Remove Search us.com (start.search.us.com)

Search us.com is considered as browser hijacker because it modifies Internet browser without seeking for user�s approval. When it enters the computer, home page is replaced with a custom search bar bearing the address start.search.us.com. There are cases that it may display a simple view by pointing the homepage to search.us.com.

Most of the time, user is innocent with this type of unwanted software. They are often package with other programs that are required by some web sites. For example, if you visit a video web site, a player is needed to view hosted movie. It is unknown to you that aside from installing desired player, Search us.com is also loaded into your system. The process is quick and discreet. Majority of victims only realize the infection after Search us.com has captured the homepage.

Uninstalling the downloaded player is not enough to remove the hijacker. They are now two separate entities once inside the computer. After removing the player, you also need to uninstall Search us.com from control panel. After that step, you need to fix individual web browsers that are redirected to start.search.us.com. This phase is simple. To guide you, we have prepared a plain instruction to remove Search us.com hijacker.

What are the Symptoms of Search us.com (start.search.us.com)?

A simple version of the hijacker redirects the home page to a search us.com. See image below.

In other instances, home page will display a custom layout of start.search.us.com, it also shown with address my.search.us.com to some victims.

What is Search us.com?

Search us.com is a browser hijacker. It enters your PC using the software bundling method and hijacks the settings of the browsers. It hijacks the homepage, new tab, and default search engine. Whenever you open your browser, you see its default page. If you try to search something on your browser, it records your search query and then redirects you to other search engines for results. Apart from the search query, it also records your IP address, location, browsing history, and some hardware & software information.

All this collected information is sold to third-party clients, who may use it for marketing or other activities such as identity theft. Search us.com is a severe risk to your privacy. We advise you to remove it from your PC right now. Follow the below instructions to remove it.

When the Search us.com browser hijacker is installed on a device, common symptoms include:

Changing the web browser’s default homepage to Search us.com
Changing the browser’s search provider and built-in search box to Search us.com
Ability to modify the ‘new tab’ functionality to launch the modified search portal page
Loads into the web browser via the Default Tab, New Tab, Wild Tangent extension or add-on

You should always pay attention while installing software specially the free software, because often, such installers includes bundled software. Don't click on Install before checking everything.
Always opt for the custom/advanced installation mopde and deselect anything other than the actual program, especially recommended software that you don't need. In short, you should not install suspicious software.

The instruction below is for Windows users, you can check the Android Removal Guide which should help clean up your device.

How to remove Search us.com redirect (Virus Removal Guide)

This removal guide contain complicated steps and we are using different removal tools also. However, our intention was not to make it complex rather we include strong measurements in the guide that can help you to remove the malware from your PC completely.
Please perform all the steps in the correct order. If you have any questions or doubt at any point, comment down and we will try to assist you.

To remove the Search us.com redirect, follow these steps:

STEP 1: Uninstall Default Tab, New Tab, Wild Tangent from Windows
STEP 2: Use MalwareFox to remove Search us.com redirect
STEP 3: Use HitmanPro to scan for malware and unwanted programs
STEP 4: Reset the browser settings to remove Search us.com

STEP 1 : Uninstall Default Tab, New Tab, Wild Tangent from Windows

In this first step, we will try to identify and remove any malicious program that might be installed on your computer.

Go to “Programs and Features”.
Windows 10
1. On the Start menu, type Control Panel in the Cortana search box and then select “Control Panel” from the results.
2. When the “Control Panel” window opens click on the “Uninstall a program” option under “Programs” category.
Windows 8
Right-click on the Start button and select “Programs and Features”. You will directly reach to the list the of programs installed.
- If there is no Programs and Features in the Start menu, then type “programs and features” into the search bar at the bottom of the Start window, then click the “Programs and Features” result.
- If you don’t see the a Start button, you are likely running Windows 8 instead of Windows 8.1. So, press the Windows key + X to open the menu instead and select “Programs and Features”.
Windows 7
1. Click on Start, then click on “Control Panel” then click on “Control Panel”.
  
  If you don’t see “Control Panel” here, type control panel into the search bar at the bottom of the Start window, then click the “Control Panel” result.
2. Once you see the “Control Panel”, click on “ Uninstall a Program” from the Programs category.
Find the malicious program and uninstall it.

Now you will see the list of all installed programs in the PC, carefully observe every program and find Default Tab, New Tab, Wild Tangent, then select it, and click the “Uninstall” button.

Your PC may have different malicious program thus the name may not match. If you cannot find any unwanted malicious programs on your PC, then you can skip to the next step
Follow the screen instructions to uninstall the program.

In the next screen prompt, click on Yes, and then follow the prompts to uninstall the program.

Read all screen instructions carefully during installation, because malicious programs always try to trick you in hoping that you won’t read properly.

