Play-Bar.net

Your privacy has most probably been breached if you are presented with Play-Bar.net when you open your browser. Since this search engine usually appears on computers without permission, it has been labeled a browser hijacker. Leaving such an illegal intruder on your computer could have serious consequences with regard to your system’s security. This hijacker can also sneak onto your operating system along with other malware programs, which may also expose you to unsafe web content. The presence of this intrusive browser hijacker clearly holds multiple potential risks. Therefore, we advise you to remove Play-Bar.net as soon as possible. Not acting in time may result in more malware threats on your PC, which would only be the “best” case scenario. Hopefully, you will find our article useful in the fight against this hijacker.

As you might guess from its name, Play-Bar.net promotes online games mostly. Even below the search box it displays quick links to games, which you can reveal by clicking on the “Show Games” link. But you also have a “Games” link in the top-right of your screen, which redirects you to a page where you can play all kinds of online games. Obviously, the only reason behind this is to have a surface for displaying third-party ads and promoting third-party products to you. However, we advise you to keep away from these ads and the games as well. Clicking on them might redirect you to unreliable websites.

What is probably even more suspicious is the search tool this hijacker provides. If you enter keywords and hit enter, you get redirected to search.smartshopping.com. Unfortunately, this browser hijacker may modify the search results and insert third-party ads and sponsored links. You should never click on these because there is a chance that you will end up on unsafe websites. Play-Bar.net may also introduce you to different surveys and collect personally identifiable data on you. This can be used to show you customized ads and links, which, again, may lead you to malicious websites. Therefore, we advise you to delete Play-Bar.net from your browsers.

Another reason why you are better off without this useless search engine is that it mostly infects computers via freeware bundles that may be packed with other malware threats. If you are unlucky enough to install such a package, you may allow a whole bunch of infections onto your hard drive. That is why simply removing Play-Bar.net will not sort out all the threats. We recommend that you run an online malware scanner to see what other infections may be endangering you computer’s health.

Since this hijacker performs setting changes in your browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome as well, the easiest way to eliminate Play-Bar.net entirely is to reset them all. If you are not confident about the steps you need to take, please use our guide that we have included below this article. It is also important to note that most users infect their computers through questionable file-sharing websites. If you stay away from those sites and only use reliable and official websites to download software, you can protect your computer from a lot of security issues.

Remove Play-Bar.net from browsers

Mozilla Firefox

1. Tap Alt+H and navigate to Troubleshooting Information.
2. Press Refresh Firefox.
3. In the pop-up window, press Refresh Firefox.
4. Press Finish.

Internet Explorer

1. Press Alt+T and choose Internet Options.
2. Click on the Advanced tab and click Reset.
3. Tick Delete personal settings.
4. Click Reset and press Close.

Google Chrome

1. Press Alt+F and select Settings.
2. At the bottom, click Show advanced settings.
3. At the bottom, click Reset settings.
4. Click Reset.