Search.hfreemanualsandguides.com - How to remove

Manuals can be quite useful, and looking up one for your device can be very helpful. The browser extension called Free Online Manuals promises to give people easy access to them, but, in fact, it’s a malicious add-on to your browser. Distributed on freemanualsandguides.co, this extension intrusively modifies browser settings while not providing a single feature worth developing an extension for. Because of its malicious features, Free Online Manuals — or search.hfreemanualsandguides.com — is classified as a browser hijacker.

Made by Eightpoint Technologies Ltd, this unwanted application is indistinguishable from the other hijackers littering the Web: Weather Forecaster, Googlesearch.me, search.hthereadinghub.com. Despite claiming to offer useful features, they’re mainly made for promoting the Yahoo! search engine and collecting information about what you do online. They, including search.hfreemanualsandguides.com, are recognized as unsafe by many antivirus programs. Malicious browser extensions are nothing new, and search.hfreemanualsandguides.com should be avoided by users who wish to protect their browsing experience from controlling, ad-pushing, privacy-modifying software.

Search.hfreemanualsandguides.com is dishonest

When it comes to manual repositories, these are easily available online if you want to check something once or twice. If you use these manual databases regularly, it’s trivial to pin a few links to your favorite sites to the new tab page of your browser because most browsers offer customization features. Well, search.hfreemanualsandguides.com doesn’t offer anything more than that: a couple of links to manual instruction websites are put in the toolbar.

Despite what the description on the installation page says, search.hfreemanualsandguides.com’s real goal is not presenting easily accessible online manuals; it’s forcing you to go to websites that search.hfreemanualsandguides.com’s developers can monetize, such as the Yahoo search engine. That’s the page that the search bar in the search.hfreemanualsandguides.com page leads to.

To stop users from getting around this restriction and using their favorite search sites, search.hfreemanualsandguides.com bundles another add-on: Search Encrypt. This extension has the ability to “Read and change your data on the websites you visit”, which allows it to stop people’s attempts to use unapproved search sites, like Bing and Google.

This hostile extension is presented during the installation of search.hfreemanualsandguides.com in such a way that people can’t see an option to refuse it. This undoubtedly results in some begrudgingly installing Search Encrypt (the “optional” extension) just because they don’t know how to reject it. There is no doubt that’s intentional. However, the Internet Explorer avoids the bundling because search.hfreemanualsandguides.com is already able to hijack that browser on its own.

Search.hfreemanualsandguides.com reveals in its privacy policy all the ways that people’s data is collected and used for. But few people read the privacy policy. They might not know that their queries can be used by advertisers, including third parties. Because Eightpoint aren’t completely upfront with their users, people are unable to make an informed decision about whether they should use search.hfreemanualsandguides.com.

How to avoid browser hijackers?

Research an application before you download it. Don’t install extensions, apps, or programs that you don’t really trust. By installing a piece of software you’re essentially giving it the keys to your device. Look for programs made by honest, professional developers. Carefully review the permissions that your extension or app has, be careful with updated permissions. Sometimes a popular app is sold to spammers and converted to adware.

Don’t believe alarmist, urgent messages online. Too many fake security warnings and antivirus scans push malware and potentially unwanted programs. E-mail spam is used to spread viruses as destructive as ransomware and trojans.

Avoid bundling. Reputable software rarely uses it. Bundling is how search.hfreemanualsandguides.com gets Search Encrypt, a more powerful than itself hijacker, to take over people’s browsers.

Update your software to take advantage of all the available security bugfixes. Scan your computer for adware and trojans (use Spyhunter, or another professional antivirus tool). One virus can result in more infections, so it should be removed as quickly as possible.

How to remove search.hfreemanualsandguides.com

The extension can be removed as an extension, but the way to do that is different for the different browsers. Chrome lets you right-click on the icon of the extension to uninstall it easily. This browser has been fighting malicious extensions for years and has severely restricted them, yet malicious actors keep developing new ways to exploit people.

Internet Explorer is also targeted by search.hfreemanualsandguides.com, and actually requires you to go to the Control Panel to remove this add-on.

To remove search.hfreemanualsandguides.com from these and other extensions, check the detailed guide below. If another hijacker was bundled with it, remove that, too.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove search.hfreemanualsandguides.com

How to remove hfreemanualsandguides using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Search.hfreemanualsandguides.com from your applications.

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

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall hfreemanualsandguides 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.hfreemanualsandguides.com, 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.