Piesearch.com virus - How to remove

Piesearch.com is a browser hijacker developed by a Hong Kong company called Adlegend Limited. It infiltrates into computers without users’ consent, disturbs their work on the Internet and affects the browser’s performance by changing the main search engine and default homepage to Piesearch.com. This browser virus is very similar to the other well-known hijackers like MyWay, Conduit, Trovi.com. The main idea behind PieSearch.com virus is to use the hacked victim’s system to earn money from advertising and redirecting tons of incapable users to sponsoring companies’ websites and products. The more views and clicks Piesearch.com browser hijacker can generate the more revenue developers earn.

Although it may not seem very malicious, the thorough analysis and EULA of Pie Search engine shows the different truth. Not only does it display a vast amount of promotions, some of them can come from unregulated third-parties and contain malware. Since your system is already vulnerable from the PieSearch infection, one accidental click on a Malvertising deal is enough to launch a ransomware or Trojan into your computer. Additionally, forget about the privacy, because PieSearch.com will collect every personal and non-personal information that you will enter into your Mozilla or Chrome. So what should you do to solve Piesearch.com browser hijacker infection? Read our article until the end where we will disclose the best tips on how to remove Piesearch.com virus using two different techniques.

What is PieSearch.com browser hijacker

The ‘About’ page on the PieSearch.com describes this browser enhancer as a one of a kind search engine that returns ‘the best results from leading search engines including Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Yandex. It decides for you which are the most relevant contents according to your search and eliminates duplicates’. While Pieseach.com browser hijacker does really return the results from other search engines, it actually does not operate as a unique engine itself, but redirects users to Bing, bringing the traffic for the Affiliate company from infected victims, who may have never even heard about the latter. What is more, PieSearch virus does this by replacing the homepage and default search provider after making serious adjustments in the registry.

PieSearch.com will get installed as the add-on or an extension for the browser and then with the help of malicious script codes will alter your search provider settings to make itself a default engine. At the moment Pie Search browser hijacker is most prevalent in Brazil, Spain, Afganistan, Poland and Turkey resulting in more than half a million visits. The developing company behind it – Adlegend Limited is known for creating other malware like FastCompress, FastSupport adware and etc. That is why Piesearch.com browser hijacker can be a real trouble to get rid of, since it is developed by professionals. (How adware harms computers)

As soon as PieSearch.com virus starts dominating in your browser, the program causes tons of redirections to unknown websites and disturbs your general browsing activity. If you try to make a search using Piesearch.com search engine, you will see that it adds numerous sponsored websites to your search results. The main search page of Piesearch.com browser hijacker will contain shortcuts to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Skype and Instagram. In fact, if it does, we can assume that your computer has been infected with the earlier version of this hijacker. (More on Why browser hijackers are the way they are)

On top of all that PieSearch.com are stating in their Privacy Policy that by using their product you are giving them a permission to track your sensitive data and online activity and share it with third-parties for money. This can lead to data breaches, hacked accounts, used credit cards, identity thefts and more. Take a look yourself:

The Sites provide links to other sites on the internet operated by third parties. Because Piesearch has no control over such sites, you acknowledge and agree that Piesearch is not responsible for the availability of such external sites, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, services or materials on or available through such sites.
We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number). Piesearch may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your Piesearch Account.

When you use our services or view content provided by Piesearch, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include: details of how you used our service, such as your search queries, device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL.

We use information collected from cookies and other technologies, like pixel tags, to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services. When showing you tailored ads, we will not associate a cookie or anonymous identifier with sensitive categories, such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation or health. Piesearch processes personal information on our servers in many countries around the world. We may process your personal information on a server located outside the country where you live.

Basically, judging from the mentioned information in their Eula, you will not be able to use your browser the way you are used to. Furthermore, your personal data will be handled by the hackers and easily used for malicious reasons. Not to mention the fact that Piesearch.com virus redirects you to potentially infected websites, where you can easily get a malware or other kind of infection. If you want to get back to browsing safely, remove Piesearch.com virus as soon as possible.

How did PieSearch.com virus get into your computer

Just like most of the other browser hijackers Piesearch.com virus usually gets downloaded and installed along with other programs. Most of the times it comes bundled with such free software as music players, download managers, PDF creators, etc. Unfortunately, the majority of users are not able to see what additional programs are bundled with the main application chosen for installation. This is because the Default settings of the installation wizard are not replaced with the Advanced ones. This step is often skipped and then all bundled applications are installed automatically. Make sure you customize the installation wizard and opt the pre-opted programs out.

Not only you do have to be careful when running a Setup Wizard and allowing software into your computer, but you must be cautious when using freeware distributing websites, instead of official software websites. Shareware distributing sites are known to be compiling popular programs with unwanted applications like PieSearch.com to earn additional money from malware creators, therefore it is better to just take some time and look for the legitimate page of the desired software than play a Russian roulette trying not to get infected.

How to remove Pie Search engine fast

If the system has already been infected, make sure you remove Piesearch.com virus from your computer as soon as possible. Just don’t go nuts by trying to uninstall and reinstall your browser/browsers, after the failure which followed your attempts to restore your browser/browsers settings. This will not bring anything good either. Your browser will continue to suffer the Piesearch.com redirect issue. The reason for that being the registry entries appended and the system files created by this malicious application.

However, there is a fast and effective Pie Search engine removal method that is very suitable for any user, no matter if it is just a beginner or a cyber-veteran. It is an automatic anti-malware tool. This software will delete all the related registry keys and system files without you having to reinstall your favorite browser and loose precious bookmarks and etc. We suggest to try anti-spyware programs like Spyhunter or Stopzilla. Overall, having a reliable antivirus and anti-malware programs is really important, as it reduces the risk of getting infected by other viruses to a minimum.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to delete PieSearch browser hijacker manually

How to remove Piesearch.com virus using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Piesearch.com virus from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Piesearch.com virus 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 Piesearch.com virus 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 Piesearch.com virus, 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 Piesearch.com virus 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 Piesearch.com virus 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 Piesearch.com virus, 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 Piesearch.com virus 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 Piesearch.com virus, 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 Piesearch.com virus from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall Piesearch.com virus 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 Piesearch.com virus, 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.

There is, of course, a way to delete PieSearch.com browser hijacker yourself without any additional program. You will have to follow our guidelines below in order to remove the irritating and pesky Pie Search engine. Mind you, after manual removal you still may be experiencing the consequences of the virus, like an inability to change the default homepage or search engine or get often redirected to the same Piesearch.com. In this case, the best solution would be to try checking if the virus has not changed other settings like HOSTS files or get the malware removal tool (Spyhunter was noted by our readers as the best one for PieSearch virus), and have it solve your problem automatically.