Convertpdfsearch.com virus - How to remove

Convertpdfsearch.com is displayed as your homepage on internet browsers even though you can not recall making those changes? That means it was installed secretly and you are dealing with a computer virus categorised as browser hijacker. It is not extremely dangerous, yet can lead you to more cyber security problems and indicates that your computer is vulnerable.

This free tool is based on browser add-on which gets added on web browsers and makes those changes – sets www.convertpdfsearch.com as a homepage, new tab and default search engine. It is described as a tool which serves as an ordinary search engine with an additional PDF conversion features. If it was legitimate, it should allow you to convert PDF files to other formats and vice versa – convert various files to PDF. However, we have already examined it and it is clear that these features are not existent – you can’t actually do neither of them. Now it is obvious that the add-on was created to fulfil other purposes that you might not like.

Speaking of web search feature, Convertpdfsearch.com is redirecting web searches to Google search and it is absolutely legit. Nevertheless, there is no point in using Convertpdfsearch.com instead of heading straight forward to Google when you are trying to find something. It stands as a middleman and it’s just a complete waste of time.

About Convertpdfsearch.com virus

Obvious question that comes to the mind – what is the purpose of this infection? It is not completely clear, but perhaps the main goal of developers of Convertpdfsearch.com is to collect information about you. Information, such as your browsing history, search queries, most visited sites or even email and IP addresses might be collected. Such sensitive and private information can be transferred to third parties or used in order to target ads and special offers to you. It is clearly stated on their privacy policy so by using their website, you give them the permission to do that:

We automatically collect information sent to us by your operating device when you use the HOPEBEST Services. The information sent to us may include your IP address, data about the pages you access, mobile network information, search history, and a time-stamp. Through the content of our undeleted cookies, we may also collect information regarding the devices connected to your computer, software installed upon, and referring website addresses.

The Hopebest family of companies correspond with advertisers, data management platform, and ad networks to customize online behavioral advertisements that are created to target users’ interests. In order to deliver these advertisements, these third parties may and/or we may disclose to these third parties an identification number to be associated with your device’s platform.

How We Use the Personal Information We Collect
Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with a safe and customized user experience. We may use your personal information to:

• Provide the products and services that you requested;
• Deliver HOPEBEST Services and customer support;
• Perform target marketing and advertising that is tailored to your interests;
• Manage and protect our business, which includes the quality of the HOPEBEST Services and system;
• Contact you by postal mail, e-mail, or telephone in order to explain our recent products and services.; and
• Resolve complaints, abuse, or other allegations;

How We Share Your Personal Information With Third Parties
We may share your personal information we collect from you with others as indicated below:

• Business Partners: We may share information we collect from you with our business partners whenever you engage in promotions, contests, and sweepstakes.
• Advertisers and Ad Networks: These third party advertisers may collect information themelves in order to produce tailored advertisements.
• Other HOPEBEST Businesses: We may share your information with our affiliated HOPEBEST companies to provide a customized user experience.
• Other Important Situations: We may disclose your personal information as required by the courts in good faith compliance.

This add-on was developed by HopeBest Services Ltd, which is known for releasing malware like Speedydialsearch.com or Zipfilesearch.com, so it only strengthens our assumption that this website is malicious. It looks like this company is really focusing on creating and distributing malware so if you have noticed any products developed by them on your computer, immediately get rid of them.

How your computer got infected with Convertpdfsearch.com?

Usually hijackers like this gets installed on a computer alongside other free software that can be downloaded from the web. I.e. when you download and install some free software, Convertpdfsearch.com can be offered as an additional and free tool. By accepting this installation, you give  the permission for this tool to make changes on your web browsers and infect your system.

First thing you need to do in order to get rid of this malware, is to remove it from the add-on list on a web browser and eliminate all files from your computer that are associated with Convertpdfsearch.com. This task can seem to be difficult, therefore we recommend to get yourself a reliable anti-malware tool, such as Spyhunter or Malwarebytes. Scan your computer with either one of them and the virus will be gone in few moments. We have already mentioned that if your computer is infected with this hijacker, it indicated that the system is vulnerable, so you should keep anti-malware software installed – it will provide you with real-time protection and make sure that your computer is not exposed to similar infections. For more detailed removal instructions, please look at our step-by-step Convertpdfsearch.com  manual removal guide below this article.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal of Convertpdfsearch.com virus

How to remove Convertpdfsearch.com virus using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Convertpdfsearch.com virus install some of their components as regular Windows programs as well as additional software. This part of malware can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. To access it, do the following.

• Start→Control Panel (older Windows) or press Windows Key→Search and enter Control Panel and then press Enter (Windows 8, Windows 10).
• Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category).
• Go through the list of programs and select entries related to Convertpdfsearch.com virus . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Convertpdfsearch.com virus easier to find.
• Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes.
• In many cases anti-malware programs are better at detecting related parasites, thus I recommend installing Spyhunter to identify other programs that might be a part of this infection.

How to remove Convertpdfsearch.com virus from macOS

Delete Convertpdfsearch.com virus from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Convertpdfsearch.com virus app.
5. Select it and right-click it (or hold the Ctrl and click the left mouse button).
6. In the dropdown, click Move to Bin/Trash. You might be asked to provide your login password.

TopHow To remove Convertpdfsearch.com virus from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Convertpdfsearch.com virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How To remove Convertpdfsearch.com virus from Firefox:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything Convertpdfsearch.com virus related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Options → General. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Restore to Default.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Convertpdfsearch.com virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• ChooseTroubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on theReset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.

How to remove Convertpdfsearch.com virus from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings

• Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.

• Choose Manage search engines.

• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.

• Go back to Settings. Open On start-up.
• Delete malicious search websites at Open specific page or pages by opening the three-dot menu and clicking Delete.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Convertpdfsearch.com virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings

• Click on Edge's menu button and select Settings. Click on the Reset Settings button on the left.
• Press the Restore settings to their default values option.

• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Convertpdfsearch.com virus from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall Convertpdfsearch.com virus and other suspicious extensions.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences and choose General tab. Enter preferable URL to the homepage field.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings(older versions) If you are still experiencing any issues related to Convertpdfsearch.com virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari…
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

Manual removal