Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com Hijacker - How to remove

Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com might affect your web browsing experience in a negative way. This virus you are dealing with right now is a browser hijacker that aims to change personal settings on your web browser and make money this way. It is not only annoying, but might also be dangerous – you can lose your personal information or get infected with other viruses due to the presence of Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com, so it obviously needs to be removed as soon as possible.

This post is dedicated to helping you to do exactly that – effectively eliminate Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com from your system. This task is not that complicated if you have a proper guidance and we will do our best to provide you with that.

In addition to that, we are going to inform you about various features of Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com, how it can be harmful to you and how it was able to find a way to your computer. You will have the opportunity to strengthen the security of your system and ensure that malware like this won’t be able to enter your computer ever again.

Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com – Hijacking Personal Settings

Now you already know that Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com is a malicious tool categorized as a browser hijacker and it can cause harm to your system. Well, that’s not a surprise if you know where it comes from – Polarity Technologies LTD. This company is notorious for creating and distributing malware. They specialize in browser hijackers and some of their most recent infections are Quick Driving Directions, Search.searchgmfs1.com, and Search.downloadmyinboxhelper.com.

All those browser hijackers are based on browser add-ons. They can be added to all most common web browsers, including Mozilla, Chrome, and Edge. If this happens to you, we suggest to immediately switch to an alternative web browser. You will be able to use your regular browser when the virus is completely removed but until that – it’s dangerous.

Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com is not that different from other browser hijackers created by Polarity – they all share similar design and features. If you wondering why it is called a hijacker, it’s because it will take over some of your personal settings without asking for a permission to do that. It will change new tab page to www.search.hwatchonlinestreams.com and you will be visiting this particular website every time the new tab is opened.

Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com Website Analysis

Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com is very simple and well designed. It offers you a web search function and various links to other useful websites. Unfortunately, we suggest not to use any of them. Those links can lead you to some websites that are actually dangerous and can get your computer infected with other viruses that are more severe.

Speaking of the web search provided by Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com, it works using Yahoo search engine, but there is one difference – developers of this malware can change results that are displayed and insert various sponsored links. They can also place some excessive advertisements on the results page.

This way you will definitely waste your time, as usually those results are not even relevant to your search queries. In addition to that, some potentially unwanted programs can be advertised there. Also, all search queries you provide to this website will be collected and might be leaked to other parties. They collect various information about their users, it’s even disclosed in their Privacy Policy:

When you use our Services or view content provided by Polarity, we automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This includes:

• Search activity when you use web search services (such as search queries) (“Search Data”).
• Internet protocol address (“IP Address”)
• The type of browser you are using when using our Services, including your browser’s “user agent” (e.g., Internet Explorer, Safari, and other browsers)
• Device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser language, and the date and time of your request and referral URL
• Your geographic location
• The Domain name of your Internet service provider
• The source of traffic acquisition
• Date of traffic acquisition, and
• Time and date of certain browser events such as:
  • Chrome extensions enabled
  • Homepage/new tab rendered
  • Search query performed
  • Search performed on search engine results page (“SERP”)
  • Search term on SERP
  • Paid advertisements clicked on SERP
  • Organic advertisements clicked on SERP
  • Icons clicked on Home page/New Tab Page
  • Uninstalls of extension
  • Views on landing page
  • Clicks on an action button on landing page
  • Cancellations of extension installation
  • Acceptance of extension installation
  • Disablement of extension

How It Infected Your System?

If Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com managed to get inside your computer, it means the security level of your system is weak. Basic anti-malware application like Plumbytes should be able to stop any attempts to implement malware like this into your system. That’s why we suggest having one installed and running in the background all the time.

There are various different methods of how infection like this one can be distributed, but arguably the most popular one is called Bundling. The installer of the virus is added to other free software which can be downloaded from the Internet, so those two applications get installed at once. That’s why Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com and other similar viruses come as a surprise.

Remove Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com From Your Computer

Probably the best news you are going to hear today – it’s super easy to get rid of Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com. All you need is a trustworthy anti-malware application, such as Spyhunter. Perform a full scan of your system with one of those tools and all files associated with Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com will be automatically detected and removed. Also, if you have some other viruses or malware running on your system, it will be detected and removed as well.

To solve this problem completely, you will have to restore your personal settings that have been automatically changed. Anti-malware software can’t do that, so we have created a detailed guide on how to perform this – scroll down below the article and check it out. If everything goes right, you will be able to use your browser safely once again.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com Removal

How to remove hwatchonlinestreams Hijacker using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com Hijacker from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the hwatchonlinestreams Hijacker 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.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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 Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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 Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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 Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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 hwatchonlinestreams 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 Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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 Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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.

How to remove Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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 hwatchonlinestreams 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 Search.hwatchonlinestreams.com 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.