If Default Tab, New Tab, Wild Tangent is stubborn and doesn't easily uninstall, then you can use Revo Uninstaller Free. It force uninstall the application and also deletes their remaining files from your system.

STEP 2: Use MalwareFox to remove Search us.com adware

MalwareFox is antimalware that works on heuristic approach to detect and remove malware from your PC. It analyzes the malware signatures as well as their behaviour. If a program acts like a malware then MalwareFox blocks it right there. It is lightweight on your system resource and finishes the scan quickly.

Its not like I am recommending you to install a costly software to remove the malware. The MalwareFox subscription charges are fairly low. But that is for a fully featured program with real-time protection capabilities. The scanning works even with the free version, though you can try the MalwareFox Premium for 14 days. Also, you don't need to remove your current antivirus, MalwareFox will work effectively without any conflicts.

Download MalwareFox.

You can download MalwareFox by clicking the link below.

MALWAREFOX DOWNLOAD LINK
(The above link will open a new page from where you can download MalwareFox)
Double-click on the MalwareFox setup file.

Once the MalwareFox is downloaded, double click on MalwareFox.exe file to install it on your PC. The downloaded files are mostly saved to the Downloads folder.

You will see an User Account Control pop-up asking if you want to allow MalwareFox to make changes to your device. Click on “Yes” to proceed with the installation steps.
Follow the on-screen prompts to install MalwareFox.

First MalwareFox installer ask you to choose the language, select your preferend language and click on OK.

Then the MalwareFox installation Wizard appears, click on Next and follow the screen instructions to setup MalwareFox on your PC.

Once the installation is complete, MalwareFox will download the latest version and virus signatures from the server. Let it update.
Click on “Scan” Button.

To perform a system scan, click on the “Scan” button.
Wait for MalwareFox scan to complete.

MalwareFox is now scanning your computer for adware, pop-ups, browser hijackers, and other malicious programs. This process can take a few minutes, so you can do some other work while it is scanning your PC, don't worry the PC won't get slow during the scan.
Click on “Next”.

Once the scan has completed, you will see the list of detected threats on your PC. To remove the malware that MalwareFox has found, click on the “Next” button.

When the malware removal process is complete, you can close MalwareFox and continue with the rest of the instructions.

STEP 3: Use HitmanPro to scan for malware and unwanted programs

HitanPro works on unique cloud-based approach to detect the threats. You can use it as a second opinion malware scanner. HitmanPro also observe the behaviour active programs and checks the locations where malware normally resides. If there is a suspicious file then it upload thes file to cloud where it is scanned by Bitdefender and Kaspersky antivirus engines.

HitmanPro is available for a 30-days trail that lets you to clean the threats. After that you may need to purchase it which costs around $24.95 for 1 year single PC. If you won't upgrade then you can scan using the HitmanPro however it won't let you remove or quarntine the detected threat.

Download HitmanPro.

You can download HitmanPro by clicking the link.

HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK
(The above link will open a new web page from where you can download HitmanPro)
Install HitmanPro.

When HitmanPro has finished downloading, double-click on “hitmanpro.exe” if you have 32-bit Windows or “hitmanpro_x64.exe” if you have 64-bit windows, to install this program on your PC. In most cases, downloaded files are saved to the Downloads folder.

Now you will see an User Account Control pop-up asking if you want to allow HitmanPro to make changes to your device. Click “Yes” to install it on your PC.
Follow the screen instructions.

When HitmanPro starts you will see the start screen as shown below. Click on the “Next” button to perform a system scan.
Wait for the HitmanPro scan to complete.

HitmanPro will now start scanning your PC for malware. This process may take a few minutes.
Click on “Next”.

Once HitmanPro finished the scan, you will see a list of all the malicious programs that it found in your system. Click on the “Next” button to remove the malware.

When the process is complete, you can close HitmanPro and continue with the rest of the instructions.

(OPTIONAL) STEP 5: Reset the browser to remove Search us.com pop-up ads

If you are still seeing Search us.com site on your browser, then you need to reset the web browser settings to their defaults. If your issue has been solved by the above methods, then there is no need to follow this step.

Google Chrome

To remove Search us.com pop-up ads from Google Chrome, you need to reset the browser to its default settings. Resetting the browser settings will undo the unwanted changes due to malicious software. However, resetting will not affect the bookmarks and passwords saved in the Chrome.

Open Chrome’s “Settings” menu.

Click on Chrome’s main menu button, located in top right corner and looks like three vertical dots. Now click on “Settings”.
At the bottom, click “Advanced”.

You will see Chrome’s “Settings” in a new tab. Next, scroll down to the bottom and click on the “Advanced” button.
Under the section “Reset,” click “Reset”.

Now you will see Chrome’s advanced settings. Scroll down to the “Reset and clean up” section. Then click on the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
Confirm by clicking “Reset”.

