Led-search2016.com

Led-search2016.com is a clone of such browser hijackers like Max-search2016.com, Registration-search.com, and Paper-search2016.com. Same as the mentioned applications, it can settle on user’s browser and modify his default homepage. What you should worry about is the fact that the threat could replace your start page with an unreliable search engine. If the user would start using it, the software could show him modified search results, which might contain unreliable third-party advertising. Since some of the ads could redirect you to potentially malicious web pages, it is not advisable to interact with them. In fact, our researchers recommend the browser hijacker's removal because such type of applications cannot be considered as reliable. If you decide to get rid of Led-search2016.com, we can guide you through the deletion process with the instructions placed at the end of the article.

Even though the software does not seem to be very popular at the moment, it does not mean it cannot hijack users' browsers. According to our specialists, at the moment Led-search2016.com could be spread only with bundled installers. Such files might be distributed in suspicious file-sharing web pages. Therefore, it is quite likely that users do not install the application intentionally.

The threat could be accepted accidentally on another program’s setup wizard. Perhaps, you often skip reading the terms and conditions on the installation wizard. In that case, you might have overlooked additional software suggestions and installed the browser hijacker unknowingly. If this happens from time to time, we would advise you to invest a couple more minutes during the installation and spend them while reading given terms. Usually, bundled software can be rejected; you just have to deselect it yourself.

Led-search2016.com appears on user’s computer by replacing his previous homepage. The search engine might look rather normal compared to other similar tools, but there are some details that make it seem suspicious. First of all, the site does not display Terms of Use or Privacy Policy. The lack of these documents is critical because, without them, we do not know who released the software, how it works on the system, what kind of information it might gather while using the search engine, how the collected data could be shared, and so on. The fact that the site does not provide any information about the search engine makes us question the application and does not allow us to consider it as reliable.

Another suspicious thing you may have noticed yourself while using Led-search2016.com is that it might display third-party advertisements among provided search results. Again, without Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, we cannot be sure from where these ads could come from. Thus, it is quite possible for users to encounter potentially dangerous ads. As you might guess it yourself, some of the third-party ads could lead you to web pages distributing other suspicious programs supported with advertising, e.g. adware, potentially unwanted programs, and more. Other ads might even redirect you to websites with malicious content like Trojans, viruses, and other infections.

Clearly, users can try to avoid clicking potentially dangerous ads, but is it worth to keep such an unreliable search engine at all? Especially, when there are quite a few trustworthy search tools to choose from. If you do not want to take any risks with the browser hijacker, you should simply erase it from the browser. The manual removal might be not the easiest option, but if you are experienced enough, it should not be too complicated. All there is to do is to follow the instructions below and either fix or delete data that was modified by Led-search2016.com. The other way to erase the applications is to use an antimalware tool. Such software would allow you to scan the whole computer and find the browser hijacker automatically. After the scan, you can get rid of the unwanted program and also of other possible threats with a single mouse click.

Remove Led-search2016.com

Internet Explorer

1. Press Win+R, type regedit and press Enter.
2. Navigate to given directories one by one:
   HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
   HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
3. Locate value names titled as Start page in each of the paths listed above.
4. Right-Click these value names one by one to select Modify.
5. Check if the value data contains http://led-search2016.com, if you see this link replace it with a trustworthy website and click OK.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Launch the Explorer and use it to navigate to the following location: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{Unique Mozilla user ID}
2. Right-click a file called Prefs.js and open it with Notepad.
3. Find this code line: user_pref(“browser.startup.homepage”, “http://led-search2016.com”).
4. Instead of the browser hijacker’s link insert another URL address.
5. Press Ctrl+S and close Prefs.js.

Google Chrome

1. Press Win+E to open the Explorer.
2. Use it to locate this path: C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
3. Look for files named as Preferences and Secure Preferences.
4. Right-click these files one by one and choose Delete.