SearchInspire.com - How to remove

Searchinspired.com or simply Search Inspired is an unwelcome browser extension that will alter your search engine settings without your consent, setting its own page as the main homepage tracking victims online activity and sharing gathered personal information with third parties and etc. At the first glance SearchInspired.com doesn’t look very suspicious, on the contrary, the clean plain design with popular thumbnails seem to be like a copy of Google Chrome’s layout, pretty inviting and convenient to use, although there is much more to this browser hijacker than you think.

The company behind this browser hijacker is Cro-Bit Ltd from Croatia. They have a few other browser hijackers like Search.bitcro.com and Search.hr. Although the Search Inspired developers write in the EULA that this service is not a Spyware or Adware, yet the behavior shows differently. Compromised browsers can really annoy the unsuspected users by changing the usual settings of their preferred search engine, but that is harmless compared to the fact that crooks behind the search inspired will record your data and give it to the other Marketing third parties.

SearchInspired virus browser hijacker

How malicious is the Search Inspired

Searchinspired.com threat presents itself only after the whole setup is complete and the computer is compromised fully. Suddenly your typical Google/Bing/Yahoo or any other homepage will be changed to the searchinspired.com. This new page has an already pinned thumbnails that include the most frequently visited pages such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Gmail, LinkedIn, Netflix, Twitch, Booking.com and a search bar. If you will perform a search with this new engine you will soon see that it isn’t a unique product but only a sponsored redirect to the Yahoo Search.

If you will keep using Search Inspired browser hijacker over time you will start noticing the poor computer performance, browser crashing, lots of ads, pop-ups and etc. And that is because the vulnerabilities made by the browser will allow many other malware parasites into the already compromised PC. What is more, after running a quick virustotal on searchinspired.com Malwarebytes recognized it as a malware. And there are plenty of reasons why. 

The excerpt from the official Searchinspired.com Privacy Policy:

Search Inspired may collect two types of information: 1) Personal Information, and 2(Anonymous Information. Personal Information means information that may directly or indirectly identify you, such as your name, address, email address, and telephone number. Anonymous Information means information that does not directly or indirectly identify you, such as the number of page views, link clicks, and login times. Through you use of the Site we may collect the following Personal Information: you name; email address; information you provided in public forums and/or social networks; information you provided us including your device identifier or IP address when you use the Site.

They collect your information whenever you use the Search Inspired site and enter anything in the search bar, also cookies, using tracking features like web beacons and etc., authorize third-parties to do their own tracking in their own unmonitored ways. Additionally, the website doesn’t respond to the ‘do not track’ request by the user and anonymity feature does not actually work.

The reason why you should be worried about the third-parties is that the browser hijacker creators cannot control the activity of these companies, therefore they can be using really invasive trackers to find out information they need about your system and you personally, also they can post malicious advertisements. The information collected by the Search Inspired virus will be used for the targeted advertising and other Online marketing tricks to make you buy a sponsored product/service, to modify the search results, make statistics and analysis of your internet surfing to later improve the showed content and marketing as well.

Another worrisome thing is that searchinspired.com officially states all the bad things they do to the user and that they can adjust their Privacy Policy any time when they desire, therefore in case of a serious incident lawfully you wouldn’t be able to do much against Search Inspired because their Eula claims that if you are using their services you automatically agree with their Policies which can be changed to their benefit anytime. For this reason, you should avoid this browser hijacker as much as possible.

How can Searchinspire.com infect your browser

Mainly the Search Inspired virus can get installed after downloading the Search Application which usually comes either separately or as a part of free software bundles. The victim is targeted with the legitimately looking tool that promises to enhance their browsing experience for free or as an optional program during one of the other software setups. Another way of intrusion can be as a result of an older existing infection that took over the control of your system and without the consent downloaded the SearchInspired and some other third-party applications.

searchinspired screenshots

Search Inspire can intrude the system either as a separate program or just as a browser extension. For this reason, you might be having problems getting rid of it because if you won’t remove it from all the directories it will keep reinstalling. The program or the extension will neutralize the operating system’s protection and will connect to the Searchinspire.com page to download the rest of scripts to take over the browser completely. Once the setup is complete the scripts will put searchinspire.com as your default search engine, homepage, and the new tab URL.

