gets to some personally identifiable data, things will get ugly. Hackers won’t think twice before they sell your sensitive details for marketing purposes. To delete the hijacker manually, please follow out detailed removal guide down below.

How to Remove Search.searchetan.com virus

The Search.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.com infection, you need to purchase its full version.

STEP 1: Track down Search.searchetan.com in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Search.searchetan.com startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Search.searchetan.com 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.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.com traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Search.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.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 Search.searchetan.com Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your system 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.