Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker - How to remove

Download Party, or Downloadpartytab.com, should help users search and access popular games from their browser. It’s been installed by thousands of, mostly, american users. However, Download Party is actually a type of mild malware. It replaces your new tab page and may even redirect your web searches. Do not install Download Party it’s not useful and it’s even potentially dangerous.

In short about Downloadpartytab.com/Download Party:

Classification	Browser hijacker, adware.
Problems	Takes over your new tab page, reads your search queries, gets installed together with other, more serious hijackers.
Distribution	Found in web search results using certain shady search engines.
Removal	Remove manually or with an anti-malware program, check your computer for malware (Combo Cleaner for Mac OS, SpyHunter for Windows)

Download Party – a browser hijacker

Functionality

Here’s the VirusTotal link for Download Party. As you can see, antivirus applications are not fond of it. That’s because when Download Party is installed, it changes your browser settings in some intrusive and unjustified ways. (What is a browser?)

For example, Download Party changes what page your browser loads when you open a new tab. It now opens Downloadpartytab.com. This page is supposed to deliver all the promises that Download Party made, like letting you access popular games instantly with one click or giving you quick links to the most popular gaming websites.

However, Downloadpartytab.com mostly fails at that. It misses some extremely popular and influential gaming sites. And it does not really give you access to popular games. I mean, it provides links to the home sites of those games. As in, the same links you find when you type in the game’s name in Google or another search engine. That’s it. Downloadpartytab.com is basically useless.

And unlike a real new tab extension, Download Party doesn’t let you modify it or change it. What you have is all there is – and it’s pretty bad. There is no reason for Downloadpartytab.com to replace your new tab or to interfere with your web search like it does. It could fit in an extension pop-up, which is a much less intrusive way of building a browser extension. But then Download Party couldn’t achieve its real purpose – hijacking your searches and advertising there.

Search hijacking

If you search the web using the new tab page provided by Download Party, the results will return in a Search.yahoo.com page. This is because Download Party is ad-supported and it interferes with how you search the web to show you ads. It doesn’t find its own web results, so it takes those from Yahoo, like many other hijackers.

Lack of privacy is another problem. Download Party gets permission to read your browsing history. Yet its description on the Chrome Web Store says that your browsing history is not recorded or disclosed. But Download Party’s privacy policy clearly states that they store your data, including your search queries and demographic data (it doesn’t mention browsing history). The difference is so minor. Search keywords – the words that you search for online – are still valuable private information. And Download Party’s privacy policy clearly states that information collected about you is used to “help advertisers and publishers connect with you to offer relevant advertising”.

When you try to use other search websites, you may be redirected to, for example, Hidemysearches.com. That’s because Download Party often gets installed together with Hide My Searches, as do other extensions by the same developer – like TV Now, Your Emails Now, and others. Together, the two hijackers combine their powers and take over your browser completely.

Then you can’t really control what site gives you your web search results. It’s very tedious to go to your favorite site every time and be redirected away from it. And you can’t fix your browser settings as long as Download Party is installed.

How to remove Download Party

On your own, you can uninstall Download Party manually pretty easily. Just don’t forget to check your other extensions. I added the manual removal steps in the next section with schreenshots.

Generally, it’s a good idea to scan your computer with an anti-malware program, such as Combo Cleaner for Mac or SpyHunter for PC. Even though Download Party is only a browser hijacker and not real malware, there is something suspicious about how it spreads.

Downloadpartytab.com is often found by people using web search, which should be a good sign. However, the search engines used are a bit shady, like Search-gl.com, Geofoxip.com, and Articlecx.com. These search engines are usually made by dishonest actors wanting to monetize people’s web search by simpy injecting additional ads into their results. And these search engines are distributed by various adware infections and notification spammers. Thus, I really think you should check if your browser settings are the way you want them to be and if your computer is free of adware and pop-ups.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Uninstall Downloadpartytab.com manually

How to remove Download Party Hijacker using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Downloadpartytab.com 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 Download Party Hijacker . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Downloadpartytab.com 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 Download Party Hijacker from macOS

Delete Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Download Party Hijacker 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 Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker 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 Download Party Hijacker, 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 Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker 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 Download Party Hijacker. Click on the trash bin icon next to Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker 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 Download Party Hijacker, 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 Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker 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 Download Party 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.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Downloadpartytab.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.
  
• 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 Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker 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 Download Party Hijacker. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker 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 Download Party Hijacker from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the Downloadpartytab.com Hijacker. 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 Download Party Hijacker, 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.