Startpage.com Hijacker - How to remove

Startpage.com hijacker is a search engine that was designed by the same company that designed Ixquick.com virus . It claims that it is the most safe search engine on the internet and that it helps to search more privately. I disagree with this claim.

Startpage.com works by scrapping non-personalised search results of other search engines and displaying it to the visitor. This is done to prevent Search engines from “tracking” your searches. However, this privacy concern is a big fat lie.

Startpage.com privacy concerns

Startpage displays advertisements by the same search engines in the same page as the search results. This provides almost the same information to search engines as they would get if you would do the search on their own page and negates all the effort in scrapping results. This is not some sort of mistake – the Startpage creators do not care too much about your privacy but about advertisement impressions and clicks on them.

Thus you can forget about getting any reliable search results, as this is a tool that focuses on promoting specific commercial websites. Startpage.com virus makes are seeking to increase traffic and page ranking of these pages. They also get revenue if you click on any of the ads displayed among your search results. All of the victims of this browser hijacker understand the risks they are taking pretty quickly and they want to get rid of Startpage.com virus.

In late 2019, Startpage.com got sold to System1, which is an advertising company. While this might not be a big problem, the explanations of the deal were given only after the fact got questioned. While the search engine itself claim not giving away the IP addresses of the searchers, tracking with advertiser cookies is more cserious.

Distribution Methods of Startpage.com virus

Keep in mind that you can easily prevent your computer from downloading this and similar browser hijackers As most of them come along other freeware that users download by themselves, you can make sure it doesn’t happen to you again. Many users don’t pay much attention to the installation steps of new programs. This is the reason why cyber criminals have started to distribute their products this way. To avoid getting any bundles added to your computer, it is highly recommended to opt for Custom or Advanced installation and check our every step carefully to be sure what you are agreeing on by installing one or another software. If you are offered to replace your homepage with some unknown website or get additional software installed, never accept that. Normally you just have to deselect few options and they will not be applied. Reading Terms and Agreements of a software that you are about to install is very important too, as they usually disclose all optional downloads and indicate all changes that are about to be made in your system.

To remove Startpage.com virus, go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs list and uninstall it from there. It is recommended to uninstall ALL programs added on the same date as problems have appeared. Some versions of this virus install software that blocks browser settings from changing. To identify them, scanning with Spyhunter, or other reputable antispyware tool might help. Then you can uninstall the extensions and reset settings in your browsers. Follow the guide below for more detailed plan how to remove Startpage.com virus.

There were some similar search engines to startpage, namely Startpage12.com (which we do not list as hijacker) and Startpageing123. There is another version of StartPage.com virus, StartPage.info virus.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Special instructions how to remove Startpage.com virus

TopHow To remove Startpage.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 Startpage.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 Startpage.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 Startpage.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 Startpage.com 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.

TopHow to remove Startpage.com Hijacker virus from Internet Explorer:

How to remove Startpage.com Hijacker virus from Internet Explorer (older versions):

• Click on the arrow on the right of the search box.
• Do the following: on IE8-9 choose Manage Search providers, on IE7 click Change search defaults.
• Remove the Startpage.com virus from the list.

How to remove Startpage.com Hijacker from IE 11:

• Click on the Settings icon (top right) → Manage Addons.
  
• Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to Startpage.com Hijacker and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
  
• Select Search Providers.
  
• If any of these search providers is not available, follow “Find more search providers” in the bottom of the screen and install Google.
  
• Close the Options.
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Gear icon on the top right corner to open the Internet Explorer menu, select Internet options and choose General tab. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Apply.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

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

• Gear icon→Internet Options.
  
• Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset
• Select “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.

TopRemove shortcut hijack (all browsers) (optional): If your browser opens Startpage.com virus page on startup only, try this:

• Right click on your browser icon. Choose Properties;
  
• Open Short cut tab;
  
• Delete Startpage.com virus part from target field.