How to Erase Bing.com Search (Browser Hijacker/PUP)

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, cyber crooks has found ways exploit it to carry out malicious activities in 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 contents 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 a main software. In other words, it can get installed in your computer without your knowledge when you install a 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 to 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.

Refer to the advanced instructions given below to ensure the removal of this browser hijacker from your computer as well as all the file residues it left behind.
Perform a full system scan using [product-code]. To do so, follow these steps:

Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot it.
After that, the BIOS screen will be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.

To navigate the Advanced Option use the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
Windows will now load the Safe Mode with Networking.
Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
Type in the URL address, [product-url] in the Run dialog box and then tap Enter or click OK.
After that, it will download the program. Wait for the download to finish and then open the launcher to install the program.
Once the installation process is completed, run [product-code] to perform a full system scan.