GardeningEnthusiast - How to remove

GardeningEnthusiast is an extension that is there to provide gardening tips, but also delivers advertisements to its users through its search engine — MyWay. Because of the excessive settings changes that it performs, GardeningEnthusiast is classified as a browser hijacker. Though not a virus, GardeningEnthusiast should probably not be used by as many people as do.

The GardeningEnthusiast extension can be distributed by adware bundles. If you have GardeningEnthusiast but never sought it out, it’s possible that you have adware or a few potentially unwanted programs — PUPs. Bundles might result in software being installed without your knowledge or permission, so, if that’s the case, you might want to scan your machine with an antivirus program and see if it finds anything suspicious. Bundles can be promoting relatively harmless PUPs, but some of them spread ransomware.

GardeningEnthusiast, when installed from its website, uses bundling to introduce Ask, another browser hijacker that uses its own search engine that is, similarly to MyWay, filled with ads. Ask takes over the address bar, which GardeningEnthusiast left alone.

Browser settings changes

GardeningEnthusiast lists these permissions on Chrome:

• Read and change your data on a number of websites
• Replace the page you see when opening a new tab
• Read your browsing history
• Display notifications
• Manage your downloads
• Manage your apps, extensions, and themes

That’s quite a list of permissions for an extension that’s about finding “all the gardening advice you need to keep your flowers blooming, your vegetables growing”. A couple of these are classified by Google slightly concerning, specifically, “Read and change your data on a number of websites”. Extensions that need lots of permissions aren’t automatically dangerous, but they have the power to be. This is why all the installed extensions should be periodically reviewed (sometimes a popular extension is bought by a malicious company and abused to send ads to users, or steal their information). And only trusted apps and extensions should be granted risky permissions.

Mindspark, the developer of GardeningEnthusiast, is not very trustworthy. They have developed so many clone extensions that it seems like their main goal is just getting a large userbase. That’s valuable to marketers, and advertising isn’t necessarily dangerous, but the users are not getting a very good service in exchange. What the users of GardeningEnthusiast are getting is more ads that they should have to see, and their private information being recorded and used to offer ads more effectively. Mindspark’s extensions all look so similar that you would not be able to tell them apart by their new tab page: Free.everydaylookup.com, PackageTracer, FreePDFCombiner — they all use the same design, have the same privacy policy.

Can GardeningEnthusiast be safely used?

GardeningEnthusiast provides two things to its users:

1. A list of links to gardening-themed websites.
2. A search bar that directs queries to the MyWay search engine.

GardeningEnthusiast is not a virus, it cannot install any viruses, and it doesn’t steal any passwords or files. It can be used as-is without any immediate danger.

However, GardeningEnthusiast does have the power to do harm. For example, we know from Mindspark’s privacy policy that GardeningEnthusiast collects information about the user and their browsing habits and then shares that information with advertisers. The information can be shared, as long as it’s not associated with the user’s identity. But, what if the identity is not properly hidden? Or if someone deanonymizes the data?

It is completely up to you how much you care about your browsing history being private, but, in the wrong hands, such information could, in theory, be used to perform targeted phishing attacks and make scams seem very believable. At the end of the day, this could result in some people suffering real harm — feeling stress, wasting time, even losing money.

The problem with useless toolbar extensions is that they target people who may not know exactly how to remove them. GardeningEnthusiast is just unintrusive enough that people who were hassled with it might deal with it, without knowing how easy it is to uninstall it. Meanwhile, MyWay will continue to inject excessive ads into their search results and earn money from advertisers.

How to remove GardeningEnthusiast

GardeningEnthusiast can be removed simply by accessing your browser settings. If you want to scan your computer, Spyhunter should be good enough tools to check if you have adware or other suspicious programs.

If you didn’t interact a lot with your browser settings, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with them. They’re there to allow you to customize your browsing experience. Even cosmetic changes, like pinning your favorite links to your new tab page, can be done by yourself, without extensions.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Uninstall GardeningEnthusiast

How to remove GardeningEnthusiast using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete GardeningEnthusiast from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the GardeningEnthusiast 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 GardeningEnthusiast 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 GardeningEnthusiast, 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 GardeningEnthusiast 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 GardeningEnthusiast 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 GardeningEnthusiast, 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 GardeningEnthusiast 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 GardeningEnthusiast, 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 GardeningEnthusiast from Safari:Top

Remove malicious extensions

• Click on Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Preferences.
  
• Select Extensions and uninstall GardeningEnthusiast 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 GardeningEnthusiast, 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.