Completely Eliminate Search-123.com Browser Hijacker from Infected Computer

Your computer is infected by search-123.com browser hijacker? You cannot use your computer smoothly due to the troubles by search-123.com? Please don’t worry. This article will give you some effective methods to remove browser hijacker and bring your computer back to normal.

Details of Search-123.com

Search-123.com is a troublesome browser hijacker that usually comes bundled with other software, especially freeware or shareware. Once infected, it can soon take over the web browsers installed on your computer. It has ability to change your browser default homepage to www.search-123.com and search engine to unknown search. So once you start to go online you will find all your preference is changed. Here is a screenshot of search-123.com browser hijacker.

Commonly, this website is created to promote some third party ads and the sponsored websites. You are recommended to click the pop-up ads or random hyperlinks on any web page related to search-123.com, or you will be redirected to advertising domains that main contains a lot of ads and promotions. As a result, you cannot surf the internet as you like. What’s worse, this suspected website can be compromised by the malware easily. It may have ability to use tracing cookies to monitor your online activities and gather the information they want. And then you may encounter identity theft and information leakage.

You should avoid this browser hijacker. Therefore, you should not get software from unreliable download websites and you’d better choose Advanced or Custom option to install the software you want so that you can deselect the unwanted bundles.

Methods to Remove Search-123.com

Search-123.com may come alongside other unwanted programs and browser extensions. You should remove all of them from your computer. Below are the detailed instructions. Please keep reading.

Method 1: Manually Remove Search-123.com
Method 2: Automatically Get Rid of Search-123.com with SpyHunter

Method 1: Manually Remove Search-123.com

Step 1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del keys together and stop Search-123.com or browser processes in the Windows Task Manager.



Step 2. Uninstall Search-123.com from Control Panel

For Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. Press the “Start” button.
2. Select “Control Panel” from the menu.
3. Choose “Programs & Features”.
4. Find “Search-123.com” in the list of installed programs.
5. Select it and press “Uninstall” or right-click the program and select Uninstall.

For Windows XP and other Windows operating systems

1. Press the “Start” button.
2. Select “Control Panel” from the menu.
3. In the Control Panel, select “Add/Remove Programs”.
4. Find “Search-123.com” in the list of installed programs.
5. Select it and press “Uninstall”.

 (Optional Step) Reset Internet Explorer by the following guide (take IE as an example):

Open Internet Explorer >> Click on Tools >> Click on Internet Options >> In the Internet Options window click on the Connections tab >> Then click on the LAN settings button>> Uncheck the check box labeled “Use a proxy server for your LAN” under the Proxy Server section and press OK.

Step 3. Remove unwanted add-ons from web browser.

Internet Explorer

Go to Tools >> Manage add-ons >> Toolbars and Extensions >> Remove items related to Search-123.com.
Move to Search Providers >> select  items related to Search-123.com and remove it.

Google Chrome

Go to Customize and control Google Chrome (top right menu) >> Tools/Settings >> Extension >> Remove suspicious extensions

 

Reset your settings on On startup >> Set pages, Appearance >> Change, and Search >> Manage search engines...

 

 Mozilla Firefox

Open menu >> Add-on >> remove items related to Search-123.com

 

From Menu >> Option >> General. You can rewrite your home page URL or Restore to Default

Step 4. Restore home page and clear all the cookies of your affected web browsers.

Since the tricky virus has the ability to use cookies for tracing and tracking the internet activity of users, it is suggested users to delete all the cookies before a complete removal.

Google Chrome:

• Click on the "Tools" menu and select "Options"
• Click the "Under the Bonnet" tab, locate the "Privacy" section and Click the "Clear browsing data" button.
• Select "Delete cookies and other site data" and clean up all cookies from the list.

Mozilla Firefox:

• Click on Tools, then Options, select Privacy
• Click "Remove individual cookies"
• In the Cookies panel, click on "Show Cookies"
• To remove a single cookie click on the entry in the list and click on the "Remove Cookie button"
• To remove all cookies click on the "Remove All Cookies button"

Internet Explorer:

• Open Internet explorer window
• Click the "Tools" button
• Point to "safety" and then click "delete browsing history"
• Tick the "cookies" box and then click “delete”
  

Step 5. Show all hidden files and clean all the malicious files.

(1).Click the Start button and choose Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, to find Folder Options then double-click on it.



(2).In the pop-up dialog box, click the View tab and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).



(3). Clean all the malicious files about this infection as below.

%AllUsersProfile%\{random.exe\
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\
%AllUsersProfile%\random.exe
%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\random.exe
%Temp%\random.exe
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\random

Step 6. Delete related malicious registry entries.

Open Registry Editor by pressing Window+R keys together.(another way is clicking on the Start button and choosing Run option, then typing into Regedit and pressing Enter. )



Delete all the vicious registries as below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\<random>Software
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\supWPM
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Wpm
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main "Default_Page_URL" =
"http://www.<random>.com/?type=hp&ts=<timestamp>&from=tugs&uid=<hard drive id>"

 Method 2: Get Rid of  Search-123.com with SpyHunter

SpyHunter is powerful anti-spyware/malware application. It is created to help inexperience computer users to get rid of nasty and stubborn malware including adware, browser hijacker, trojan, worm and may other viruses. There are many features in SpyHunter. You will never regret to remove malware and protect your PC with this application.

You can click the icon below to get SpyHunter.

 

This real-time malware protection and removal tool offers free malware scanner. You can buy the removal service to get rid of all the PC threats detected by it. It has powerful features that other free antivirus cannot offer. 

 

 

 

Optional Suggestion: Regcure Pro - a wonderful Registry Cleaner

If you find some registry errors, such as dll file errors in your computer, Regcure Pro will be a good choice to quickly and powerfully clean your windows registry and protect your system files.

(Reference) Watch Relevant Video to Remove Search-123.com 

 
 

Final Tip：

Search-123.com can cause a lot of troubles. Usually, the manual tips above may help your get rid of it. But if you fail, you can download powerful remover to get rid of it.