Explormatrix.com Search Hijacker - How to remove

If Explormatrix.com appeared in your web browser, that’s because of a browser extension like Tab Recovery being installed. Explormatrix.com is a low-effort search engine missing a lot of useful features that are present in other search engines. Tab Recovery provides features that enhance a new tab, however, it also takes control over your search settings with no justification. It’s important to be aware of Explormatrix.com and Tab Recovery’s suspicious features.

Details on Explormatrix.com:

Type of threat	Browser hijacker, potentially unwanted program (PUP).
Problems with Explormatrix.com	Takes over your search settings to push a low-quality search engine, reads your browsing history.
How browser hijackers spread	Advertised with deceptive ads, promoted by adware, bundled with free programs and installed in the background.
Removing Explormatrix.com	Uninstall Tab Recovery and other suspicious extensions, find (with Combo Cleaner for Mac, Spyhunter for Windows, etc.) and delete any malware.

How to Remove Explormatrix.com

As Tab Recovery hijacks your browser settings, the only way to get rid of Explormatrix.com is to remove Tab Recovery. Which is done in browser settings, from the Chrome Web Store, or by right-clicking Tab Recovery’s extension icon in the top right corner of your browser. In the last section of this post, I included instructions for removing browser extensions manually.

And it’s also important to check all the other extensions that you have installed. Browser extensions can be very useful – or they can be made to spy on users or to inject ads into their browsers. And many of them are a threat to your privacy. It’s important to be aware that every browser extension gets access to and control over some of your browser, and that not all browser extensions are developed by ethical people.

Besides reviewing your browser extensions manually, you can also scan your computer with a trusted antivirus application, such as Combo Cleaner for macOS, Spyhunter for Windows, etc. Any reputable antivirus tool that detects potentially unwanted programs (PUPs).

Explormatrix.com – Search Hijacker

Explormatrix.com is a Google Custom Search engine. It’s free for anyone to create and use, even to include advertisements. It’s meant to help people make specialized search engines, or to develop a cool way to display search results without having to develop a brand new search engine.

Naturally, scammers and malicious actors took this opportunity to create low-quality search sites, monetize them with ads, force as many people as possible to use them, and then sit back and collect the ad revenue. Maybe sell people’s browsing data, too. Explormatrix.com is like that, as is Xtreamatrix.com, Becovi.com, Ibrowsersearch.com, Io-search.com, and many other hijackers.

Explormatrix.com is actually a really bad search engine: no filtering based on date or language, very few result types, and way too many ads.

To get Explormatrix.com to deliver your search results, you need to install a browser extension called Tab Recovery. It’s made by Ecumatrix, a company that has also created the Tab Rescue extension (Tabrescue.com), and a couple of wallpaper extensions (Xtreamatrix.com). All their extensions do two main things: change your new tab page and change your search engine. These two features are often abused by malicious browser extensions, so not surprising that Tab Recovery’s been branded a browser hijacker by some cybersecurity experts.

Besides changing your browser settings, Tab Recovery also reads your browsing history.

How to Avoid Browser Hijackers

With so many malicious and predatory browser add-ons being released every day, it’s important to keep in mind a few things:

• be skeptical of any website that demands that you install a program or a browser extension (often sites like Recommended Extension trick people into installing malware);
• when installing programs that you downloaded off of the internet for free, check every screen during setup for optional offers (unwanted programs) and refuse them;
• check the permissions of each browser extension that you install.

Tab Recovery may have appeared in your browser without you installing it on purpose. It’s possible – developers of unwanted software have a lot of ways to trick people into getting browser extensions that they don’t want, including deceptive ads, bundling with free programs, and misrepresenting what a browser extension does. It helps to be careful and skeptical.

And if you do accidentally let a malicious extension to be installed, it’s usually easy enough to get rid of it.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manually Uninstall Extensions

TopRemoving Explormatrix.com Search 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 Explormatrix.com Search Engine. Click on the trash bin icon next to Explormatrix.com Search 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 Explormatrix.com Search Engine, 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.

How to remove Explormatrix.com Search 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 Explormatrix.com Search Hijacker. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Explormatrix.com Search Engine 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.