Search.searchcl.com hijacker - How to remove

Search.searchcl.com is a malicious add-on to Google Chrome delivered by Polarity Technologies LTD. Actually, this website is not a virus itself it is just a cause of the malicious add-on presence on your web browser. Also, it can be home.searchcl.com – both links lead to the same website.

It is categorised as browser hijacker because of automatic changes made on your web browser. It will set www.search.searchcl.com to be your new tab website, as well as default search provider.

In case you are experiencing at least one of those symptoms – don’t wait and remove this malware from your computer right now. If the task seems too complicated, just proceed reading the article and we will provide you with detailed instructions how to do that.

New Tab Hijacker for Chrome

It is known that Search.searchcl.com is only compatible with Google Chrome web browser, as it can’t be added to any other web browsers as an extension. Also, it is relatively new malware, since it was first discovered in December of 2017. However, volume of infections were rising steadily since then and now this website averages more than 100,000 monthly visits.

It’s not that hard to tell that this website is fuelled by malicious add-on which redirects all the traffic to it, because almost 99 percents of all traffic to www.search.searchcl.com are direct:

This add-on itself is described as a tool that will provide you with the ability to reach classified ads faster. However, the functionality is of this tool is really questionable. So what exactly will happen when you install it on Google Chrome? We have already mentioned that it will set both new tab page and default search engine settings to www.search.searchcl.com an you will be visiting this website much more frequently than you should.

It features a couple of links to various classified ads websites, such as Craiglist or classifiedads.com and that’s about it speaking of “Easier access to classified ads”. Basically, you can simply visit those websites directly and additional add-on for links is really not necessary.

Next function presented by Search.searchcl.com is web search. We would like to note that this website has no unique web search and simply transfers searches to Yahoo search engine, which is ok. What’s not ok is another feature behind this thing – they track your searches. So whether you submit search phrase directly to the url bar or ton Search.searchcl.com website, it will be recorded. This information is very valuable and they use it for marketing purposes or simply sell it to other parties – it’s even mentioned in their privacy policy. That’s a threat to your personal security.

Last but not least, searchcl hijacker might also bring those symptoms:

• pop-up advertisements;
• redirects;
• implement of other potentially unwanted add-ons.

How you got infected and how to remove this virus?

Polarity malware is distributed bundled to other freeware or malware. So most probably you got infected when some free program was installed on your computer and this additional tool was offered as a bonus. Bundling is one of the most common malware distribution methods – viruses like weaherradarforecast or myphotoeditor.co virus also gets installed this way. Usually installation of bundled add-on is a default feature, so if you just go through the installation without making any changes, it will land on your computer automatically.

Now, if you know that Search.searchcl.com virus is operating on your computer, the easiest method to get rid of it is to download anti-malware application and scan your computer with it. Cyber security tools you have right now are obviously not enough because malware was able to sneak trough them, so we suggest to get yourself either Spyhunter. Either one of those programs should be able to detect and remove the virus really fast.

After that, you will have to reset Google Chrome settings back to normal, because anti-malware or anti-virus programs can’t do that. Please look at the instruction provided below and do that yourself.

TopHow To remove Search.searchcl.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 Search.searchcl.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.

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