Search.searchfdm.com

Search.searchfdm.com is a search engine you should not take any chances with. Our specialists tested the application and, because of its particular behavior, categorized it as a browser hijacker. Apparently, the threat might hijack the browser by replacing particular settings and setting Search.searchfdm.com as user’s default start page, new tab page, or default search engine. Also, the program could show you unreliable advertising content, so if you noticed it on your computer, we would advise you to get rid of it. To make the task easier, our specialists prepared a manual removal guide available below the article. It will guide you through the deletion process if you choose to eliminate this search engine. However, if this appears to be too difficult, it would be more advisable to use trustworthy antimalware software. For more details about the application’s working manner or ways of distribution, we encourage you to continue reading the text.

It looks like Search.searchfdm.com could be distributed with malicious bundled installers. Meaning, the application could come with additional software suggestions that usually appears once users launch a bundled setup file. Therefore, it is extremely important to look through displayed conditions and suggestions in the configuration wizard carefully. If you see anything, you would not like to receive, such software should be deselected, because otherwise it might get installed automatically.

More importantly, we would advise users to pay more attention to the web pages they download setup files from and programs they choose to acquire. The application’s creators should be reputable too, not to mention it would be wise to avoid software with bad reviews. As in this case, we doubt Search.searchfdm.com has any good reviews since it is a browser hijacker. Speaking about its publishers, they remain to be unknown even though there are lots of other identical clones of this application. If you want to protect the computer and files as much as possible we could suggest using a reliable antimalware tool too. It can help you guard the system not only from browser hijackers but also from more harmful threats such as malware.

The first sign the browser was hijacked by Search.searchfdm.com or other similar application is replaced start page, default search engine, or new tab page preferences. By creating such software, usually its creator’s hope the user will search the Internet with the new search engine despite the fact that it might have modified user’s settings without his knowledge. As you see, if you surf the Internet with this search engine its creators may receive advertising revenue, because the displayed results could be injected with third-party advertisements. The displayed ads may appear in forms of pop-ups, sponsored links, banners, and so on. They might look tempting or useful at first, but interacting with them could be not the best idea.

While the hijacker’s creators may receive advertising revenue from your clicks, you could be redirected to unreliable web pages. We doubt anyone reviews displayed third-party ads, so there is a chance that some of them might come from untrustworthy web pages. In other words, some of the ads could promote threats like adware, potentially unwanted programs, or even malware (e.g. ransomware, Trojans, viruses, and so on). If you click these suspicious ads, we would also advise you to check the Privacy Policy of the webpage you get redirected to, because if the site is unreliable, it could invade your privacy by gathering sensitive data.

Given the risks we just mentioned we do not think it is worth to keep such a suspicious application on the computer. At least not when you can replace it with a more reliable search engine, e.g. google.com, bing.com, and so on. Users who would like to eliminate the browser hijacker manually could do so while following the instructions located below. In case they seem to be too complicated, users could get rid of Search.searchfdm.com by installing a trustworthy antimalware tool too. All there is to do is to click the scanning button and wait till the scan is over. Then you can press the provided deletion button, and the tool should remove all detections.

Erase Search.searchfdm.com

Internet Explorer

1. Tap Win+R.
2. Type Regedit into the RUN box and click Enter.
3. Search for the following path in the Registry Editor: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
4. Locate value name called Start Page.
5. Right-click it and press Modify.
6. Instead of http://search.searchfdm.com place another link and click OK.
7. Look for value names called FaviconURL, FaviconURLFallback, TopResultURL, and URL in the given location: HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}
8. Right-click provided value names separately and press Modify.
9. Change their value data and click OK.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Win+E.
2. Locate Prefs.js file in the following directory:
   C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{Unique Mozilla user ID}
3. Launch the file with Notepad and search for this line: user_pref(“browser.startup.homepage”, “http://search.searchfdm.com”).
4. Replace http://search.searchfdm.com with a more reliable link and click OK.
5. Save the changes before closing prefs.js.

Google Chrome

1. Tap Win+E.
2. Go to this particular location: C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
3. Find data called Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data.
4. Right-click all of the listed files separately and select Delete to erase them.