Motitags Toolbar - How to remove

Motitags is an old and still-popular toolbar and bloatware. It replaces people’s search engine in order to be able to inject advertisements into the search results page and offers some animated emojis on the new tab page. It seems to be still mostly functional at the time. It can be classified as adware — software whose purpose is advertising to the user.

The Motitags browser extension replaces the default search engine with int.search.myway.com or another variant of MyWay search. It edits the browser settings and also replaces the new tab page with a page of its own — hp.myway.com.

Motitags can be downloaded from extension stores, but it’s likely to be distributed in bundles, too.

Tag your world with our unique smileys!

This extension configures your New Tab page to Motitags™ to provide these features.

What does it do?

The home page of users of Motitags has a clock at the top, a row with various icons above that, a search bar in the middle of the page, then an ad, a row of links below it, and a collection of animated pictures below that.

Motitags is made by Mindspark, a company that has made dozens, if not hundreds, of browser hijackers — most of which work the same: replace the new tab page, put a few links to some website,  have the search bar lead to a search engine that can be monetized. This is how SimpleHolidayRecipes works, as well as Internet Speed Radar, and Myfashiontab.com.

To provide users with emojis Motitags has links to their own website, where the emojis are supposed to be hosted. However, it doesn’t seem to show the additional emojis — the website might have been abandoned. It also has some emoji gifs on the new tab page. Motitags’ emojis are apparently supposed to be used to decorate emails and other messages.

The new search bar leads to the MyWay search engine. Information about the browsing habits of each user is recorded. The collected information is used to deliver more targeted advertisements. The MyWay results page is filled with ads, most of which are listed above the real search results, making them difficult to ignore.

The private information that Motitags collects includes hardware and software that the user owns, the information that each user gives them by, for example, logging in using their existing social media accounts, and the search queries typed, as well as browsing history.

How is Motitags distributed?

Motitags uses bundles in its distribution. It is known to have been distributed with the Ask extension, a common addition to many browser hijackers. The ask extension can take over the control of the upper address bar of the browser, which was left alone by Motitags.

Software bundling is a promotional practice that’s frowned upon because it can easily be abused — in worst cases, bundlers can even be used to distribute serious computer viruses. Bundlers usually benefit from the pay-per-install (PPI) monetization scheme. This scheme encourages the developers of freeware that use bundling to push the additional software to their users at any cost, even hiding it so that people don’t even know that they’re installing additional applications. Motitags’ developers have used bundling to promote their toolbar and include it in the installations of some freeware. This helps Motitags build a bigger audience to the ads.

There is not necessarily any malicious intent, but there is a lack of care for the users’ well-being. The abundance of ads inevitably hurts a user’s productivity and reduces the accuracy of the search results.

How to uninstall Motitags toolbar

Motitags being installed can indicate other potentially unwanted programs or adware infecting the computer. Spyhunter, or another professional and reputable antivirus program could scan and find malicious and suspicious files and programs. And Motitags can be removed by just accessing the browser settings.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove Motitags Toolbar

How to remove Motitags using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Motitags Toolbar from your applications.

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