Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab - How to remove

Map Directions Pro, or Mapdirectionspro.co, is a potentially unwanted browser extension. It takes over your browser’s new tab page with Mapdirectionspro.co and it even reads your browsing history. Mapdirectionspro.co is presented as a useful browser enhancement – one that can give you driving directions, check gas prices, and find online maps. But really, it’s just a newtab virus – it takes over your browser to get you to click on more ads.

Mapdirectionspro.co is a potentially unwanted application that hijacks your new tab page:

Mapdirectionspro.co type	Browser hijacker, adware, potentially unwanted program.
Removing Mapdirectionspro.co	Uninstall Map Directions Pro, find malware with an anti-malware scanner (SpyHunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for Mac OS).
Dangers	Your private data, like your browsing history, is exposed to advertisers, you don’t have control over your new tab page anymore, using the search bar on Mapdirectionspro.co sends the query to the same page and returns the results in Yahoo.
How it got installed	Downloaded and installed with freeware, advertised online.

How to remove Mapdirectionspro.co

To liberate your browser and get back the old settings, you need to remove Mapdirectionspro.co. Open your browser and find all of your installed extensions. Instructions are in the last section of the article.

Don’t stop with removing Mapdirectionspro.co, either. There may be some other ones there that are suspicious. Remove them or disable the ones that you don’t trust. In general, browser extensions are quite powerful. Allowing them to be installed can hurt your privacy.

Scan your computer with an anti-malware scanner, such as SpyHunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, and others. I don’t know how exactly Mapdirectionspro.co got on your computer, but if it was downloaded with another program, then that other program might not be entirely safe. It might have installed more malware. The same applies to malicious ads. A lot of infections spread the same way.

What’s wrong with Mapdirectionspro.co

Map Directions Pro is far from real malware: it doesn’t steal your money, extort you, or anything like that. But it still should not be installed on people’s computers because it’s adware.

Adware is potentially unwanted software that’s main purpose is to show ads to the user. Although sometimes it’s consensual, often, adware is disguised as a useful tool that you may want to install. In Mapdirectionspro.co’s case, it’s a tool for getting driving directions, gas prices, and other driving-related things.

The problem is that Mapdirectionspro.co uses its access to your browser to get you to change your search and to show you ads. Using the search bar provided by Mapdirectionspro.co means that Yahoo will return the results. Affiliate links and ads in search results benefit Mapdirectionspro.co, especially when it can also read your browsing history and use that information to advertise to you more effectively.

To function, Mapdirectionspro.co doesn’t actually need to take over your new tab page or to read your browsing history. It just does it because that makes it easier to advertise to you.

Overall, Mapdirectionspro.co is very similar to the Maps Now new tab and they both happen to be made by the same company – Webalytics. Releasing a few clone extensions is typical for developers of browser hijackers. Lets them fly under the radar and, if one of their extensions gets banned, they have a few more.

How Mapdirectionspro.co got installed

The thing about hijackers is that they’re usually so low-quality that almost no people ever install them on purpose. If an extension is good – useful, innovative, and liked by users – and it is honest about showing you ads, then it’s not called a hijacker. It’s called an ad-supported extension. People voluntarily use those.

But even though nobody wants them, hijackers still make it on people’s computers somehow. Here are a few possibilities:

• Bundled with freeware. Free software installers sometimes include unrelated software and install it unless you explicitly say that you refuse. Commercial free software is bundled with these optional offers for money. Usually, every successful installation of the bundled tool means some money to the people who got you to install it. That’s actually how some freeware makes money. It’s unfortunate that this method is also used to spread potentially unwanted programs like Mapdirectionspro.co.
• Advertised with some deception. Sometimes ads for installing Mapdirectionspro.co are made to look like buttons and links to see a website or download a file. Fake download buttons as ads appear online that lead to various browser hijacker installations, including OnlineMapFinder and Quick Driving Directions.

You can bock malicious sites with an antivirus program and scan every downloaded file with one to minimize how much junkware you’re exposed to, but it won’t be 100% effective.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal instructions

TopHow To remove Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab 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 Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab, 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 Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab 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 Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab, 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 Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab 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 Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab 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 Mapdirectionspro.co New Tab, 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.