playCenter Home virus - How to remove

playCenter Home rogue search toolbar is created by a company called PlayMediaCenter Internet site. This is not a respectable search provider as its users will be introduced to sponsored results to search queries. Right before generated links are showed in Search.yahoo.com, users will briefly see Play.eanswers.com URL in the address bar. Furthermore, we noticed some questionable statements in the official Privacy Policy of playCenter Home extension.

During its installation process, users might be required to log into their accounts (Google, Facebook) in order to create a user identifier (Should You Use Facebook or Google to Log In to Other Sites?). For the purpose of personalization, the browser hijacker will collect information about its users: names, email addresses, countries of origin, phone number, geographic details, web usage information, and much more. This gathered data could be exploited for the wrong purposes, and shared with suspicious third-parties. We also observed the fact that this browser hijacker promotes other samples from hijackware, like Myprivatesearch.com.

Suspicious playCenter Home toolbar will act as a browser hijacker

PlayCenter Home malware parasite also describes a very interesting feature: people can sync mobile devices’ address book with a desktop app and thereby answer calls and texts from your computer. While this might seem as a convenient feature, we would not recommended allowing an unknown third-party deal with such a private information as your phone calls and SMS messages.

Just like any browser hijacker, playCenter Home infection will invade your browsers’ preferences and assign its original page as home pages, new tabs and default search providers. The most expected change is the fact that the hijacker will modify new tabs.

If you have accidentally (or voluntarily) installed this bizarre toolbar, you will notice a small piece from the game of chess, representing a black knight. The Chrome extension receives permissions to change content of visited websites, read and modify browser history and change new tab pages. Do not risk being introduced to malicious websites via third-party links and advertisements (How to Avoid Malware).

Since playCenter Home suspicious toolbar can gather information about your location (presumably through your IP address), it can provide third-parties with necessary information to display tailor-suited ads. This means that advertisers will select advertisements that are more appropriate for certain users.

However, since controllers of playCenter Home browser hijacker do not show any liability for links/ads to outside websites, they might show little interest in their respectability. Therefore, people might be introduced with deceptive content, hoping to trick them into revealing their private information or have them download malicious payloads into operating systems. In the EULA document, the company clearly states that it does not promise “that any defects will be corrected or that the product will be free from viruses, worms, Trojan Horses or other harmful properties”.

Recommendations to keep operating systems clean from malware like playCenter Home parasite

Currently, this playCenter Home possibly unwanted extension is available in Chrome Web Store. However, we do not recommend activating it due to all of the alarming features we enumerated in the article above. If you install the toolbar, your results to search queries will be tainted with additional links. As you might know, clicking on random links is never a good idea as you could automatically install malicious parasites into your operating system.

In addition to this, try to stay away from freeware as much as possible. If you are not careful, you could accidentally install many toolbars, system optimizers and other potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). During installation processes of freeware, we hope that you will always be prepared to select advanced/custom modes for installations. If you notice that more than one program is going to be activated in your device, please cancel the Setup.

If you feel like your operating system needs to be cleaned properly, we recommend getting a professional anti-malware tool. Spyhunter are one of the tools that will adequately protect your system from infections in the future. Run regular scans to check the security status in your device and clean files/programs can pose as a threat to your cybersecurity.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove playCenter Home virus from your system

How to remove playCenter Home virus using Windows Control Panel

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

Delete playCenter Home virus from your applications.

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

Remove malicious extensions

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