What is Bing.com Search? And how does it function?
Bing.com Search is a browser extension that supposedly functions as a search engine. Although Bing.com is a legitimate search engine, cybercrooks have found ways to exploit it to carry out malicious activities on a computer. And such is the case when you suddenly find yourself getting redirected to Bing.com Search even when you did not set it as your default homepage or search provider. This is because you have unknowingly installed a potentially unwanted program in your computer that has changed the default settings in your browser, hence the redirects to Bing.com Search.
Since the browser hijacker has modified the settings of your browser, as a result, you will now see Bing.com Search when you open your browser. And if you think that this shady search engine can really give you improved search results, you’re very wrong – when you try to search for any query using it, instead of generating related search results, it mostly displays sponsored content from its affiliated third parties. And that’s not the only time you’ll be seeing these sponsored content as you can also see them on any website you visit. Some of them can get pretty intrusive that they cover the content of the website you’re visiting.
Moreover, Bing.com Search also has the ability to spy on your online activities to collect information like your IP address, browsing history, search queries, websites you often visit, and so on. The information collected might be used and shared with its affiliated sites to generate more sponsored content so you need to be cautious while browsing the web until you’ve erased Bing.com Search from your computer.
How is Bing.com Search distributed over the web?
Like other typical browser hijackers, Bing.com Search is distributed in software bundles as one of the optional components in the main software. In other words, it can get installed on your computer without your knowledge when you install freeware or shareware using only the standard or quick setup. To prevent this from happening in the future, you need to opt for the Advanced or Custom setup so you can get rid of any optional component added in the software package before you proceed with the installation.
Make use of the removal guide prepared below to successfully erase Bing.com Search from your browser and computer.
Step_1: First, you have to close the browser infected with the browser hijacker. And if you can’t close it manually, you can close it using the Task Manager instead. Tap the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys and open the Task Manager.
Step_2: Next, look for the process of your browser, right-click on it and select End task or End process to close it.
Step_3: Afterwards, tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “appwiz.cpl” in the field and press Enter to open the Programs and Features in Control Panel.
Step_4: From the list of programs installed, look for any programs that could be related to Bing.com Search or any suspicious program you don’t remember installing under the list of installed programs, and once you’ve found it, uninstall it.
Step_5: Edit your Hosts File.
- Tap the Win + R keys to open then type in %WinDir% and then click OK.
- Go to System32/drivers/etc.
- Open the hosts file using Notepad.
- Delete all the entries that contain Bing.com.
- After that, save the changes you’ve made and close the file.
Step_6: Now you have to flush the DNS cache of your computer. To do so, right-click on the Start button and click on Command Prompt (administrator). From there, type the “ipconfig /flushdns” command and hit Enter to flush the DNS.
Step_7: Next, hold down Windows + E keys simultaneously to open File Explorer.
Step_8: Navigate to the following directories and look for suspicious files associated with the browser hijacker such as the software bundle it came with and delete it/them.
- %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
- %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
- %TEMP%
Step_9: Close the File Explorer and empty the contents of Recycle Bin.
Step_10: After that, restart your computer and then open your browsers and reset them back to their default state.
Google Chrome
- Open Google Chrome, then tap the Alt + F keys.
- After that, click on Settings.
- Next, scroll down until you see the Advanced option, once you see it, click on it.
- After clicking the Advanced option, go to the “Restore and clean up option and click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” option to reset Google Chrome.
- Now restart Google Chrome.
Mozilla Firefox
- Open Mozilla Firefox and tap Ctrl + Shift + A to access the Add-ons Manager.
- In the Extensions menu Remove the unwanted extension.
- Restart the browser and tap keys Alt + T.
- Select Options and then move to the General menu.
- Overwrite the URL in the Home Page section and then restart the browser.
Internet Explorer
- Launch Internet Explorer.
- Next, click the wrench icon for Settings.
- Then click Internet Options.
- After that, go to the Advanced tab.
- From there, click the Reset button. This will reset Internet Explorer’s settings to their default condition.
- Now click OK to save the changes made.
- Restart your computer.
Congratulations, you have just removed Bing.com Search Hijacker in Windows 10 all by yourself. If you would like to read more helpful articles and tips about various software and hardware visit fixmypcfree.com daily.
Now that’s how you remove Bing.com Search Hijacker in Windows 10 on a computer. On the other hand, if your computer is going through some system-related issues that have to get fixed, there is a one-click solution known as Restoro you could check out to resolve them.
This program is a useful tool that could repair corrupted registries and optimize your PC’s overall performance. Aside from that, it also cleans out your computer for any junk or corrupted files that help you eliminate any unwanted files from your system. This is basically a solution that’s within your grasp with just a click. It’s easy to use as it is user-friendly. For a complete set of instructions in downloading and using it, refer to the steps below
Perform a full system scan using Restoro. To do so, follow the instructions below.