What are the best Search Inspire removal options

Even though Search Inspire browser hijacker can sound really terrifying, and it does have the potential to become dangerous, yet if you just recently noticed it in your computer, most likely the removal will be a pretty easy task even for not the most skilled internet users. Of course, in the future, it would be advisable to learn more about the safe internet surfing and invest in a good cyber protection tool in order to avoid another virtual infection.

Additionally be more cautious and take your time when installing any software or updates and check Optional/Additional program section to prevent accidental malware setup.

The most reliable and easy removal technique is automatic elimination with the certain anti-spyware programs. We have a good amount of products to choose from on our Reviews page, but the best ones so far have been Spyhunter and Malwarebytes.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Download Spyhunter for Malware detection
(Win)

Note: Spyhunter trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions,

Download Combo Cleaner for Malware detection
(Mac)

Note: Combo Cleaner trial provides detection of parasites and assists in their removal for free. limited trial available, Terms of use, Privacy Policy, Uninstall Instructions, Refund Policy ,

Another method – manual removal comes in handy when there are no possibilities of getting the anti-spyware software. Searchinspire.com can be blocking your installation and download of files from the web, therefore you will have to disable it yourself and then get the malware elimination tool to make sure that the browser hijacker and all the other viruses who could’ve sneaked in are going to be neutralized and weeded out with roots from your PC.

What is interesting, Searchinspired.com, despite being maliciously intrusive, actually offers the uninstall option themselves. However, that is just a redirect to Google Chrome’s official extension managing/uninstall page. It’s very thoughtful and kind from the Search Inspire developers, but they forgot one thing that not all people nowadays are using Chrome, that is why scroll down to find your browser and a step-by-step guide on how to delete the virus.


“How

How to remove Search Inspire using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like SearchInspire.com 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). Open Control Panel by searching for it in the Start menu.
  • Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category). In Control Panel, select Uninstall a program.
  • Go through the list of programs and select entries related to Search Inspire . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make SearchInspire.com easier to find. Find the program that you need to uninstall.
  • Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes. Click the Uninstall button after selecting the program to uninstall. Then 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. Spyhunter marking a program and its components as low-threat malware.

How to remove Search Inspire from macOS

Delete SearchInspire.com from your applications.
  1. Open Finder.
  2. In the menu bar, click Go.
  3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
  4. Find the Search Inspire 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.
Open Applications and delete unwanted apps.

TopHow To remove SearchInspire.com from Google Chrome:

  • Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
    Extensions
  • Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
    Remove extensions
  • Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
    Open settings
  • Select Manage Search engines
    Manage search engines
  • Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
    Delete search engines
  • 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.
    Set pages
  • Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
    Delete start pages

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to SearchInspire.com, 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.
    Resset settings
  • Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
    Reset approve

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

How To remove SearchInspire.com 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).
    Select add-on
  • Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything SearchInspire.com 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.
    Remove add-on
  • 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.
    Restore default
(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Search Inspire, 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.
    Help button
  • ChooseTroubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
    Troubleshooting
  • Click on theReset Firefox button.
    Refresh firefox
  • Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
    Refresh firefox approve
If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.

How to remove SearchInspire.com from Microsoft Edge:Top

  • Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.
Open the menu and choose Extensions.
  • Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
Press Remove for the extensions you want to remove
  • Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings
Edge new open the three-dot menu and choose settings.
  • Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.
Edge new Open Address bar settings.
  • Choose Manage search engines.
Edge new choose manage search engines.
  • Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.
Edge new choose remove for unwanted search engines.
  • 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.
Edge new remove startup pages. (Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to SearchInspire.com, 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.
Edge new restore settings.
  • Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
Edge new restore settings comfirmation. If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove SearchInspire.com from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions
  • Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
    Open preferences
  • Select Extensions and uninstall Search Inspire and other suspicious extensions.
    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.
    Reset homepage
(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings(older versions) If you are still experiencing any issues related to SearchInspire.com, 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…
    Choose reset
  • Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
    Reset
If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

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