Now you will see a confirmation dialog, detailing the components that will be restored to their default state should you continue on with the reset process. To confirm the reset action, click on the “Reset Settings” button.

Mozilla Firefox

To remove Search us.com pop-up ads from Mozilla Firefox, you need to reset the browser to its default settings. Resetting will remove several changes done by malicious software or add-ons, however it doesn't affect important things like bookmarks, web form auto-fill information, passwords, browsing history and open tabs.

Go to the “Help” menu.

Click on Firefox’s main menu button, located in the top right corner, represented by three horizontal lines. Then click on “Help“.
Click “Troubleshooting Information”.

Now click on “Troubleshooting Information“.

If you’re unable to access the “Help” menu, then you can type about:support in the address bar and press enter to directly open troubleshooting page.
Click on “Refresh Firefox”

Now click on the “Refresh Firefox” button which is on the upper-right corner of the “Troubleshooting Information” page.
Confirm.

Now you will see the confirmation message telling you the action you are about to take. Click on the “Refresh Firefox” button to confirm the action.
Click on “Finish”.

Firefox gets closed and its settings will reset. Then it will display the list with information that was imported. Now click on the “Finish“.

Firefox will collect the information that it removed and put it in the “Old Firefox Data“ folder on the desktop. If resetting does not fix the problem you can restore this information by putting the files in the current profile folder. This folder contains senstive information, so if you don't need it then delete it so that it doesn't get in hands of other people.

Internet Explorer

To remove Search us.com pop-up ads from Internet Explorer, you need to reset the browser to its default settings. Resetting will help you to take Internet Explorer settings to the stat when it was first installed on your computer.

Go to “Internet Options”.

Open Internet Explorer browser, click on the gear icon in the top right part of the browser, now select “Internet Options“.
Go to “Advanced” tab, then click “Reset”

In the “Internet Options”, click on the “Advanced” tab, then select the “Reset” button.
Click on “Reset”.

In the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” window, click on the “Delete personal settings” checkbox, then click on the “Reset” button.
Click on “Close”.

Once the Internet Explorer completes all the action, click on the “Close” button.
Now you need to restart the Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft Edge

To remove Search us.com pop-up ads from Microsoft Edge, you need to reset the browser to its default settings. You can repair or reset the Microsoft Edge settings after the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709).

Go to “Apps and Features”.

Right-click on the Start button and select “Apps and Features“. It will open the list of all installed programs.
Find Microsoft Edge from the list, then click “Advanced Options”.

You will see the list of all programs in your PC. Scroll through the list and locate “Microsoft Edge”, select it, and then click on the “Advanced options”.
Click on “Reset”.

Now you will see the “Advanced Options”. Find the “Reset” section, as shown in the picture below. Then click on the “Reset” button.

Your computer should now be clean, and you will not see the Search us.com pop-up ads in your browser. If you are still facing problems while trying to remove Search us.com adware then please comment down your problem. We will try to help you as much as possible.

4 thoughts on “Remove Search us.com (start.search.us.com)”

Rob

January 2, 2013 at 6:25 pm

This process did not work for me either. I had to go through a very painful process for two days. I found that Norton 360 work but I had additional work to get this accomplished. Down load the Norton 360 and use their free trial if you don’t won to pay the $40 – $80 charge and then cancel the service when done. First you have to uninstall the Start.Search.US program and run Norton. Then you have to restart you computer in the Network Safe Mode. From their For Windows IE you have to disable the add-on and remove the search bar in the tools section of IE. For Firefox you have to go into the configuration (about:config). You do this by entering about:config in the address line. You then have to Reset all configurations that have anything to do with Start Search US. This means there may be other programs associated with it. If that does not clean up Firefox you will have to uninstall Firefox completely and reinstall it.

This is one nasty program. I hope this helps.
jen

January 3, 2013 at 1:54 am

viruspup.com is a helpful guide and tools on how to deal with problems such as Malwares or viruses that popping up the internet. It is for everyone like you and me who is not so savvy in computer.

I would like to say thank you for this site for opening our eyes and give us knowledge to solve this problem in case we encounter them.

Jen
spencer2x

June 24, 2013 at 11:13 am

Thanks to this guide.

Here�s what I did, I found and uninstall the Wild Tangent games from add/remove program. Then, I deleted Default Tab extension from the browser. Do not look for search.us.com because you will never find it on both areas.

You may have a different values on your own PC but I am sure it is somehow similar to what I have found. If you cannot find the exact value, just look for any suspicious items and delete them.

Lastly, download and scan the computer with AdwCleaner. This tool is free.
shiban

August 16, 2013 at 5:58 am

Thank you very much.My all three browsers got infected by this when i installed a software and this article helped me to remove it.
Thanks