Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker - How to remove

Search.hhowtodiy.com — is this address familiar to you? It’s set as the homepage of the people who have installed the How To DIY extension. This extension doesn’t look very impressive — just a search bar in the middle and a new toolbar. Search.hhowtodiy.com is a browser hijacker — a type of mild malware that takes over your browser in order to deliver ads to you. That’s why it’s got that search bar. The developers want to ensure that you use the search engine which they have partnered with.

Search.hhowtodiy.com is a potentially unwanted program (PUP), which means that those who find it useful shouldn’t be afraid to continue using it, but everyone else might benefit from removing it. Search.hhowtodiy.com does almost nothing for the user, but it does collect people’s browsing data, uses malware to be advertised and installed, and does not seem to care about positive user experience and choice. Browser add-ons, in general, are somewhat risky to use because some of them can see everything on your browser screen (including any passwords that you type) and change that content (such as displaying ads on any webpage). So, if search.hhowtodiy.com is to be installed, it should show that it is safe. However, this add-on is advertised on unsafe websites, uses deceptive installation, is associated with adware, and behaves like adware in some ways.

Luckily, it is simple to remove (unless you have other malware in addition) — the instructions for each browser are at the bottom of this article.

What search.hhowtodiy.com does

The How To DIY plugin is vague about what exactly it does, but it seems to promise to help people access various DIY guides online. It says on the main page, “Learn How To Do Almost Anything”. That’s instead of a detailed explanation, a list of features, and a presentation of the developers. The page is styled like one big ad.

Search.hhowtodiy.com isn’t the only product with a presentation like this: search.heasydiyapppro.com, HowToSimplified, many of the browser hijackers that are written about on this page. Some of them share the same developer, the exact design of the home page, the same functionality (or lack of).

Search.hhowtodiy.com (and many other hijackers) replaces the home page and pins to this page links to websites which have some DIY guides, such as eHow and WikiHow. As far as I know, these sites are not partnered with search.hhowtodiy.com. It also can track your search queries and browsing activity — this data is used to help advertisers know what ads are interesting to you.

Issues with search.hhowtodiy.com

Even though search.hhowtodiy.com is not a real virus, it does have issues which cause it to be classified as a potentially unwanted program and a browser hijacker.

• The plugin has very, very little useful functionality. Search.hhowtodiy.com is basically useless when compared to the Bookmarks feature that all major browsers have.
• Search.hhowtodiy.com makes you use a specific search engine (Yahoo), which is totally unrelated to the features that it’s supposed to offer. A higher-than-usual number of ads is included in the results of Yahoo when accessed through search.hhowtodiy.com.
• Additional ads on the results page take up the space that would otherwise be occupied by genuine search results. This makes searching or information a little bit harder.
• On some browsers, like Chrome, the installation is bundled with another hijacker, and the user is likely to install the bundled extensions even when they don’t want to.
• Speaking of Chrome, search.hhowtodiy.com does not fit the guidelines that Google’s company has set for the plugins to avoid deceptive installation tactics.
• The company responsible for search.hhowtodiy.com — Springtech/Eightpoint — already has a reputation for releasing many potentially unwanted programs with the same features but a different name.
• The application is detected by multiple reputable antivirus programs as malicious or potentially unwanted.
• The way that search.hhowtodiy.com is promoted — by adware and malicious ads — means that the add-on shares the stage with scams and malware.

Remove the How To DIY Hijacker

While extensions and plugins should be very easy to remove, search.hhowtodiy.com isn’t always that simple. The below instructions work for normal add-ons, but if there is a virus that infected your computer, the plugins might be reinstalled automatically. Additionally, the methods that search.hhowtodiy.com uses to spread are enabled by malware. This means that people who have search.hhowtodiy.com added to their browsers also have an increased chance to be infected with actual malware. That’s why it’s advisable to check your installed programs and scan them with an antivirus tool which can detect PUPs and serious viruses (Spyhunter, or any other competent antivirus tool could work).

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove How To DIY Hijacker using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the How To DIY Hijacker 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 Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker 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 How To DIY Hijacker, 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 Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker 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 How To DIY Hijacker. Click on the trash bin icon next to Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker 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 How To DIY Hijacker, 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 Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker 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 How To DIY Hijacker 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 Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker, 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 Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker 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 How To DIY Hijacker. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker 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 How To DIY Hijacker from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the Search.hhowtodiy.com Hijacker. 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 How To DIY Hijacker, 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.