Uninstalling Encryptedsearch.org (Browser Hijacker/PUP)

What is Encryptedsearch.org? And how does it work?

Encryptedsearch.org is a browser extension that supposedly works as a search engine. It claims to protect users’ privacy while browsing the web by supposedly detecting searches that may be tracked and tied to users’ personal information. It does this by intercepting the searches and redirects them to its search engine. It may look like a useful tool in helping you protect your privacy online, however, don’t be fooled for it is actually a browser hijacker and a potentially unwanted program. Meaning to say, despite its claims, it won’t bring anything good and won’t really protect your privacy since the instant it gets installed, it will quickly alter the default settings of your browser with or without permission, hence, the reason why it is belongs to the group of browser hijackers.
Because of the changes made, it will be much easier for this browser hijacker to manipulate your internet browsing. It starts its manipulation by redirecting you to various suspicious sites and delivering you tons of ads in the form of banners, pop-ups, in-text links and many more. Careful though, as some of these ads are not as harmless as they look for they could reroute you to web pages with malicious content that could harm your computer. To make things worse, Encryptedsearch.org is also known to spy on all your activities online in order to obtain data. The data it obtain includes your browsing history, websites visited, search queries, IP address and more. The data collected is then used to bring in more customized and personalized ads. Obviously, the only thing that the developers of Encryptedsearch.org ever care about is the revenue they’ll earn from delivering you with all these ads.
How does Encryptedsearch.org spread over the web?
Encryptedsearch.org has its own official website where you can find it being distributed. However, that’s not the only way to spreads online as it was also found to be spreading in software bundles from free sharing sites or peer-to-peer sharing networks. This means that Encryptedsearch.org can invade your computer without you knowing when you install any freeware or shareware package which is why it’s advised that you use the Advanced or Custom setup every time you install such packages as it allows you to uncover any extra components that might have been added in the package.
Follow the removal guide prepared below to uninstall Encryptedsearch.org from your browser and computer.
Step 1: Start by opening the Task Manager by simply pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys.
Step 2: Next, go to Processes and look for dubious processes that could be related to Encryptedsearch.org and then right click on each one of them and select End Process or End Task to kill their processes.

Step 3: Then open the Control Panel. To do so, tap the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then click OK or press Enter.
Step 4: Look for any suspicious program that could be the one that triggers the Encryptedsearch.org and then Uninstall it.
Step 5: Close all the browsers affected by Encryptedsearch.org. If you’re having a hard time closing them, you can close them using the Task Manager just tap on Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
Step 6: After you open the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for the infected browser’s process and end it.
Step 7: 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 containing Encryptedsearch.org.
After that, save the changes you’ve made and close the file.

Step 8: Reset all your browsers to default to their default state.
Google Chrome

Launch Google Chrome, press Alt + F, move to More tools, and click Extensions.
Look for Encryptedsearch.org or any other unwanted add-ons, click the Recycle Bin button, and choose Remove.
Restart Google Chrome, then tap Alt + F, and select Settings.
Navigate to the On Startup section at the bottom.
Select “Open a specific page or set of pages”.
Click the More actions button next to the hijacker and click Remove.

Mozilla Firefox

Open the browser 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.
Tap Alt + T and select Internet options.
Click the General tab and then overwrite the URL under the homepage section.
Click OK to save the changes.

Step 9: Hold down Windows + E keys simultaneously to open File Explorer.
Step 10: Navigate to the following directories and look for suspicious files associated to Encryptedsearch.org and delete it/them.

%USERPROFILE%\Downloads
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop
%TEMP%

Step 11: Close the File Explorer.
Step 12: Empty the Recycle Bin.
Step 13: Afterwards, you have to flush the DNS cache. To do that, just, 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.
Once you’ve completed the steps given above, follow the advanced instructions below to ensure the removal of Encryptedsearch.org using [product-name] 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.