Startsear.info

Startsear.info is a recent variant of the original Startsear.ch website, a malicious site that uses browser hijackers to redirect your browser to itself and affiliated sites. Like its predecessor, Startsear.info pretends to offer helpful search-related features, but these features are, in reality, focused on taking you to sites that churn out profit for Startsear.info's web masters. If your web browser begins to redirect itself to Startsear.info, or if your PC has had any contact with Startsear.info in the first place, SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend a hasty system scan via appropriate anti-malware software. Since browser hijackers that are affiliated with Startsear.info may alter DNS settings and other portions of the Windows Registry, you should never attempt to remove a Startsear.info-affiliated PC threat by simply making a change in your web browser.

Don't Get Burned by Startsear.info's Twice-Old Scam

Startsear.info has the appearance of a normal search engine and even proudly displays its Google-powered search feature, but, unfortunately, Startsear.info's collaboration with Google is only a half-truth. Searches from Startsear.info, in addition to containing legitimate results sprinkled in deftly, will also contain results that lead you to advertisement-based sites or even hostile sites. Since trusting Startsear.info's link recommendations may lead you to inadvertently exposing yourself to scamware sites, sites that use phishing attacks or sites that host drive-by-download vulnerabilities, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers recommend that you stay far from Startsear.info altogether and acquire your Google results from Google itself.

However, if avoiding Startsear.info was all that it took to beat the Startsear.info threat, Startsear.info would scarcely have acquired its current level of infamy – which is entirely due to its usage of browser redirect attacks to force web browsers to load itself even if you're attempting to load a completely-unrelated website. Other consequences of infection by a Startsear.info-aligned browser hijacker can include:

• Loss of personal information (such as cache-saved passwords) that's linked to your web browser.
• Pop-ups, audio clips, unusual text links and other forms of potentially harmful advertisements.
• Startsear.info being set to be your homepage or default new window page.

Dragging Startsear.info Out of Your Browser Searches for Good

Just as with its ancestor, Starsear.ch, Startsear.info may target all major types of web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox. Since this is strongly indicative of serious changes to the infected computer's Domain Name Settings and other alterations that lower your computer's security, SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend that you only delete the browser hijacker with high-quality anti-malware products. You should also update your scanner's threat definitions database, if this is necessary, prior to a scan, since Startsear.info was first widely noted in December of 2011 and is, therefore, much more recent than its twin site Starsear.ch.

Since browser hijackers for sites like Startsear.info often possess secondary functions or are accompanied by other PC threats, emphasis should be placed on as thorough a system scan as possible. Since the presence of rootkits is a strong possibility, SpywareRemove.com security analysts recommend scanning your PC with safety measures that can help to disable boot sector-based PC threats – disabling System Restore and using Safe Mode are just common and easy steps for doing this, and will help to insure that all components of Startsear.info-derived PC threats are wholly deleted.