Searchmighty.com Redirects - How to remove

Did you notice Searchmighty.com interfering with your browser? Does it change how your internet search works? Do unexpected sites open on your screen?

Searchmighty.com is a search hijacker that gets installed by a PDF converter called PDF Mighty. It doesn’t do anything useful and it’s a little bad for browser usability, so it’s advisable to remove it.

On Searchmighty.com in short:

Type of threat	Adware, browser hijacker.
How Searchmighty.com works	It changes the default search engine and redirects to Yahoo or another site, it reads user data in order to enhance ad targeting.
How it’s installed	Bundled with a converter program, downloaded from the internet for free.
How to remove Searchmighty.com	Uninstall Search Mighty and other unwanted programs, find and remove malware with anti-malware tools (Spyhunter, Malwarebytes, others).

Is Searchmighty.com safe?

Yahoo redirects

Searchmighty.com is a search replacer. It’s a hijacker installed by the PDF Mighty program (Pdfmighty.com). It is offered as an optional offer in PDF Mighty’s installer.

Searchmighty.com is presented as a way to get “enhanced and customized” search features that are innovative and secure. I’m not sure what that means. Like many other browser hijackers, Searchmighty.com is incredibly vague about what it does, other than in changes your web browser’s behavior… somehow.

It redirects your search queries to Yahoo, that’s all.

Although, you may notice the Searchmighty.com and Search3.searchgenieo.com URLs in your address bar before landing on Yahoo.

Search hijacking and advertising

While Yahoo is not dangerous on its own, Search Mighty does some things that are undesirable:

• It makes search results take unnecessarily long to appear.
• It collects personal and non-personal data about users.
• It restricts users’ search engine choice.

When Searchmighty.com takes control over a browser, it sets Searchmighty.com as the default search engine. But really, Searchmighty.com is no search engine – it needs to redirect to actual search engines, such as Yahoo, to deliver results. So, why does Searchmighty.com even exist at all?

To collect data and to advertise, of course. According to Searchmighty.com’s Privacy Policy, the Data Collection section, people’s IPs and search histories are used to select relevant ads that should be displayed.

In addition, Searchmighty.com unnecessarily redirects you to and from a few other sites, like Searchgenieo.com or Thesearchace.com. This makes search results take longer to show up and it allows other sites to access your data. It’s just unhelpful and unnecessary.

How it gets installed

Searchmighty.com spreads by being bundled with free applications. In particular, Searchmighty.com is being distributed by PDF Mighty. Both of them are made by the same company, S2N MEDIA Ltd.

The PDF Mighty installer has a setup page dedicated to offering Searchmighty.com – and it is not very clear. It just looks like a wall of text. It’s framed as the process of the installation. The “Decline” button is grayed out, as if it’s not clickable. It looks like a ToS agreement. Only if you squint and bother reading that text does it become clear that it’s offering Search Mighty, a separate product that you can refuse to install.

As a result, it is easy to install Searchmighty.com by accident, without even noticing.

As the PDF converter is free, Searchmighty.com is probably there to monetize the users. Searchmighty.com can funnel traffic to affiliated sites, collect browsing data, etc. It makes money this way.

How to remove Searchmighty.com

Remove malicious and unwanted programs

The PDF Mighty installer is detected by a few antivirus scanners and scrutinized by deceptor watchdogs, mostly because it bundles the Search Mighty hijacker, but also because it leaves files behind after being uninstalled (Virustotal.com).

So, if you’re removing Searchmighty.com, make sure to check your device for other potentially unwanted programs and for files left behind by apps that have been removed already.

You can use anti-malware tools, such as Spyhunter for Windows or Malwarebytes, to find potentially unwanted programs and remove them. You can also remove unwanted programs yourself by opening your Windows Settings, Apps, Apps & Features, and removing unwanted entries.

Check your browser settings

As Searchmighty.com takes over the browser, you should review browser settings separately:

• The default search engine.
• The home page and new tab page settings.
• Potentially unwanted browser extensions being installed.

Review your extensions. Even those that don’t have excessive permissions are still capable of hijacking searches, so don’t spare any of them from your scrutiny.

Everyone should be in control of their browsers and their search settings. Any extension that goes against that is a little suspicious.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal instructions

How to remove Searchmighty.com Redirects using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Searchmighty.com Redirects 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 Searchmighty.com Redirects . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Searchmighty.com Redirects 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.

TopHow To remove Searchmighty.com Redirects 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 Searchmighty.com Redirects, 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 Searchmighty.com Redirects 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 Searchmighty.com Redirects, 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 Searchmighty.com Redirects 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 Searchmighty.com Redirects 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 Searchmighty.com Redirects, 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.