Search.searchlye.com

Search.searchlye.com is not a reliable search engine, so if you ever encounter it, we would recommend being extra cautious. Our researchers say it may display modified search results injected with various pop-ups, banners, sponsored links, and other suspicious advertising content. Unfortunately, after clicking such ads, the user could get redirected to potentially malicious web pages belonging to different third parties. Therefore, if you ever come across such content, we would advise you no to interact with it unless you are one hundred percent sure it will not put your computer or your privacy at risk. More than that if such advertisements seem to be annoying and the user does not wish to surf the Internet with such an untrustworthy tool our researchers encourage users to remove the threat with no hesitation. Anyone who needs any assistance while getting rid of Search.searchlye.com could have a look at the instructions available below. As for more details about the application, you should continue reading our article.

First of all, it might be useful to know the search engine falls under the classification of browser hijackers. To put it simply, it means it may alter one of your browser preferences, for example, default search provider, start page, or new tab page. According to our researchers, Search.searchlye.com should be after user’s homepage. Thus, once it enters the system, the hijacked browser is supposed to load this threat every time it is launched. No doubt, this way the tool’s creators seek to encourage the user surf the Internet with its help instead of choosing reputable search engines like google.com, search.yahoo.com, and so on. In fact, while brow3sing with Search.searchlye.com, it might seem like you are actually using one of the mentioned legitimate search engines since the results could be displayed by them or to be more precise with their modified or custom versions.

The bad news is even if the browser hijacker uses a custom version of a legitimate search engine to gather the results; it is entirely possible Search.searchlye.com might be able to inject them with third-party advertisements. In other words, the results you receive might be not entirely the same as they could be when surfing with original google.com or search.yahoo.com. Our researchers say among them there might be pop-ups and other annoying advertisements suggesting third-party software downloading or visiting their web pages. As stated earlier it would be inadvisable to do so since there is a possibility you could accidentally download another browser hijacker, potentially unwanted program, adware, or even malicious applications like Trojans, viruses, etc. Some of the third-party websites could be created to steal user’s sensitive or private data as well. To do so, they may invite you to fill fictitious surveys, participate in fake lotteries, etc. Consequently, we do not recommend clicking them or using this suspicious search engine.

If you wonder how it may have entered the system, we should say there are a few possibilities. For starters, the user could install it by clicking suspicious advertisements presented on unreliable file-sharing web pages or shown by other threats located on the computer. Furthermore, some applications similar to Search.searchlye.com enter the system through bundled software installers, and our researchers say it is entirely possible in this case too. If so the search engine could settle in without the user even realizing it as some bundled installers do not state it clearly there will be other programs placed on the computer or the user has to deselect them manually after choosing custom or advances settings. However, users often go with automatic installation as it allows them to rush the process.

Naturally, if you do not wish to encounter such browser hijackers or threats alike in the future, we would advise you to be more cautious and put more effort to ensure the system is protected. To begin with, you could erase Search.searchlye.com manually while following the instructions available at the end of this article. Also, users could install a reliable antimalware tool and scan their systems with it. This way, you could remove not just the browser hijackers, but other threats that might be hiding in the system as well.

Erase Search.searchlye.com

Internet Explorer

1. Press Win+R.
2. Type Regedit into the box.
3. Select OK to launch the Registry Editor.
4. Navigate till you find this path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
5. Right-click a value name called Start Page.
6. Click Modify and replace http://Search.searchlye.com with a trustworthy website.
7. Press OK.
8. Exit the Registry Editor.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Win+E.
2. Find the following location: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{user profile}
3. Right-click a file called prefs.js and open it in Notepad.
4. Search for a specific line: user_pref(“browser.startup.homepage”, “http://Search.searchlye.com”).
5. Replace http://Search.searchlye.com with a trustworthy website and press Ctrl+S.
6. Close the file.

Google Chrome

1. Tap Win+E to launch the Explorer.
2. Look for the exact same location: %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
3. Locate files called Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data.
4. Right-click them separately and select Delete.
5. Leave the Explorer.