Movies Search for Chrome™ Hijacker - How to remove

Movies Search for Chrome™ is a browser add-on that hijacks the web browser when it’s installed. It replaces the search engine with Movies-for-chrome.com (which replaces it with Yahoo) and injects a RottenTomatoes link into your search suggestions. While Movies Search for Chrome™ is not malicious, it’s also not helpful and could be bad for privacy, so it’s advisable to remove it by uninstalling it.

Movies Search for Chrome™ in short:

Classification	Browser hijacker, potentially unwanted program.
How Movies Search for Chrome™ affects the browser	Changes the search engine to Yahoo, offers RottenTomatoes in the results.
How Movies-for-chrome.com spreads	Appears in search results, advertised online, could be promoted by other apps and programs.
How to remove Movies Search for Chrome™	Uninstall Movies Search for Chrome™, remove other potentially unwanted programs manually or with an antivirus app (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, and others).

Problems with Movies Search for Chrome™

Poor features

Movies Search for Chrome™ is supposed to help users find movies. But, mostly, it helps the people behind Movies-for-chrome.com to make money off of the users of the Movies Search for Chrome™ extension.

The proposition is that Movies Search for Chrome™ helps users find movies (or music, the advertising is a bit confusing) without wasting time in a search engine. Movies Search for Chrome™ includes a search suggestion for RottenTomatoes in the drop-down above the suggestions that you see when you type in a search query but before you press Enter. (RottenTomatoes might not even know about this, so I doubt that Movies-for-chrome.com is related to RT in any way.)

But the way it’s implemented is a little strange. First, it sometimes searches for the wrong words. Second, it searches for popular movies, so if you are looking for something indie or old, Movies Search for Chrome™ will ignore it.

Hijacked search

And finally, Movies-for-chrome.com changes the browser’s default search engine to Yahoo. Not directly, but rather, your searches go through Movies-for-chrome.com to Yahoo.com, giving Movies-for-chrome.com the ability to see and control your internet search. This is how Movies Search for Chrome™ makes money.

In Movies-for-chrome.com’s privacy policy, it’s laid out that the search terms of Movies Search for Chrome™’s users’ are used for advertising with the help of third-party search partners (that must be Yahoo).

It’s tempting to think that Movies-for-chrome.com only works the way it does so that it can make money. That the movie searching feature is implemented so that the extension has an excuse to hijack people’s search engine settings.

Movies Search for Chrome™ looks very similar to the Sports Search for Chrome™ extension. That one straight up just added ads to people’s search results and didn’t do anything useful.

How Movies Search for Chrome™ spreads

Unlike many browser hijackers, Movies Search for Chrome™ is easily found online, either on the Movies-for-chrome.com page or on its Chrome Web Store page. Some people might install it voluntarily because they like its advertising.

I wonder, though. Movies Search for Chrome™ has managed to get over 100,000 users on the Chrome Web Store, which is a lot. If all these users are real, then why don’t they leave reviews for the extension? There are only five reviews, three of which hate it and give it one star.

Lack of reviews and the uncertainty about the developer (AppGenie is a name used by multiple projects and it’s hard to say if they’re connected) are red flags that make it difficult to trust that Movies Search for Chrome™ isn’t spread by some dishonest means, like:

• bundled with the installers of free programs,
• advertised by misleading pop-ups,
• promoted or installed by other browser extensions.

If you installed Movies Search for Chrome™ yourself, then no worries. But if it appeared in your browser and you don’t know how, then you might want to check if any bundlers or other potentially unwanted programs on your computer.

How to remove Movies Search for Chrome™

Uninstall Movies Search for Chrome™ from the menu in the upper right corner of your browser or in browser settings. Take this chance to review your other browser extensions. The more are installed, the worse for your privacy.

You can scan your computer with an anti-malware program, such as Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, or whatever program you use. Make sure that it’s configured to detect PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) and run a scan. If something is found, delete it.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted browser extensions

TopRemoving Movies Search for Chrome™ 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 Movies-for-chrome.com . Click on the trash bin icon next to Movies Search for Chrome™ 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 Movies-for-chrome.com , 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.

How to remove Movies Search for Chrome™ 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 Movies Search for Chrome™ Hijacker. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Movies-for-chrome.com 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 Movies Search for Chrome™ 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 Movies-for-chrome.com 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 Movies Search for Chrome™ 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.