Search.hontheradio.co - How to remove

Keeping up with the new Polarity Technologies‘ creations can be a hard task these days. Over 25 sort-of-new browser hijackers are too much even for the most dedicated cyber security enthusiasts. However, with such variety, you can never know which one of them will secretly sneak into your browser trying to become the next Google, Yahoo or Bing. Therefore it is our duty to present the brand new, not so much unique, but slightly improved ‘On The Radio’ browser hijacker.

While Browser hijackers, search.hontheradio.co included, are classified as viruses for their unfriendly, mischievous behavior, actually, they are not that harmful and the removal is much easier than any other threat’s. Nevertheless, if ‘Malware‘ is a word that you just learned recently or Polarity doesn’t ring a bell, this article will be useful to read and learn to improve your safe internet browsing techniques.

What is the Search.hontheradio.co virus?

As much as we would love to surprise our readers with the new shocking information, search.hontheradio.co is just another identical copy of all other Polarity’s browser hijackers, except for a few different buttons this time simply redirecting users to Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud or iHeartRadio. Even though, this feature does fulfill the idea behind the name, in reality, it’s not useful at all.

The way browser hijackers, such as Watchallsports.co, Thebookhub.co, Search.search4ppl.com with no exception of search.hontheradio.co, work is by setting themselves up as a default search engine and modifying user’s net surfing experience for hackers’ benefit. ‘On the Radio’ browser malware creators earn their main revenue from redirecting victims to search.yahoo.com search engine, increasing the traffic for the sponsoring Yahoo, but also from advertisements they display on almost every page. But there is one other malicious activity search.hontheradio.co conceals behind its simplistic cover.

Search.hontheradio.co tracks personal information from the compromised browsers and shares it with third parties. If for some reason you decide to use ‘On the Radio’ search engine, you can be sure they will record every second of your activity online and sell it to unknown third parties. This data can be location, age, gender, PC information, credentials or even passwords and bank logins. Primarily it is done match the ads to users needs, but who knows what else hackers are up to. However, sharing data is not the only thing search.hontheradio.co does without asking for the permission.

How does ‘On the Radio’ browser hijacker distribute and infect the system?

Only a few percents of people install browser hijackers voluntarily, that is why search.hontheradio.co and other same type malware have a sneaky mechanism to slide into victims computer unnoticed. They install as a browser extension which operating system doesn’t detect as malicious and then download the final Javascript from search.hontheradio.co to finalize the setup. This happens in a matter of seconds and the victim notices that something is wrong when the typical homepage/search engine changes to ‘On the Radio’.

Question is: how do you get infected? In case of search.hontheradio.co parasite, no specific area or users are targeted. You can simply download it as a part of updates, software bundles, infected files, torrents from shady websites. The freeware that most of us are so tempted about usually contain these malicious browser hijackers which in the end benefit from infecting your PC.

What to do if your PC got infected by ‘On the Radio’ malware and how to remove it?

If suddenly you notice search.hontheradio.co popping as your main homepage and search engine, you should not search anything with it and if possible use another browser, which most likely will be clean. It is very important to delete this browser hijacker early since the vulnerability in the system’s security allows other vicious viruses to compromise your machine easier. What is more, your personal data which hackers collect gets in the great danger of being used for the wrong purposes.

The most effective way to delete search.hontheradio.co browser parasite is by using automatic malware removal tools. You are free to choose any kind of software, but we recommend Spyhunter and Malwarebytes. These two programs have shown one of the best results detecting and removing various types of viruses leaving no traces from which hackers could reinstall the malicious threat to your computer. Down below we have more specified instructions on how to remove ‘On the Radio’ virus from different types of browsers. 

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove On the Radio using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Search.hontheradio.co from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the On the Radio 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.hontheradio.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.hontheradio.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.hontheradio.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.hontheradio.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 On the Radio, 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.hontheradio.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.hontheradio.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.hontheradio.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 On the Radio 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.hontheradio.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.