Custom Search Malware - How to remove

Custom Search is a search hijacker extension. It sneaks into the computer uninvited, logs user data, shows unwanted ads, and redirects searches to Bing or Yahoo. And sometimes, Custom Search can’t be removed (and your browser says that it’s managed by your organization). This behavior is malicious and it’s all the more reason to remove Custom Search as quickly as possible (which you can do, though it’s a little more complicated than normal extension removal is).

About Custom Search:

Type of threat	Adware, browser hijacker.
Problems with Custom Search	It logs your data and uses it for targeted advertising, it gets installed without permission, it may be difficult to remove.
How hijackers spread	Bundled with other installers in a way that the user doesn’t notice them.
How to remove Custom Search	Remove malware with antivirus programs (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, and others), delete browser policies to remove forced extensions.

Problems with Custom Search

Search hijacker

Custom Search, or Find.customsearch.info, is a new tab replacer and a search hijacker. It’s nothing special, just another advertising add-on that collects your data and redirects your traffic. It’s not very dangerous, even though it can be frustrating.

Once Custom Search is installed, it changes your default search engine, which enables it to redirect all of your search queries from your address bar to any site that Custom Search wants. According to Custom Search’s description, it does this to choose the best search provider for you (Bing, Yahoo, or another one). What a flimsy excuse – you can already choose any search provider you want.

In the background, Custom Search can log your queries, which results and ads you click on, exactly when you searched for what, and your search history. This data is then used to decide which products may be relevant to you when showing you advertisements. This is all in its privacy policy, if you are curious.

Bad reputation

Custom Search doesn’t reveal what company is behind this hijacker, which is a red flag on its own. One way to see if you can trust a product, such as a browser extension, is to look up the company that made it. If the company has a good history, you can feel safe installing their extension. If the company has no history or if it’s infamous somehow, then you should be careful.

If you can’t find the company’s name, then it probably has a bad history.

Custom Search is related to a bunch of other, very similar hijackers, such as Burst Search, Optimum Search, Blast Search, Capita Search. All these and other hijackers have the same problems that Custom Search has.

Unwanted installation

Custom Search getting installed without your knowledge is entirely possible. Browser hijackers like Custom Search get bundled with freeware and shareware installers that you can download from software repository sites. Free sites embed malware and junkware into the files that they share. They get paid for successful installations.

Hard to remove

The biggest issue with Custom Search is that it gets installed without asking and then makes itself impossible to remove.

Finding Custom Search installed on your browser when you never added it yourself is bad enough. On top of that, it might be unremovable because, all of a sudden, your browser says that it’s managed by an organization or by an administrator and you aren’t allowed to uninstall extensions from your own web browser.

You can see Custom Search when you navigate to Settings, Extensions, but the Remove button doesn’t work or it’s simply gone from the extension card.

This is a case of Custom Search exploiting enterprise policies, which is done regularly by browser hijackers.

How to remove Custom Search

Remove malware

Try to remove Custom Search like a normal extension, as well as restore browser settings as it’s explained in the section at the bottom. You can also use an antivirus program, such as Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and others. They can help you remove unwanted browser extensions and other programs. You might need to restart your computer in safe mode.

Remove forced extensions

But even antivirus apps don’t always work. Those who still can’t remove Custom Search need to take a few more steps. Forced extension installations are described on this Google.com page. You can see policies by navigating to the chrome://policy address to see what policies are present on your browser.

Windows computers hold the relevant settings in the Registry, Macs have it as a preference file in the Library folders.

For Windows, you can find and delete the relevant registry key. I don’t want to advise people to mess with their registry. But sometimes, it is needed. Just be extremely careful, make a backup of your registry before changing any keys, and stay far, far away from registry cleaners.

For macOS users, you might find Chrome’s policies in System Preferences -> Profiles. Open Profiles and delete all the items that you didn’t add. In addition, ~/Library/Preferences or /Library/Preferences (use the Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder dialog to open these folders) might hold the settings that are keeping Custom Search and other unwanted extensions installed.

If Custom Search comes back, scan your computer to make sure that you’ve removed all the malware and reset sync in your browser.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Restore browser settings

TopHow To remove Custom Search Malware 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 Custom Search Malware, 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 Custom Search Malware 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 Custom Search Malware, 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 Custom Search Malware 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 Custom Search Malware 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 Custom Search Malware, 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.