What is Search-mate.com?
Search-mate.com is a deceptive search site that shows irrelevant search results. Actually, it’s a creation of unscrupulous developers that aims to increase traffic to affiliate sites. Such type of infection is called “browser hijacker” because it affects only browsers and corrupts their configurations. As a result, appearance of intrusive pop-up ads, slowness of the system, redirecting links, random websites opening and even spying on you, all of these are caused by browser hijacker. Besides that, it’s able to track users’ movements on the Web (browsing history, search queries, clicked ads, and so on) in order to deliver customized ads. In this article, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to get rid of browser hijacker and remove Search-mate.com from your browsers.
How to remove Search-mate.com from your computer?
The best and easiest way to remove Search-mate.com from your computer is to use powerful anti-malware program that has this threat in its database.
CleanMyMac – fully removes all instances of Search-mate.com from Mac and Safari. After deep scanning of your system, it will easily find and delete Search-mate.com. Use this removal tool to get rid of Search-mate.com for FREE.
Combo Cleaner – can find malicious program that is corrupting your system and clean up junk files after removal.
How to remove Search-mate.com manually
Step 1: Remove Search-mate.com from Applications
In order to get rid of Search-mate.com, the first thing you need to do is to uninstall malicious program from your computer. When removing Search-mate.com, try to find suspicious recently installed programs and delete them too, as it’s pretty common that any malware comes with some other unwanted programs.
Mac OSX:
- Launch Finder
- Select Applications in the Finder sidebar.
- If you see Uninstall Search-mate.com or Search-mate.com Uninstaller, double-click it and follow instructions
- Drag unwanted application from the Applications folder to the Trash (located on the right side of the Dock)
Note: If you can’t find a required program, sort programs by date and search for suspicious recently installed programs. If you still can’t locate any suspicious program or not sure what some application is for, we advise you to use Removal tool in order to track down what malicious program is infecting your system.
Step 2: Remove Search-mate.com from Profiles
Sometimes malware might have its entries in Group Policy that helps browser hijacker overrides search engine every time you reset browser settings.
- Open System Preferences
- Go to Profiles at the bottom of window.
- Choose AdminPrefs profile, click “-“ icon and enter password.
Step 3: Remove Search-mate.com from browsers
Once you’ve uninstalled the application, remove Search-mate.com from your web browser. You need to search for recently-installed suspicious add-ons and extensions.
Safari:
- Click Preferences from Safari menu
- Select Extensions.
- Find Search-mate.com or other extensions that look suspicious.
- Click Uninstall button to remove it.
Google Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome
- Push Alt + F.
- Choose Tools.
- Select Extensions.
- Search for Search-mate.com.
- Select the trash can icon to remove it.
Mozilla Firefox:
- Open Firefox.
- Push Shift + Ctrl + A.
- Select Search-mate.com.
- Choose Disable or Remove option.
How to block malicious pop-ups in browsers
Adguard is a perfect application that will get rid your system of annoying ads, online tracking and will provide reliable protection from malware. The main advantage of Adguard is that you can easily block any types of ads whether legitimate they or not within your browser. Use it for FREE.
Adguard provides 14 days for trial use, to continue using the program, you will need to purchase the full version: $19.95 for a yearly subscription/ $49.95 for lifetime version. By clicking the button, you agree to EULA and Privacy Policy. Downloading will start automatically.