HomeworkSimplified Toolbar - How to remove

HomeworkSimplified is a browser extension that’s supposed to help students access resources to help with challenging homework and to find online tutoring. That sounds very nice — however, HomeworkSimplified has an ad problem. The extension barely provides any of the promised functionality, but it does absolutely hijack your search engine so that ads can be injected into the search results.

This isn’t a new thing, as HomeworkSimplified is created by Mindspark, a company that regularly releases new browser hijackers: HowToSimplified, LearnTheLyrics, MyFashionTab. These are just a few clone extensions providing the same pathetic features: pinning a few links on the new tab page and hijacking your search engine. The trend with these extensions seems to be to promote specific search engines by releasing as many low-quality products as they can.

HomeworkSimplified is often found with the help of legitimate ads, as well as PUP (potentially unwanted program) bundles. This is why it’s important to be careful with free software: some distributors include unwanted add-ons to their free program, going so far as to hide the additional offers in the fine print and make them difficult for the user to refuse — resulting in people installing programs without their own knowledge or consent. A lot of browser hijackers are distributed this way, and using this method reflects poorly on HomeworkSimplified’s developers.

But is HomewrokSimplified just a poor-quality product, or is it actually dangerous? After all, malicious extensions aren't unheard of.

Is HomeworkSimplified harmful?

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It’s true that HomeworkSimplified has some useful functions, but does it justify restricting which search site people can use? The one pushed by HomeworkSimplified, MyWay, isn’t very good: it looks outdated, and the ads get in the way of real search results. Some search queries result in way too many ads, which can cause a few issues:

• Too many ads can be frustrating and distracting.
• Ads can put your online security at risk. HomeworkSimplified showing a lot of advertisements inevitably means that you will see more malicious ads. This is because, even though professional ad networks review the ads that they show and reject those that don’t fit their requirements, some malicious ones do slip through. While being shown, malicious ads can advertise PUPs, phishing sites, scams, even viruses.
• HomeworkSimplified tracks your browsing activities. That’s a concern if you care about privacy. Mindspark explain in their privacy policy how they collect people’s information (including recording what queries you search for using the search box) and what they do with it (for example, that they give your data to third-party advertisers).

Permissions

Something worth mentioning is just how powerful an extension HomeworkSimplified is. It can read your data on websites associated with HomeworkSimplified, manage your downloads, display notifications, and, of course, read your browsing history. Only a deeply trusted extension should be given that much power over your browser and your data.

Bundling

Another problem is how HomeworkSimplified uses bundling to import the Ask toolbar into some browsers. Bundling is a marketing practice which can trick people into installing programs that they don’t want or don’t even know about. If a malicious program is installed this way and starts causing problems, it can be difficult for the victim to pin down the exact cause and find a solution.

The fact that Mindspark uses HomeworkSimplified as a bundler is a sign that Mindspark do not care much about the wishes of their users.

Here’s an illustration of HomeworkSimplified bundling another extension:

Look at the partly-filled progress bar. This alert is displayed right after HomeworkSimplified is installed, but that’s not obvious at all: it’s very easy to get the (wrong) impression that the installation is still ongoing, when, in fact, this alert is for installing a separate extension (the Ask toolbar).

HomeworkSimplified bundling Ask serves a practical purpose. While HomeworkSimplified has a search box that leads to the MyWay hijacker, some people might prefer to use the address bar to search the Web. The Ask extension remedies that by hijacking the address bar and directing any searches to its own search engine.

Now the only convenient search engines are Ask and MyWay. That’s convenient for HomeworkSimplified as they can now monetize your browsing by showing you ads from its partners, but the only way for you to return to using your favorite search site is to remove HomeworkSimplified.

How to remove HomeworkSimplified

Luckily, removing HomeworkSimplified is entirely possible for every user, even if you haven’t touched your browser settings before. Though, if you use Internet Explorer, you will need to use Control Panel instead.

I recommend you to check your computer with a professional antivirus program, like Spyhunter to see if any malware or PUPs are found on your device: they are used to distribute browser hijackers, and you might want to remove them before they cause real problems.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove HomeworkSimplified

How to remove HomeworkSimplified using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete HomeworkSimplified Toolbar from your applications.

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

Remove malicious extensions

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