Search.hemailassistant.co - How to remove

A lot of people are using Email Assistant every day in their browsers, but why? Search.hemailassistant.co is a browser add-on that changes the search website used, replaced the new tab page, and nothing much else. It’s promoted by Email Assistant, which is not actually an email assistant, but a toolbar that’s supposed to help you log in to your email accounts faster.

Email assistants which use AI to help you manage overwhelming amounts of emails are helpful to some, but search.hemailassistant.co does not offer such features. All it does is provide a few links to email login sites. Still, is that enough to justify calling it a potentially unwanted program (PUP) and a browser hijacker and advising people to uninstall it?

Search.hemailassistant.co is a PUP

A few features of search.hemailassistant.co make it suspicious and lead those who have it installed to look for ways to get rid of it. The extension is not any different from the other Eightpoint (Polarity) extensions, like Email.onesearch.org, Search.hquickemailaccess.co, or Search.hemailinboxlogin.com (there are a lot more, and they all look the same).

The extension is not helpful at all, all it does is replace the new tab page and change the search engine used. It’s considered adware possibly because the search engine that it promotes has an abnormally high number of ads in the search results. Besides, hijackers often use bundling to trick people into installing additinal hijackers. Search.hemailassistant.co, for example, pushes SearchEncrypt, an extension that tries hard to stop you from using any search engine that isn’t the one that search.hemailassistant.co promotes.

The way that  search.hemailassistant.co is distributed also means that a lot of people who installed it didn’t mean to, or just don’t know how to remove it. There are many people who don’t know well how extensions work and, since search.hemailassistant.co on its own is very unintrusive, some people just leave it be. Meanwhile, search.hemailassistant.co colects data about what websites you go to, what you search for, where you are from, what software you use… This data is somwhat valuable, it helps advertisers deliver ads, and search.hemailassistant.co only needs to be installed to access it.

Recognize potentially unwanted extensions

First of all, it’s a good idea to scan every setup file before installing an unknown program. Here’s the scan of the IE version of search.hemailassistant.co’s install file: VirusTotal.com. As you can see, many antivirus programs think that search.hemailassistant.co is some sort of adware, bundler, or a PUP. Not a serious virus, but nevertheless unsafe.

It’s always a good idea to research the program that you’re interested in. There are incredibly many fake optimizers, registry cleaners, privacy protectors that don’t actually do what they say they do. Some of them show fake security alerts until you pay for the full version, others stay invisible while they’re collecting data on your browsing habits (the latter is a lot like search.hemailassistant.co). Knowing which program is safe and which is fraud requires some research. It’s not a good idea to just install it and then see what happens because some of the more malicious PUPs make themselves very tricky to remove.

The fact that search.hemailassistant.co’s ads look like a download button and are published on software download sites is one of the most annoying things about this extension. How many people installed without meaning to search.hemailassistant.co because they were careless and just pressed whichever download button was the most prominent?

Fake reviews or no reviews, obscure development and developers, UI copied from other programs, lofty promises are some features which make search.hemailassistant.co suspicious.

 

Remove search.hemailassistant.co

Extensions can be removed very simply: go to your settings and remove each extension that you don’t use. Extensions in general can turn into security risks, especially powerful extensions with lots of premissions, because online criminals occasionally exploit security bugs in them. That’s unlikely to happen to any individual, but it’s still a good idea to minimize your risk and remove unnecessary extensions. Not to mention all the malicious extensions that you can find on official web stores. Also, since some of the websites that search.hemailassistant.co links to are earer to show you pop-up adds, take a look at your notifications permissions.

The problem with just removing search.hemailassistant.co is that some people notice hijackers being reinstalled on their own. If this happens, a likely explanation is that some background malware could be pushing search.hemailassistant.co. If that’s so, you’ll need to find that malware. You can use Spyhunter, or another antivirus application to find and get rid of dangerous programs. Then try uninstalling search.hemailassistant.co again, it should work.

Be careful with using FileHippo, Softonic, Download.com, and other free software hosting sites. Not only are they full of malicious ads, they often provide PUP bundles instead of a clean setup file. If you don’t watch what you install carefully, you’ll end up with many suspicious applications on your device.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove search.hemailassistant.co

How to remove hemailassistant using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Search.hemailassistant.co from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the hemailassistant 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 Search.hemailassistant.co 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 Search.hemailassistant.co, 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 Search.hemailassistant.co 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 Search.hemailassistant.co 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 hemailassistant, 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 Search.hemailassistant.co 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 Search.hemailassistant.co, 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 Search.hemailassistant.co from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall hemailassistant 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 Search.hemailassistant.co, 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.