How To Remove Mint Search Hijacker

Proper Guide To Delete Mint Search

Mint Search has been identified as a browser hijacker program that makes changes to default browser’s settings to promote find.mintsearch.net- a fake search engine. It also adds the “Managed by your organization” feature to The Chrome browsers. It’s a silent intruder that doesn’t need users’ consent to sneak into their PC devices. Soon after getting into the targeted computers, this potentially unwanted program acquires full control over the entire browser by assigning find.mintsearch.net as the new home page, search engine and new tab page. After that, it starts interrupting users’ online experience with intrusive ads and frequent redirects.

Know More About Mint Search:

Mint Search bombards your computer screen with thousands of annoying ads all over the day that makes your web sessions very complex and problematic. These ads are in multiple forms such as coupons, deals, offers, banners, pop-ups, pop-unders etc. that look very eye-catching and can attract users easily. They are based on pay-per-click scheme and each click of users, earn profits for the developers. Clicking on these adverts though can be very risky for your system’s security as they might include vicious links and redirect you to potentially infectious domains that are fully occupied with malevolent contents.

Mint Search is able to track your online activities such as links clicked on, search queries typed, pages viewed and so on. It gathers vital information regarding your browsing preferences and interests and which is then utilized by the advertisers for the advertising purposes. This is the reason why most of the ads presented by this hijacker are very attractive-looking. Moreover, your personal and confidential data relating to credit card and banking details could be also stolen and misused for evil purposes.

Mint Search keeps performing evil deeds in the background all the time which consume enormous amount of memory resources and drag down the overall PC performance severely. Your system will begin responding in a very slow manner and take too much time to complete any task. To get automatically activated every time the system is rebooted and remain persistent, this nasty hijacker makes spiteful entries in Windows registries and alters its default settings.  It can be responsible for many other vicious issues such as frequent system crash, boot errors, application malfunctioning, hard drive failure and so on. And hence, you must perform an instant Mint Search removal from the work-station.

How Does This Hijacker Intrude Your PC?

According to the research, this notorious PUP is often spread through a software ‘cracking’ tool used to activate Adobe Photoshop. Remember that it is not legal to evade activation of licensed software with these types of apps and they can be employed to spread unwanted programs, Trojans, ransomware and other malware. Potentially unwanted threats such as adware or browser hijackers are mostly distributed with the help of bundling technique. When you download a freeware or shareware from untrustworthy site and then perform its installation via ‘Quick’ or ‘Recommended ‘options, you risk getting attacked by such PUPs.

The best way to prevent hijacker installations is to select the correct installation options. The Advanced or Custom wizards provide your full control over the incoming objects and allow you to de-select all the tools that give a concerning look. But at the moment, you must remove Mint Search from the computer without wasting any time.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows Click Here For Mac

Important Note: This malware asks you to enable the web browser notifications. So, before you go the manual removal process, execute these steps.

Google Chrome (PC)

• Go to right upper corner of the screen and click on three dots to open the Menu button
• Select “Settings”. Scroll the mouse downward to choose “Advanced” option
• Go to “Privacy and Security” section by scrolling downward and then select “Content settings” and then “Notification” option
• Find each suspicious URLs and click on three dots on the right side and choose “Block” or “Remove” option

Google Chrome (Android)

• Go to right upper corner of the screen and click on three dots to open the menu button and then click on “Settings”
• Scroll down further to click on “site settings” and then press on “notifications” option
• In the newly opened window, choose each suspicious URLs one by one
• In the permission section, select “notification” and “Off” the toggle button

Mozilla Firefox

• On the right corner of the screen, you will notice three dots which is the “Menu” button
• Select “Options” and choose “Privacy and Security” in the toolbar present in the left side of the screen
• Slowly scroll down and go to “Permission” section then choose “Settings” option next to “Notifications”
• In the newly opened window, select all the suspicious URLs. Click on the drop-down menu and select “Block”

Internet Explorer

• In the Internet Explorer window, select the Gear button present on the right corner
• Choose “Internet Options”
• Select “Privacy” tab and then “Settings” under the “Pop-up Blocker” section
• Select all the suspicious URLs one by one and click on the “Remove” option

Microsoft Edge

• Open the Microsoft Edge and click on the three dots on the right corner of the screen to open the menu
• Scroll down and select “Settings”
• Scroll down further to choose “view advanced settings”
• In the “Website Permission” option, click on “Manage” option
• Click on switch under every suspicious URL

Safari (Mac):

