Search.chill-tab.com virus - How to remove

Search.chill-tab.com (or Chill Tab) can occupy your web browsers and cause some real headaches. It is a genuine browser hijacker, one of the most common types of malware. If you have discovered that Search.chill-tab.com is operating on your computer, just keep on reading and we will provide you with all the needed information to solve this problem. Being malware, Search.chill-tab.com can be difficult to get rid of, but it is entirely possible. To remove it once and for all, you just need to find and delete the files that it uses.

In short about the Search.chill-tab.com hijacker:

Classification	Adware, trojan, browser hijacker.
Problems and issues caused by Chill Tab	The browser is hijacked, the new tab is Search.chill-tab.com, ads fill the browser, Yahoo.com shows search results, difficulty removing Chill Tab, unintentional installation.
How Search.chill-tab.com infects browsers	Is downloaded with free apps and with fake software updates, promoted by malicious ads on infected websites, advertised by adware infections.
How to get rid of Chill Tab	Use antivirus apps (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, others), delete malicious settings and files, uninstall unwanted browser extensions.

There is no doubt that Search.chill-tab.com is unwanted and malicious – we’re about to prove that to you. Keeping Chill Tab installed on your computer might result in advertising spam, infiltration of other malware, and even abuse of your personal information for advertising.

How Search.chill-tab.com Virus Operates

Associated malware

Although Search.chill-tab.com’s owner isn’t known, the address revealed in the EULA links Chill Tab to Linkury/Safe Finder, Tapufind, Utilitool, and other known malicious apps. These apps tend to infect computers through deceptive ads and infected installers. Security researches advise removing them as quickly as possible.

Dozens of browser hijackers out there are just like Search.chill-tab.com. The hijacking problem is much bigger than it appears simply because each malicious site is too small to be noticed. For example, Search.chill-tab.com is hosted on the same web server as Search.sidecubes.com, Jamboxlive.com, and Search.snap.do and it appears that their owners are calling themselves a number of different names, like Veristaff Ltd., CodeSet, or Pinwid Ltd. These infections work together and help spread each other.

Search.chill-tab.com virus is enjoying an estimated hundred thousand visits per month, with most of them coming from India, France, and the United States. After looking at the DNS record analysis, we noticed two hosts of this Search.chill-tab.com virus. One of them was searchportal-southcentralus.cloudapp.net which opens a search engine from ReSoft. In addition to this, we found that a target of another host is Snapdo-searchportal.trafficmanager.net which proves that the search engine is associated with Snap.do infection.

It might be confusing because there are two different websites under the same domain name – search.chill-tab.com and chill-tab.com. However, the whois information is hidden by proxies and you can’t recognize who is hiding behind this piece of malware (Differences between different viruses) since there is no information about their identity on the Privacy Policy page. That is a really huge cyber security risk – to have software operate on your computer while you don’t know why and how it was created, who is responsible.

One thing that is clear is that Search.chill-tab.com is affiliated with Safe Finder malware, since you can see their logo when executing a search:

Safe Finder is infamous. It’s been messing with web browsers for the last four years. The Apple discussion board alone has hundreds of questions about removing Safe Finder, usually after downloading Adobe Flash Player (a fake). That Search.chill-tab.com promotes it is unsurprising but dangerous. When removing Search.chill-tab.com from your computer, be sure to look for other infections, as well.

MacOS troubles

Search.chill-tab.com is described as a neat free tool to enhance your web browsing experience by adding a relaxing new tab. This new tab looks like a regular search engine that redirects searches to Yahoo. So, why exactly is this add-on is considered to be malicious?

People complain online about finding Chill Tab installed when they never added it themselves. These complaints bring up other issues, such as fake security warnings, browser redirects (from Search.chill-tab.com to Yahoo), pop-ups, and even more malware. Browsers hijacked by Search.chill-tab.com behave strangely, open the wrong websites, sometimes they crash or become slow and laggy.

It appears that Search.chill-tab.com targets macOS devices. Commonly, it shows fake system pop-ups to trick people into giving Chill Tab administrator access: the fake pop-up overlays the request for privileges. The pop-ups that Search.chill-tab.com shows may say:

• “Your browser is now up to date! Click ok to continue”
• “Completed… The process is completed. To finish, click OK”
• “Installation almost done”

Do not click on such windows, even though there is no way to dismiss them. Rather, force-quit suspicious processes or reboot your Mac in safe mode to proceed with Search.chill-tab.com’s removal.

How Search.chill-tab.com spreads

The way Search.chill-tab.com gets installed on your computer is very problematic. Search.chill-tab.com is distributed using some shady methods, such as bundling (62% of the Top 50 Download.com applications bundle toolbars and other PUPs) I.e. when you download some free software from the Internet, you will be offered to install additional tools or add them to your web browser. Most of the time such an option is the default, so if you do not change anything during the installation, settings on your web browser are likely to be changed automatically. After this, it might be difficult to change those settings back – it can be done only after you completely remove the infection from your computer.

One very common spin on this installation tactic is bundling Search.chill-tab.com (and other hijackers) with a fake Adobe Flash, macOS, or another software update. A website is designed to look like an official site of a trusted company, shows a warning saying that an update is available, and offers malware to be downloaded. People think it’s a software update, so they install it, only to infect their own computer with malware.

How to Efficiently Eliminate Search.chill-tab.com

You can use an antivirus program like Spyhunter for Windows or Combo Cleaner for macOS to find and remove Chill Tab. Install it on your computer and then run a full scan of all files stored on your hard drive. A good antivirus app should find and remove the virus instantly.

Sometimes that doesn’t work out, though. In such a case, you need to get your hands dirty. Mac users should open Finder, Go, Go to Folder and navigate to ~/Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchAgents, ~/Library/Application Support, and /Library/LaunchDaemons. Look for suspicious files, including any that have “Chill Tab” in their names. Look up online the names of the items if you’re not sure. Also look for folders with long names of numbers and letters separated with dashes, as that naming convention is used by adware, too. Delete suspicious files but don’t remove them from Trash just yet – in case you deleted a legit file and need to bring it back later.

Go into System Preferences. Is Profiles there? If so, open it and review the items. Are any called “Chill Tab”? Do any of them include text that seems to change how your web browser works, what sites it loads? If so, select and remove those items.

Finally, remove Search.chill-tab.com from your browser by getting rid of the Chill Tab extension as described below.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal of Search.chill-tab.com virus

How to remove chill-tab virus using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete chill-tab virus from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Chill-tab.com 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.chill-tab.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 Chill-tab.com, 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.chill-tab.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 Search.chill-tab.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 Chill-tab.com, 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.chill-tab.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 Chill-tab.com, 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.chill-tab.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 Chill-tab.com 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.chill-tab.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.

Manual removal