Search.searchtsbn.com

Search.searchtsbn.com is a page you might find set as your new homepage on all your browsers (it is compatible with Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome). At first, it does look like an ordinary search provider with a bar at the top containing quick-access buttons opening popular news websites and a search box in the middle, but specialists do not consider this page a trustworthy search tool. They have decided to call it a browser hijacker instead because users usually do not know anything about its appearance on their browsers, meaning that their browsers get hijacked. We know that Search.searchtsbn.com looks legitimate, but it does not mean that you should keep it set or use it to find the information on the web. Keep in mind that there are no trustworthy search providers that alter settings of users’ browsers without their knowledge. Luckily, the Search.searchtsbn.com browser hijacker is nothing like these harmful malicious applications, so you should be able to get rid of it quite easily, especially if you read this report first and then use the removal guide prepared by specialists working at pcthreat.com.

Before we explain to you what you need to do to get rid of Search.searchtsbn.com, we, first, want to let you know why it would not be the smartest idea to use it as a default tool for searching the web. Since this page is not the first product of Polarity Technologies Ltd. our researchers have analyzed, they knew what to expect from Search.searchtsbn.com too. The thorough analysis only confirmed that it might return the so-called modified search results to users. This might happen no matter what search query is entered in the search box. These search results are not malicious, but they might redirect you to untrustworthy pages if you click on them. Some of these pages might even contain malicious software that will not miss a chance to enter your system illegally. There is one more thing you should know about Search.searchtsbn.com. If you use it, it will record your all search queries. Because of this, you should not use your name, address, email, or other personal details as your search queries: “By using the services, you are consenting to grant Polarity permission to collect your URLs and search data, including search queries that may contain personally identifiable information.” It does not focus on the collection of the personal information only. This browser hijacker will collect a bunch of other details automatically, for example, IP address, geographic location, Internet Service Provider, and IP address. The Privacy Policy document of Search.searchtsbn.com tells users that this information will only be used to improve the service, but we will not be surprised at all if the recorded information is disclosed to third parties too.

Search.searchtsbn.com is created on the same template as Search.yourmapscenter.com, Search.youremailnow.com, and Search.yourpackagesnow.com (these are all pages developed by Polarity Technologies Ltd.), so the browser hijacker we are talking about today should be distributed the same, according to our researchers. That is, it should also be spread bundled. They say that users should not download any applications from dubious P2P websites because they might end up with the browser hijacker or a more harmful threat. On top of that, they should not click on any random links they find somewhere on the web because they might initiate the download of untrustworthy software with the single click. It is not very likely that you will manage to protect your system from all harmful threats that will try to enter your system unnoticed, so we recommend having a security application installed and active on your computer as well. It does not mean that you can act carelessly even if you have security software enabled on the system.

You should use our manual removal guide to remove Search.searchtsbn.com manually if you have never deleted any browser hijacker in your life. Since you will have to perform all the removal steps yourself, it will take time to get rid of this infection, so if you cannot allow this for yourself, you should use an automated malware remover to undo the changes applied to your browsers. Double-check the scanner you are going to use because there are hundreds of scanners that are completely unreliable.

Search.searchtsbn.com removal guide

Internet Explorer

1. Press Win+R.
2. Enter regedit and click OK.
3. Move to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main and locate the Start Page Value.
4. Right-click it and select Modify.
5. Enter the page you like, e.g. http://www.google.com in Value data and click OK.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Access %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles.
3. Check all folders in order to find the one containing the prefs.js file.
4. Open this file with Notepad.
5. Delete user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "Search.searchtsbn.com"); from inside the file.
6. Save the changes.

Google Chrome

1. Press Win+E to open Windows Explorer.
2. Go to %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default.
3. Locate Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data files in this directory.
4. Save the changes.
5. Restart your browser.