Startseite24.net Hijacker - How to remove

Startseite24.net is a website that might replace your browser’s home page unexpectedly. Although it is not malicious, it is considered to be potentially unwanted by many users. If you found Startseite24.net in your browser against your wishes, then you might want to remove this site. You can do that by uninstalling related browser extensions.

Startseite24.net in short:

Treat type	Potentially unwanted program.
How Startseite24.net spreads	It is bundled with other programs, it changes browser settings.
Problems and issues	Startseite24.net may be installed without permission, it lacks useful features.
How to remove Startseite24.net	Uninstall suspicious browser extensions and programs, remove unwanted and malicious programs with antivirus tools (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, others), restore your browser settings.

Problems with Startseite24.net

Startseite24.net web browsers worse

Startseite24.net is a home page that consists of a search box and a few links to other websites. The search box allows you to search the web by opening Bing.com. The links below lead to various popular websites.

The existence of Startseite24.net is baffling because this site is inferior to the default new tab pages of all the major web browsers:

• Startseite24.net does not allow users to choose which site is to be their default search engine (it has to be Bing).
• There’s no way to change the quick links on Startseite24.net – no way to add, remove, or rearrange them.
• No background pictures or any other customization options.

Startseite24.net is worse than vanilla new tabs and certainly worse than many popular new tab extensions (How to Customize Your Web Browsers Homepage (and Why You Should)).

However you look at it, it seems like Startseite24.net is an objective downgrade. It’s similar to something like Safesurfs.com or Esurf.biz in how basic it is. And yet, it is still popular in Germany, estimated to be getting over a million monthly visits. So, people are still using it – but why?

It gets installed without permission

Despite its popularity, Startseite24.net does not seem to be well-liked. I can find a lot of forum posts of people asking for advice on how to get rid of this hijacker.

It seems like Startseite24.net pops up in the browsers of those who install other programs – bundled with software installers.

Bundling is done by software publishers or developers to make money by advertising other software within their installers. You might remember installing some program and, during setup, being offered a completely unrelated item.

Bundling is generally disliked (Download Wrappers and Unwanted Software are pure evil) because it leads to unintentional installations. Offers are sometimes presented as if they’re part of the installation. Other times, there’s no obvious way to refuse the advertised programs. Such programs are flagged by antivirus scanners as PUPs – potentially unwanted programs.

To be more specific, it seems like Startseite24.net is spread by Openoffice.de, an unofficial website for OpenOffice (the real website is Openoffice.org). Some people consider Openoffice.de to be deceptive and even malicious for spreading adware like Startseite24.net with an open-source (not commercial) program like OpenOffice.

How to remove Startseite24.net

Even though Startseite24.net is not dangerous, it’s also very unhelpful. It offers nothing valuable to users and it takes away choices and customization options.

It’s recommended to remove Startseite24.net from your browser. Uninstall unwanted browser extensions and programs and restore your browser settings. The instructions can be found below.

It’s also helpful to check your computer with an anti-malware program, like Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and others. If an antivirus scan finds something bad on your device, delete the malware.

By the way, if you installed OpenOffice from Openoffice.de, you might also want to reinstall that from Openoffice.org. Although, many consider OpenOffice to be dead as it hasn’t been very actively supported for many years and is missing features as well as security updates. Consider using LibreOffice instead – it was born from OpenOffice and it’s getting regular updates and modern features (Open Letter to Apache OpenOffice).

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal instructions

How to remove Startseite24.net using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net from macOS

Delete Startseite24.net Hijacker from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net, 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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 Startseite24.net 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.