Max-search2016.com

Max-search2016.com is a newcomer in a new browser hijacker family that includes Time-search2016.com, Newsearch2016.com, and Mim-search2016.com to mention some of the latest “children.” The main trait of this family is that all of these hijackers are completely identical apart from the URLs and that none of them actually work. This means that right now you cannot search the web with these search engines, which is good news, too, because you cannot put your system security at risk either. But once these hijackers are activated, you could put your virtual security at risk by leaving them in your browsers. In fact, when this search engine page appears in your browsers as your new home page, there is a good chance that other malware infections have also entered your system. If you would like to restore order on your computer, we suggest that you remove Max-search2016.com right now. For the details about this malware infection and the potential risks it may hold for you, please continue reading.

The reason for you to find this browser hijacker on your computer, or more precisely, in your browsers is that you must have clicked on a corrupted third-party advertisement and you downloaded a freeware bundle or directly installed this hijacker. This can easily happen when your computer is infected with malware threats, such as adware applications and browser hijackers. These infections are capable of displaying unreliable advertisements. Hijackers, for example, can manipulate search results and insert third-party ads and sponsored links that might come from cyber criminals. Clicking on these could easily install this browser hijacker or drop a fully loaded malicious bundle onto your system, too.

Another possibility is that you end up on questionable file-sharing and online gaming websites that are filled with third-party content. These pages host many misleading ads that do not even look like commercials. These deceiving ads could be fake download buttons, next or previous-page buttons that show up as part of the main page and this makes them rather misleading, or system notifications making you believe that you need to run a special scanner or update your system, and so on. It is very easy to click on these if you are not familiar with the page you land on, for instance, after a web search. If you are in doubt how this browser hijacker ended up on your computer, we suggest that after you delete Max-search2016.com, you also run a malware scanner to find all other malicious or potentially harmful applications as well. Your PC will not be safe for you to use unless you clean all infections from it.

This malware infection works exactly the same way as all its siblings from the same family, or should we rather say it does not work at all just like its predecessors. In fact, there is only one functioning thing on this search page: the keyword links. You can find keywords in groups of five in eight groups all together. These represent main or popular search categories, including Business, Games, News, and Computers. If you click on a keyword, it shows in the search field. That is all the action you will actually see right now on this search page. However, once it starts working, you could be exposed to modified search results. This means that the search results page you will see, even if it is a Google, Yahoo, or Bing page, it could be manipulated to include links and ads leading to affiliates’ websites. Obviously, this hijacker can only make money for its creators if it can drive web traffic to third-party websites. However, these third parties may not always be reliable. If cyber criminals take advantage of this search engine and embed their corrupt links in the results pages, you could end up on malicious websites or directly drop infections onto your system by clicking on such questionable contents. This is why we recommend that you delete Max-search2016.com as soon as possible.

If you are ready to act, here is what you can do to eliminate this annoying threat with all its potential risks. First of all, you can reset all the infected browsers to make sure that no other threats remain in them. But if you choose manual removal, you can use our guide below. Hopefully, you see now how easy it is to infect your own computer with malware threats. It is always more difficult to clean up after them since they rarely come alone in fact. If you want effective protection for your computer, we recommend that you use a reliable anti-malware program that will provide you automatic malware detection and elimination. Another important thing you can do to help protect your system is to keep all your drivers and programs updated.

How to remove Max-search2016.com from browsers

Google Chrome

1. Press Win+E.
2. Find “C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default” folder.
3. Delete these files: Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Win+E.
2. Locate “C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{Unique Mozilla user ID}” folder.
3. Open prefs.js in a text editor.
4. Replace “max-search2016.com” in the user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://max-search2016.com/") string with a URL you prefer.

Internet Explorer

1. Press Win+Q and type in regedit. Hit the Enter key.
2. Edit “http://max-search2016.com” value data in these registry keys:
   HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page (64-bit)
   HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page
   HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page
3. Close the registry editor.