Search.searchgbv.com

Search.searchgbv.com is a browser hijacker that has been created to help its developers make some money. Browser hijackers may not be extremely dangerous threats, but they can be very annoying in a sense that they can meddle with your browser’s settings, and they can expose you to potentially harmful content. That is why computer security experts recommend removing Search.searchgbv.com and all the other similar intruders from the affected system immediately. For the manual removal instructions, scroll down to the bottom of this description. The rest of this article will deal with the Search.searchgbv.com browser hijacker and how it manages to reach your computer.

Sometimes it is hard to perceive the danger behind a browser hijacker because they do not look particularly malicious. In fact, if you have not been exposed to browser hijackers before, Search.searchgbv.com may look like your regular search engine, and perhaps some users would even be inclined to utilize it. However, it is not a good idea to use a browser hijacker for your online searches because this program will definitely monitor your online browsing, collecting information about the websites you visit. Later on, that information can be used against you in various online marketing schemes.

Of course, the best way to fight this intruder is to avoid the infection (if we can even call it that way) altogether. The reason we are reluctant to call Search.searchgbv.com a malware infection is because users download and install it willingly. Here you might say that you never wanted to have this browser hijacker on your computer, and you are absolutely right. But it does not mean that you could not install it accidentally. Such installations are quite frequent especially when we consider that browser hijackers and a bunch of other unwanted applications get distributed in software packages. So you may add this program to your browser without even realizing it when you download some other application.

Here we reach another point of our description: prevention. It is possible to avoid such intruders if you are careful about the programs you download from third-party sources. It is always safer to download programs from their official sources. Although file-sharing websites do not specifically engage in malware distribution, they can be easily exploited by cyber criminals for corrupted content distribution. Also, there are a lot of installers out there that bundle several programs together, and users do not even bother checking all the steps when they install new programs. Consequently, the likes of Search.searchgbv.com get added to their browsers, too.

The good news is that we have seen programs like Search.searchgbv.com before. Our research team suggests that this browser hijacker is similar to Search.searchlttrn.com, Search.yourpackagesnow.com, Search.yourmapscenter.com, and so on. There are a lot of browser hijackers from the same family, and the sheer abundance clearly shows that they are not too sophisticated. So the chances are that one behavioral pattern applies to all the programs in the group. And if you know how to remove one of them, you will be able to get rid of them all.

What is the worst about Search.searchgbv.com? As you can probably tell, this browser hijacker can easily change your homepage settings, and it will employ tracking cookies to collect information on your web browsing history. Although this kind of practice is quite common among browser extensions and even popular websites, our problem with Search.searchgbv.com is that the browser hijacker cannot guarantee the collected data will be handled safely. It might as well share it with unreliable third parties, and it could result in a lot of corrupted content on your screen when you browse various sites. Thus, it is necessary to get rid of this program in order to protect your system from serious harm.

The removal instructions for each browser will differ, but it is not complicated to delete Search.searchgbv.com on your own. After the manual removal, however, you should scan your computer with a security tool because there is a very good chance you have multiple unwanted applications on-board. They might be responsible for slowing down your system performance and other various issues, so you have to check it out. Make sure your computer is safe and clean before you turn it off for the day.

How to Remove Search.searchgbv.com

Internet Explorer

1. Press Win+R and type regedit. Click OK.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
3. On the right pane, right-click the Start Page value.
4. Select Modify and change your homepage address. Click OK.

Firefox

1. Press Win+R and type %AppData%. Click OK.
2. Go to Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[Unique User ID].
3. Use Notepad to open the prefs.js file.
4. Delete this string: user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "Search.searchgbv.com");
5. Save changes and exit the file.

Chrome

1. Press Win+R and type %LocalAppData%. Click OK.
2. Navigate to Google\Chrome\User Data\Default.
3. Delete Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data files.