Mazysearch.com Hijacker - How to remove

Mazysearch.com is a browser-hijacking website that, while not providing any useful features, redirects your searches, and logs data about your browsing habits. To make matters worse, it might be impossible to remove like a normal extension. It can still be removed, though, only with a bit more effort.

About Mazysearch.com:

Type of threat	Browser hijacker.
How Mazysearch.com affects the browser	Changes the default search engine (it may use Bing, Yahoo, or another site), reads the user’s data, including what they search for, abuses enterprise policy to prevent the user from removing Mazy Search.
How Mazy Search gets installed	It’s bundled with installers and files downloaded from shady sites, victims don’t know that they’re installing it.
How to remove Mazysearch.com	Uninstall Mazy Search and other malware, find malware with anti-malware applications (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, others).

What is Mazysearch.com

At first glance, it looks like Mazysearch.com is a new tab replacer. Like it’s a browser extension that makes your default new tab page look nice and pretty with beautiful backgrounds and minimalistic design.

In reality, Mazysearch.com:

• changes your default search engine to Browser.mazysearch.com (which redirects to Yahoo, Bing, or another search site),
• logs your search queries, search history, which results and ads you clicked on and when,
• logs data about your computer, including what software you have installed and what devices you have connected.

Mazysearch.com can do all that thanks to the browser extension “Mazy Search”. Mazy Search changes the browser settings so that Mazysearch.com is set as the new default search engine. Mazysearch.com and Mazy Search are synonymous in some ways.

How Mazy Search spreads

Mazy Search (the browser extension) has over twenty thousand users on the Chrome Web Store. Despite this popularity, Mazy Search’s reviews are universally negative.

People mention that they did not install Mazy Search on purpose and that they would like to remove it. But they can’t because Mazy Search abuses enterprise policies to disable its removal. So, people call Mazysearch.com a virus. Which seems deserved.

DefaultSearch is the company behind Mazysearch.com, as well as Storm Search, Mongo Search, and some other hijackers. Here are a few ways that these hijackers spread:

• embedded in other installers (apps, mods, plugins) as optional offers,
• falsely advertised, which leads people to install them thinking that they’re installing something else,
• downloaded and installed by trojans.

Most reviewers of Mazy Search say they do not know how Mazysearch.com infected their computer. A few mention Minecraft (a very popular game) mods but most have no idea. Unfortunately, scammers are good at tricking people. You can mitigate that a bit by having an antivirus program with real-time security and an ad blocker. But nothing is 100% effective.

Having Mazysearch.com on your computer does not necessarily mean that there are any trojans on it. More likely, you used an unreliable site to download some software or you clicked on a deceptively designed advertisement.

How to remove Mazysearch.com

First, you might want to scan your computer with an anti-malware application, like Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and others. The scan results will tell you what potentially unwanted programs are on your device. This might give you an idea of how Mazysearch.com made it on your computer. Files that install junkware may be detected as Bundlers, Trojan.Downloaders, or Unwanted.

You might be unable to uninstall Mazy Search if it’s installed by enterprise policy. You would then see warnings that your browser is managed by an organization or by an administrator. The Remove button would be missing from the Mazy Search extension card.

This is fixable. If your antivirus program can’t remove Mazysearch.com because of this issue, then know that you can repair it manually. I can point you to our relevant post or, for Windows only, to this article by How-To Geek.

Once you can remove all the unwanted browser extensions, do that. Remove not just Mazy Search, but all the third-party extensions that you don’t use regularly, that you did not install yourself, or that you don’t trust. And scrutinize all the extensions. Even safe ones can turn malicious.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted browser extensions

TopHow To remove Mazysearch.com Hijacker 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 Mazysearch.com Hijacker, 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 Mazysearch.com Hijacker 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 Mazysearch.com Hijacker, 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 Mazysearch.com Hijacker 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 Mazysearch.com 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.
  
• 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 Mazysearch.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.
  
• 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.