Softsearches.com virus - How to remove

Softsearches.com is a malicious website/browser extension. Due to some qualities it can be easily put into the category of malware – software that you should not keep installed on your computer. By the end of this article you will have a knowledge about malicious traits of this application, where it came from and how to deal with it, so just stick up with us.

Copyright claims are provided by SoftSearches Limited, but it seems like this company is fictitious and is not associated with any other software, except DailyWiki adware, which is already not active. Can you trust a product that was developed by shady or even non-existent company? Who will hold the responsibility if something goes wrong due to this tool? Answer those questions yourself, they are pretty obvious.

What’s even more worrying is that you can’t really download it by yourself, intentionally. There is no download button on their official website and since it is operating as a browser extension, it should appear somewhere on the available extensions list, but you can’t find it there too, regardless the web browser you are using. We have executed Google search to find download source for this tool, yet failed to find any footprints. That leads us to a conclusion that SoftSearches.com add-on is distributed illegally and gets installed on computers without users’ agreement. Most probably it can be downloaded as a bundle with other software. I.e. the most common tactic to spread unwanted software and it looks like this – when installing some free application downloaded from the Internet, you will be asked if you want to add some ‘free and useful tool’ to your web browser, which could ‘enhance web browsing experience’. Usually they do not state what kind of software it is and how it will enhance your web browsing. More to that – installation of additional software that happens to be malware usually is a default option, so if you don’t uncheck some checkbox during the installation, you will be surprised with what you actually get. That’s why we highly suggest to pay close attention to the installation process of freeware. Take your time to read all given information and make sure that you don’t give the permission to install additional software that you are not aware of.

Why Softsearches.com is described as browser hijacker? Mostly because it will be set as a homepage on your web browser automatically. It is described as a provider of clear access to Awesome Wikipedia information through a comfortable and clean user interface and looks like a regular search engine. Why would someone need a dedicated website for WikiPedia information? It makes no sense and what’s even more irritating is that it do not actually work. If you try to search for something via Softsearches.com you will get a blank page with your search query in the URL, nothing more (see the picture below).

It is not quite clear what is the purpose of this add-on since there are no visible advertisements and search engine doesn’t redirect you anywhere. While it might be used to distribute other malware or display random ads on new tabs, we have no evidence to back it up and that’s even more suspicious – you don’t know what to expect from it.

Privacy policy of this tool is rather casual as well. This website only collect non-personally identifiable information and is not likely to cross the borders of cookies. However, they exclude the right to “share aggregated demographic information about users with third party advertising and content companies”. This suggests that the company has an interest to make money by displaying ads.

Overall, we find Softsearches.com to be suspicious, unreliable and useless. It is a privacy risk and keeping it installed on your computer might result in some unwanted consequences. It would be better to remove it and scan your computer with a decent anti-malware software, since there is a chance that some other malicious software is operating on it. Removal of malware like this can be done easily – download trustworthy anti-malware application, such as Spyhunter, install it on your computer and then run a full scan of all files stored on your hard drive. Either one of them should detect and eliminate the virus within minutes. If there are other suspicious software installed on your computer, anti-malware tools will take care of them as well. Both of those programs has a huge virus database that is constantly updated with newest malware, so it’s worth to keep it installed.

We also provide manual Softsearches.com removal instructions – scroll down below this article and check it out. If you complete all steps correctly, the virus should be vanished from a computer.

Manual removal of Softsearches.com virus

How to remove Softsearches.com virus using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete Softsearches.com virus from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Softsearches.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.

TopRemove malicious extensions from Internet Explorer

• Press on the Gear icon→Manage Add-ons.
  
• Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to Softsearches.com virus and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
  
• Close the Options.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Softsearches.com virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Press on the Gear icon->Internet Options.
  
• Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset button.
  
• Select a “Delete personal settings” checkbox and click on the Reset button.
  
• Click on the Close button on the confirmation box, then close your browser.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemoving Softsearches.com virus from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Softsearches.com virus. Click on the trash bin icon next to Softsearches.com virus or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Softsearches.com virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
  
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset 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.

TopRemoving Softsearches.com virus from Firefox

• 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 Softsearches.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.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Softsearches.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.
  
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Softsearches.com virus from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Softsearches.com virus. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Softsearches.com virus or other add-ons you want to remove.

• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.

• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.

• Restart Microsoft Edge.

TopRemoving Softsearches.com virus from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the Softsearches.com virus. Remove all other unknown or suspicious entries too. If you are not sure whether you need the extension or not, you can simply uncheck the Enable check-box to disable the extension temporarily.
  
• Restart Safari.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Softsearches.com virus, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the 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