Startme.online

Startme.online is a questionable search engine that can show up in your browsers uninvited and may even remain unnoticed since it looks totally like your default homepage and new tab page in your major browsers. There is practically no legitimate way for you to end up with this search engine in your browsers; therefore, it is already quite suspicious for the trained eye. Since its presence can also be a sign that malware infections and potentially unwanted programs may have entered your system together, you need to be extra careful going online. In fact, it would be best to remove Startme.online from your browsers right away to put a quick end to being exposed to potentially unreliable web content; even if right now it seems that this search engine does not manipulate results, i.e., does not seem to promote its own affiliates through search results. Nevertheless, this can easily change in the near future by the time this search engine will be well-spread. In order to understand the consequences of having this search engine in your browsers, please read our full report.

It seems that the creators of this search engine do have a plan since it was not enough for them to come up with just one legitimate-looking search engine but right away there are couple of them that have hit the web, including Startme.today. These are practically identical search engines, which makes us believe that they might actually start promoting third-parties through search results or in other ways possible to generate revenue for their creators. Of course, we cannot confirm this now but this makes sense to us anyway. There are basically two ways for you to end up with this search engine in your browsers.

First, you may simply click on a corrupt third-party advertisement or link on a shady website or generated by malware on your computer. This content can redirect you to this search engine and there you go. If the former case is true, you may be in the luck and there might be no infections hiding on board. So it could be enough for you to close the browser window or just the tab to delete Startme.online. Second, this search engine may sneak onto your system bundled. This can happen when you download free software from questionable torrent and freeware pages, you click on unsafe third-party ads, or when your computer is infected with adware, for example. Such a bundle can carry several potentially unwanted programs as well as malware infections, such as browser hijackers, ransomware programs, Trojans, and adware programs among others. This is why you need to be extra careful when surfing the web without your PC being protected by security software. We recommend that after you delete Startme.online from your PC, you find a reliable online malware scanner and use it to scan your system for malicious threats and potential threats as well if you want to restore your virtual security.

This search engine looks all professional and legitimate. As we have said, it actually looks very similar to your Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox default homepage and new tab page. This is why you may not even realize the change. However, this search engine could install itself as your homepage, new tab as well as your default search engine, which means that it can completely take over the control of your web searches in your browsers. In the top-right corner of this page, you can find four quick links: Gmail, Images, Facebook, and YouTube. Below the search field, there are eight thumbnail links to popular and probably promoted sites, such as eBay, AliExpress, Instagram, Amazon, and Facebook. Right now, of course, it seems that this search engine is all reliable and produces real search results by redirecting your queries to Google. However, let us warn you. This can change any time and that would mean that this search engine could start promoting more and more affiliates who may not always be reliable. This is when your clicks on its search results pages will become more and more risky. We believe that it is best if you remove Startme.online right now.

Since it is possible that this search engine tries to force itself on you, the Target Line of your affected browsers' shortcuts could be changed. We recommend that you check those first if you want to be successful at eliminating this search engine. Then, you can reset all your browsers to make sure that no leftovers remain. Please find our instructions below if you feel up to the task manually. Since there could be other threats, more dangerous than this is now, we recommend that you use a reliable anti-malware program like SpyHunter to automatically tackle all other present threats and future ones as well.

How to restore the Target lines

1. Right-click on your browser shortcut on your desktop.
2. Select Properties and click on the General tab.
3. Make sure that the Read-only box is unchecked.
4. Click on the Shortcut tab.
5. Remove the extra string in the Target line after the quotes. Click OK.
6. Right-click on the shortcut on your Taskbar to display the menu.
7. Right-click on the browser name option at the bottom.
8. Repeat steps 2 to 5 to restore the Target line.

How to remove Startme.online from your browsers

Mozilla Firefox

1. Tap Alt+H and go to Troubleshooting Information.
2. Press Refresh Firefox.
3. In the confirmation window, press Refresh Firefox again.

Internet Explorer

1. Tap Alt+T and navigate to Internet Options.
2. Select the Advanced tab and press Reset.
3. Mark the Delete personal settings checkbox.
4. Press Reset and Press Close.

Google Chrome

1. Tap Alt+F and pick Settings.
2. Scroll down and click the Advanced link.
3. Scroll down and click the Reset link.
4. Press Reset in the pop-up window.