Search.searchrs.com virus - How to remove

Search.searchrs.com or Recipe star is another browser hijacker from Polarity Ltd., that works identically as a Fast Recipe Finder, Fast Map Finder, PDF convert or any other Polarity’s browser hijacker. Regardless its promising name, which should provide you with the best recipes, it does nothing but cause loopholes in your PC’s security. So let us teach you a thing or two about the ‘Recipe star’ virus and how to remove it before your system gets into a bigger danger.

Search.searchrs.com falls into the browser hijacker category which means that if it gets installed it will completely take over your browser and change every default setting to its own. Your usual homepage, new tab window and search engine mysteriously will turn into search.searchrs.com. What is more, ‘Recipe Star’ search engine is only a redirecting virus with a browser-like exterior which will display your search results from Yahoo. It’s no secret that Polarity benefits from search.yahoo.com by bringing them a bigger traffic from unaware users.

How does ‘Recipe Star’ operate?

In order to hijack your browser ‘Recipe star’ virus must be installed into the system. Because most internet users these days are clever enough not to download suspiciously looking browsers. Yet search.searchrs.com tries to get in by using another method – with a free software. When we download some free program from the unauthorized websites, usually it has a few other kinds of software attached to it (by advertising, referrals they can keep their free status). Usually, these additional applications are optional to install, but most of us try to save time by clicking fast and out of habit agree with everything the setup wizards offers and eventually end up with some unwanted programs/ extensions like ‘Recipe Star’.

After the ‘Recipe Star’ gets installed without your ‘actual’ permission, it connects with search.searchrs.com website for final scripts and finalizes the setup up, gaining full access to your browser. Next time you open the new window or homepage search.searchrs.com appear every single time. If you try restoring your default settings nothing changes, because ‘Recipe Star’ is now your default search engine.

The malicious behavior doesn’t end there. Search.searchrs.com redirect virus not only gets sponsored by Yahoo but by many other potentially unwanted programs which advertise as helpful tools. Since there are no secrets between your browsing history and ‘Recipe star’ it will try its best to offer you these PUPs whenever it will see a chance via a banner, toolbar, pop-up, redirect or even top search results. Unfortunately, these recommendations and further installations can bring more than just a PUP into your PC, but more malicious viruses that are not so easy to remove. Apart from that, you can forget about accurate results, ads-free sites, and your privacy. Polarity even states in their EULA that they keep a right to track user data and even share it with third parties.

No matter how often and for what you use the internet there is no logical reason to keep such malicious add-on like ‘Recipe Star’.

How to remove search.searchrs.com browser hijacker?

Now after learning why you should NOT keep the ‘Recipe Star’ as your browser anymore, it is time to learn how to eliminate it from your system. The good part about browser hijacker removal process is that it can be fairly easy compared to other viruses, however, it still requires some work and knowledge.

Because search.searchrs.com works as an extension/add-on, the main removal process takes place in the browser itself, no matter if you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE. To delete search.searchrs.com virus, you should go to the Settings of your browser and then find the Extensions/Add-ons section. Once you open it, there will be the whole list of applications you have installed to your search engine. Amongst these applications you should find the ‘Recipe Star’ and when you do, simply press remove/delete.

However to remove additional files search.searchrs.com virus left on your PC we recommend running a full system scan with the automatic malware removal tools.

If you need more information about ‘Recipe star’ browser hijacker removal, please, read our detailed article.

Automatic Malware removal tools