DiscoverAncestry Toolbar - How to remove

DiscoverAncestry Toolbar is a malicious browser extension that can add itself to Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers. While its description promises a way to search your family history, this add-on is just a  home page replacer that seeks to control how you search the web and monetize that process.

DiscoverAncestry is considered adware by many reliable antivirus vendors. It is strongly recommended to remove DiscoverAncestry Toolbar from your computer with the help of an anti-malware program, for example, Spyhunter for PC, Malwarebytes, or Combo Cleaner for Mac. An automatic removal will guarantee that you will eliminate the adware safely and you will not do any harm to your system. You can also fix this issue manually, a full guide on how to remove DiscoverAncestry Toolbar can be found at the end of this article.

About DiscoverAncestry Toolbar

The purpose of DiscoverAncestry Toolbar is to make money from advertising. To that end, it usually replaces default search and, in some cases, overtakes your homepage. This toolbar is trying to make you use Myway.com or Ask.com – sites owned by the same people responsible for the browser hijacker. Search engines make money from ads in search results and the more users they have, the more money they can make. So they spread low-effort browser extensions like DiscoverAncestry as a way to funnel users to their preferred search engines and to spy on users’ web searches to get around keyword encryption.

DiscoverAncestry is not useful and is better off being removed:

Type of threat	Adware Browser hijacker
Problems with DiscoverAncestry	Unwanted or deceptive installation Prevents certain browser settings form being changed Collects your browsing data
Avoid browser hijackers	Block suspicious websites Ignore malicious ads Refuse optional offers when installing freeware
Uninstall DiscoverAncestry and restore the browser	Disable or uninstall programs that were installed right before the hijacking happened

And DiscoverAncestry is really low-effort: it’s a browser add-on based on an old and ugly template, the same one used for GetFamilyHistory, FindMeFreebies, CouponXplorer, and many, many others. All these toolbars provide a few links to websites that are somewhat related to the theme of the extension (DiscoverAncestry links to sites like facebook.com and Ancestry.com), but that’s it.

The program can also make itself hard to delete, likely because of malicious settings and files on your computer. If you don’t want to compromise your device, you should avoid such applications. Remember that DiscoverAncestry Toolbar can try to redirect you to malicious websites full of spyware or other threats. If any of them will manage to infiltrate into your system, you may end up having serious issues. Below we will talk about methods that DiscoverAncestry Toolbar uses to access computers.

Distribution Methods of DiscoverAncestry Toolbar

DiscoverAncestry uses a variety of ways to get installed, even against people’s consent. One method this add-on uses is malicious adware pages. There are sites that, either because they were infected or because they voluntarily partner with unethical and hyper-aggressive ad-networks, randomly redirect visitors to adware sites. Imagine you were looking for an obituary and clicked the button to access it. The new page said that you had to install an extension before you could see the information you wanted. The extension being DiscoverAncestry.

This isn’t how anything works. Sites that tell you to install an extension before you can access info are lying 99% of the time. Malvertising sites like Getawesome, “Flash SD App Required”, Vvallor, and others spread adware extensions like DiscoverAncestry by telling you that you must install the extension to proceed, but you should ignore them whenever you see them (close the tab with Alt+F4 on Windows, Cmd+W of Mac OS).

Blocking malicious websites could help, though most good antivirus programs that do this are not free. An ad-blocker might be able to help, just make sure to find a legitimate one. Scan your computer to make sure you don’t have an adware infection. Other than that, it’s hard to avoid malicious ads – just try to recognize them and close them when you see them.

DiscoverAncestry Toolbar is also distributed together with freeware programs and with pirated files. It comes bundled to free music players, video recorders, download managers, PDF creators, etc. The best way to avoid this kind of infiltration is to be more careful with what you are installing to your system and pay attention to the installation processes of your chosen freeware.

Always follow every installation step and make sure you don’t agree to get any optional downloads if you are not sure about their reliability. In case you have already downloaded this annoying toolbar to any of your browsers, remove DiscoverAncestry as soon as possible. Below you will find a tutorial that will explain how to do it step-by-step. Make sure you eliminate it from every affected browser.

Automatic Malware removal tools

On behalf of developers of DiscoverAncestry Toolbar we were asked to remove this article due to false information on it. However, we feel like this post is correct and helpful to our readers. DiscoverAncestry Toolbar and other software developed by Mindspark Interactive Network, Inc. can be detected and recognised as viruses or potentially unwanted software by various anti-malware tools. Toolbars developed by Mindspark share same EULA (End User License Agreement) that is mislieding. It claims that this software is not an adware or malware, while there are statements that toolbars might display advertisements from 3rd parties or monetise toolbars in other ways. By definition such software is considered as an adware. All articles posted on www.2-viruses.com regarding products of Mindspark are correct.

Please notice that we are affiliated with several trustworthy anti-malware tools and information about our affiliates can be found in disclosure (see the link at the bottom of this page). Some of those tools are paid while other ones can be used for free. We provide free manual removal guides as well.

Manual removal of DiscoverAncestry Toolbar

How to remove DiscoverAncestry Toolbar using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like DiscoverAncestry Toolbar 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 DiscoverAncestry Toolbar . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make DiscoverAncestry Toolbar 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 DiscoverAncestry Toolbar from macOS

Delete DiscoverAncestry Toolbar from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the DiscoverAncestry Toolbar  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.

TopRemove malicious extensions from Internet Explorer

• Press on the Gear icon→Manage Add-ons.
  
• Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
  
• Close the Options.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar , reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Press on the Gear icon->Internet Options.
  
• Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset button.
  
• Select a “Delete personal settings” checkbox and click on the Reset button.
  
• Click on the Close button on the confirmation box, then close your browser.
  

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

TopRemoving DiscoverAncestry Toolbar from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar . Click on the trash bin icon next to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar , reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

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

TopRemoving DiscoverAncestry Toolbar from Firefox

• 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 DiscoverAncestry Toolbar 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.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar, 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.
  
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

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

How to remove DiscoverAncestry Toolbar from Microsoft Edge:Top

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

• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar . Click on the "Remove" icon next to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar or other add-ons you want to remove.

• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.

• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.

• Restart Microsoft Edge.

TopRemoving DiscoverAncestry Toolbar from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the DiscoverAncestry Toolbar. Remove all other unknown or suspicious entries too. If you are not sure whether you need the extension or not, you can simply uncheck the Enable check-box to disable the extension temporarily.
  
• Restart Safari.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to DiscoverAncestry Toolbar , reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the 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.