• On the upper right side corner, click on “Safari” and then select “Preferences”
• Go to “website” tab and then choose “Notification” section on the left pane
• Search for the suspicious URLs and choose “Deny” option for each one of them

Manual Steps to Remove Mint Search:

Remove the related items of Mint Search using Control-Panel

Windows 7 Users

Click “Start” (the windows logo at the bottom left corner of the desktop screen), select “Control Panel”. Locate the “Programs” and then followed by clicking on “Uninstall Program”

Windows XP Users

Click “Start” and then choose “Settings” and then click “Control Panel”. Search and click on “Add or Remove Program’ option

Windows 10 and 8 Users:

Go to the lower left corner of the screen and right-click. In the “Quick Access” menu, choose “Control Panel”. In the newly opened window, choose “Program and Features”

Mac OSX Users

Click on “Finder” option. Choose “Application” in the newly opened screen. In the “Application” folder, drag the app to “Trash”. Right click on the Trash icon and then click on “Empty Trash”.

In the uninstall programs window, search for the PUAs. Choose all the unwanted and suspicious entries and click on “Uninstall” or “Remove”.

After you uninstall all the potentially unwanted program causing Mint Search issues, scan your computer with an anti-malware tool for any remaining PUPs and PUAs or possible malware infection. To scan the PC, use the recommended the anti-malware tool.

How to Remove Adware (Mint Search) from Internet Browsers

Delete malicious add-ons and extensions from IE

Click on the gear icon at the top right corner of Internet Explorer. Select “Manage Add-ons”. Search for any recently installed plug-ins or add-ons and click on “Remove”.

Additional Option

If you still face issues related to Mint Search removal, you can reset the Internet Explorer to its default setting.

Windows XP users: Press on “Start” and click “Run”. In the newly opened window, type “inetcpl.cpl” and click on the “Advanced” tab and then press on “Reset”.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 Users: Press the Windows logo, type inetcpl.cpl in the start search box and press enter.  In the newly opened window, click on the “Advanced Tab” followed by “Reset” button.

For Windows 8 Users: Open IE and click on the “gear” icon. Choose “Internet Options”

Select the “Advanced” tab in the newly opened window

Press on “Reset” option

You have to press on the “Reset” button again to confirm that you really want to reset the IE

Remove Doubtful and Harmful Extension from Google Chrome

Go to menu of Google Chrome by pressing on three vertical dots and select on “More tools” and then “Extensions”. You can search for all the recently installed add-ons and remove all of them.

Optional Method

If the problems related to Mint Search still persists or you face any issue in removing, then it is advised that your reset the Google Chrome browse settings. Go to three dotted points at the top right corner and choose “Settings”. Scroll down bottom and click on “Advanced”.

At the bottom, notice the “Reset” option and click on it.

In the next opened window, confirm that you want to reset the Google Chrome settings by click on the “Reset” button.

Remove Mint Search plugins (including all other doubtful plug-ins) from Firefox Mozilla

Open the Firefox menu and select “Add-ons”. Click “Extensions”.  Select all the recently installed browser plug-ins.

Optional Method

If you face problems in Mint Search removal then you have the option to rese the settings of Mozilla Firefox.

Open the browser (Mozilla Firefox) and click on the “menu” and then click on “Help”.

Choose “Troubleshooting Information”

In the newly opened pop-up window, click “Refresh Firefox” button

The next step is to confirm that really want to reset the Mozilla Firefox settings to its default by clicking on “Refresh Firefox” button.

Remove Malicious Extension from Safari

Open the Safari and go to its “Menu” and select “Preferences”.

Click on the “Extension” and select all the recently installed “Extensions” and then click on “Uninstall”.

Optional Method

Open the “Safari” and go menu. In the drop-down menu, choose “Clear History and Website Data”.

In the newly opened window, select “All History” and then press on “Clear History” option.

Delete Mint Search (malicious add-ons) from Microsoft Edge

Open Microsoft Edge and go to three horizontal dot icons at the top right corner of the browser. Select all the recently installed extensions and right click on the mouse to “uninstall”

Optional Method

Open the browser (Microsoft Edge) and select “Settings”

Next steps is to click on “Choose what to clear” button

Click on “show more” and then select everything and then press on “Clear” button.

Conclusion

In most cases, the PUPs and adware gets inside the marked PC through unsafe freeware downloads. It is advised that you should only choose developers website only while downloading any kind of free applications.  Choose custom or advanced installation process so that you can trace the additional PUPs listed for installation along with the main program.