Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker - How to remove

Hsearch-plus.co is part of a browser hijacking scheme. Hsearch-plus.co interferes with the internet searches of its victims, redirecting them to something called “Safebrowser Yahoo Search” to deliver the search results. Hsearch-plus.co comes with a browser add-on called Search-Plus. If it’s present on your browser, you might have installed it accidentally. It’s not an add-on that has any honest marketing or any genuinely useful features – it’s just a hijacker that seeks to advertise to each user.

In short about Hsearch-plus.co:

Type of threat	Adware, browser hijacker.
Infection symptoms	Changed browser new tab and home page, pop-up ads start appearing, searches are redirected and sent to Yahoo.
Problems with Hsearch-plus.co	Changes how the browser works while failing to provide a useful feature, collects data about the user.
How to remove Hsearch-plus.co	Use anti-malware apps to check your computer (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, others), uninstall Search-Plus and other unwanted browser add-ons, block unwanted notifications.

Problems with Hsearch-plus.co

Home page replacer

Search-Plus is the add-on that forces Hsearch-plus.co on people’s browsers. It can be downloaded and installed from the official add-on sites, such as the Chrome Web Store.

When Search-Plus is installed, it asks for these permissions:

• To replace your new tab page. This also often changes your home page.
• To read your browsing history. It’s for gathering data about the user for advertising purposes.
• To change your search settings to Hp.hsearch-plus.co. Even if you change your home page to something other than Hsearch-plus.co, Search-Plus will still be sending you to Yahoo when you try to search the internet from the address bar.

Once Search-Plus is installed, it makes sure that Hsearch-plus.co replaces your new tab and your home page in your browser. These pages are loaded by your browser when you don’t specify what site you want to go to, so they’re quite powerful in influencing your browsing habits.

Search management

Search-Plus is described as helping you search from your new tab page and giving you faster access to trending and trusted searches. It’s supposed to be some kind of a search management tool. For its search management functionality, Hsearch-plus.co provides a widget made of two parts:

• A trending news list. This is just a collection of links to recent stories on various websites. Like a news aggregator without any of the features that make them useful. These news links include gossip, politics, sports, and other topics. I see no way to change your preferences to what news Hsearch-plus.co suggests.
• A trusted search tool. You search for keywords and Hsearch-plus.co returns sites that it thinks are safe. So far, I haven’t been able to find relevant results. Searching for “News” returns Microsoft.com. Most keywords that I tried returned no results at all.

Adware

Besides this widget, Hsearch-plus.co features advertisement links and clickbait sites. Those icons on Hsearch-plus.co – the weather, email, and video link – all of them lead to sites that are full to the brim of clickbait ads, some of which promote get-rich-quick scams.

Overall, it’s hard to see Hsearch-plus.co and Search-Plus as anything other than an adware infection:

• It changes your search settings so that it can control how you search the internet and what results you get.
• It features advertising links on your home page.
• It reads your browsing history (and other information, such as your location and language) and that data may be used to help advertisers and to “offer you additional optional products” (according to Search-Plus’ description).
• Hsearch-plus.co and Searchplus might be using notifications to show ads on your screen.

Unwanted installation

It’s so transparent that Hsearch-plus.co is there to take advantage of its users and not to offer any actually useful features. So, how does it get installed?

Search-Plus can be found on Searchplus.us and some other Searchplus sites. Searchplus.us alone gets over 150,000 visits monthly.

According to web analytics, people find it by searching for completely unrelated items, such as Zoom, Flash Player, of Sims 4. It looks like some people get ads for Hsearch-plus.co that they mistake for the item they were searching for. This is pretty common with browser hijackers. Hidemyhistory.co, Mysearchfinder.co, Searchtab.info, and other sites could be responsible. They’re browser hijackers just like Hsearch-plus.co.

Search-Plus could also come bundled with another browser extension. Or it could be included in the installer of a free app. Always make sure to only download installers from safe and reputable sites, or else you risk infecting your device with junkware and adware.

How to remove Hsearch-plus.co

You can remove Hsearch-plus.co manually or with an anti-malware app, such as Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and others. However you do it, keep in mind the possibility that another adware infection could be on your device. It would be good to get rid of all the junkware at once.

To get rid of the Hsearch-plus.co hijacker from your home and new tab page as well as to free your searches from its influence, simply uninstall Search-Plus and other suspicious browser extensions. You can open your browser, go to the settings page, find your add-ons or extensions, and remove or disable each one until your problems disappear. You can follow the instructions below for each browser.

This will probably do nothing to stop the pop-ups from Hsearch-plus.co, though. Read this post on blocking notifications.

• Go to your notification settings:
  • Chrome – type “chrome://settings/content/notifications” in the address box.
  • Edge (Chromium) – type “edge://settings/content/notifications” in the address box.
  • Firefox – open Settings, Preferences, Privacy & Security, scroll down to Permissions, and click on Settings next to Notifications.
• Scroll until you see a list of “Allowed” sites. Hsearch-plus.co, Searchplus.info, or other sites might be on this list.
• Press the button next to each of them and then click “Block”. This prevents them from sending new pop-ups.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal instructions

TopHow To remove Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker 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 Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker, 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 Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker 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 Hsearch-plus.co 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.
  
• 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 Hsearch-plus.co 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.
  
• 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 Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker 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 Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker, 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.

How to remove Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker 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 Hsearch-plus.co Hijacker, 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.