GamesZone Search - How to remove

GamesZone Search is a free extension for Google Chrome web browser that should allow you to play various online games faster and more efficiently. Unfortunately, we have discovered that this tool is malicious and should be categorized as browser hijacker.

Reasons for that are pretty obvious – the extension is distributed using deceptive methods and gets installed secretly. Once installed, it will change your personal settings and bring other unwanted features alongside. Also, it might be difficult to get rid of this annoying tool, therefore a lot of users just leave it as it is and continue using an infected web browser. However, that is wrong and we don’t recommend you to do it.

If you have noticed that something on your web browser was changed and it doesn’t work like it used to before and you keep noticing something regarding GamesZone or Njoyapps, that’s a clear sign that your computer is infected and you should take care of that.

In this post, we will talk about efficient removal of GamesZone search and main features of this infection, so if you looking for some assistance on how to get rid of this annoying extension, please continue reading the article.

How GamesZone Search works

Actually, this infection can be categorized as a browser hijacker or as an adware. The primary goal of this infection is to display various advertisements or even deliver malvertising to your system. However, alongside that it will also change settings on a web browser without even asking your permission to do that, thus it can be considered to be a browser hijacker.

As far as we know, this browser extension is only compatible with Google Chrome web browser, so if that is your main web browser, we suggest to switch to an alternative web browser until GamesZone Search is completely removed. You already know that it works as a browser extension and once installed on a computer it will immediately set your default search engine to Searchalgo.com. So if you submit a search directly to the URL bar, it will be processed through this website. Even though your results will be displayed on Yahoo search page, you can notice URL suddenly changing to www.searchalgo.com.

Also, a new icon will appear in the toolbar – it offers you the ability to play online games, as promised.

All those links will lead you to cantstopplaying.com website. Since it is affiliated and promoted by GamesZone Search we consider it to be malicious as well. It’s not the only malicious website that is associated with GamesZone Search – Sport.searchalgo.com also came from the same developer.

Malicious Features of GamesZone Search

Obviously, the main symptom of this browser hijacker/adware is excessive web advertisements that will follow you on most of the websites, even on legitimate ones. Those ads can be displayed in all kinds of different forms, yet most of them are displayed as pop-ups or banner advertisements. Most of them are labeled with a slogan “Ads by GamesZone” or “Brought to you by GamesZone”, thus it’s really easy to tell that your computer is infected.

Also, if your web browser is infected with GamesZone Search we do not recommend to search the web using this tool. All your search queries will be recorded, even if that is your personal and sensitive data. It can be used for [ref name=“marketing purposes” url=“http://analytics-magazine.org/big-data-in-marketing-analytics/”] or leaked to third parties later on.

In addition to that, results displayed by GamesZone Search can’t be trusted – they can lead you to dangerous websites.

There are also other symptoms or possible consequences posed by this infection:

• Infiltration of other malware;
• Slower work of your machine;
• Redirects to other websites.

How this virus is distributed

There are a lot of infections that operate in a manner that is very similar to GamesZone Search – Frompus.club, Search.playnsearch.net and so on. They all are distributed bundled to other free software that can be downloaded from the Internet. It’s arguably the most common distribution method of malware.

Just try to remember if you have downloaded something recently – it might be the answer why your computer is infected at the moment. Most of the time infections like GamesZone Search are bundled with fake updates or free applications of questionable reputation, so look out for that.

How to efficiently remove GamesZone Search

Basically, you have two options – you can do it either manually or automatically. Obviously, it’s much easier and less time consuming to go for automatic removal. All you have to do is to scan your system with Spyhunter and the virus will be automatically eliminated detected and removed. In addition to that, either one of those programs will detect and remove other viruses that are running on your computer (if there are some).

In case you want to try to remove GamesZone Search manually, please follow instructions provided below. It is a convenient step-by-step removal guide, which should be easy to understand even to regular computer users that have never done anything like this before.

If none of these methods work for you and GamesZone Search is still on your computer after failed attempts to remove it, you can ask us a question and we will do our best to provide you with needed assistance.

Automatic Malware removal tools

TopHow To remove GamesZone Search 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 GamesZone Search, 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.