How to remove Explore Spot (explorespot.io)

What is Explore Spot

Explore Spot is categorized as a browser hijacker due to its behavior of modifying browser settings to promote its associated search engine. It typically changes the default homepage, new tab page, and search engine settings of the affected browser to direct the user’s web traffic through its chosen search engine. This redirection often leads to the generation of ad revenue for the creators of Explore Spot through increased ad impressions and clicks. Upon infection, Explore Spot sets a specific search engine as the default for the affected browser. This search engine is typically a lesser-known or custom search engine (explorespot.io) that may provide inferior search results compared to more reputable search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. The primary purpose of setting a specific search engine is to redirect user queries through it, thereby generating ad revenue through sponsored content and advertisements displayed within the search results. Explore Spot is designed to be compatible with the most widely used web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari. Its broad compatibility ensures that it can affect a large number of users, regardless of their browser preference. Once installed, it modifies the browser’s settings to promote its associated search engine, often without the user’s consent.

How Explore Spot infects computers

Explore Spot can infect computers through several vectors. The most common method is through bundled software installations. When users install free software or shareware, Explore Spot may be included as an optional install within the setup process. If users do not pay close attention to the installation steps and fail to opt-out, Explore Spot gets installed alongside the intended software. Another method of infection is through deceptive advertisements or pop-ups that, when clicked, execute scripts to download and install the hijacker. Additionally, downloading and installing browser extensions or add-ons from untrusted sources can also lead to an Explore Spot infection.

1. Download Explore Spot Removal Tool
2. Remove Explore Spot from Control Panel and Applications
3. Remove Explore Spot extensions from browsers
4. Reset browser search and homepage settings
5. Alternative way to remove Explore Spot search redirects
6. Clean browser shortcuts from Explore Spot
7. How to protect from threats like Explore Spot

Remove Explore Spot manually for free

Here is a manual step-by-step tutorial for full Explore Spot removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of the Explore Spot an installer on operating systems with the latest updates and browser versions.

Note: Explore Spot can be installed as Google Chrome extension as Administrator (you may see Installed by enterprise policy or Your browser is managed by your organization inscription near it), and this will not allow removal. Therefore, before starting removal process, perform these actions:

1. Start the Command Prompt by clicking the Start menu button and typing command prompt (or just searching for “command prompt” in Windows 10 search field). Right click on the Command Prompt result and choose Run as Administrator.



2. Type in and execute the following commands:

   
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy"
gpupdate /force

Remove Explore Spot from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Explore Spot you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Explore Spot”. It should uninstall correctly, however, we recommend you to use IObit Uninstaller to clean leftover items after uninstalling. Here are instructions for Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, or Mac.

Remove Explore Spot from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Explore Spot or other suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Explore Spot from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Explore Spot or other suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Explore Spot from Windows 8:

1. Hover mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner to see Menu.
2. Click Search.
3. After that click Apps.
4. Then Control Panel.
5. Click Uninstall a Program under Programs.
6. Find Explore Spot or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Explore Spot from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Explore Spot from Windows 10

Way one

1. Click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the System tile.
4. Click Apps & features and locate Explore Spot or other suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on it and then click Uninstall button near it.

Way two (classic)

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Programs and Features.
3. Locate Explore Spot or other suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Remove Explore Spot from Windows 11:

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the Apps tab on the left side.
4. Click Apps & features and locate Explore Spot or other recently installed suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on 3-dots icon near it and then click Uninstall button near it.
6. Depending on the type of application (Windows Store app or classic Win32 app) it will be removed immediately or you will need to confirm the action and go through standard uninstall procedure.

Remove Explore Spot from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Explore Spot might have an Uninstaller.
3. Otherwise, drag Explore Spot from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Cannot uninstall Explore Spot in Windows

In some cases, Explore Spot won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Explore Spot. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Explore Spot folder and files. This happens because the process or service does not allow you to do it. In this case, I will recommend you to use SpyHunter 5 or Malwarebytes or uninstall Explore Spot in Safe Mode. To boot in Safe Mode do the following:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. While it starts booting press F8 button.
3. This will open Advanced Boot Options menu.
4. Choose Safe Mode and wait until Windows loads.
5. Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program and remove Explore Spot or other suspicious program

>> See detailed instructions and video tutorial on how to boot in Safe Mode

Cannot uninstall Explore Spot in MacOS

If you can’t uninstall Explore Spot using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Explore Spot. Follow instructions below:

1. Download free AppCleaner.
2. Drag Explore Spot from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Explore Spot.
4. Click Delete button.

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Explore Spot from Control Panel or Applications often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has a browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Explore Spot extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Explore Spot extension.
4. Click the Remove button to remove them.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
3. Find Explore Spot extension.
4. Click three-dots icon near it and choose Remove in the menu.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Click Extensions tab.
3. Find Explore Spot extension.
4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) edge://extensions.
3. Find Explore Spot extension.
4. Click Remove link under the name of extension.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

Note: There is no feature to remove browser extensions from browser in latest version of Internet Explorer. To remove Explore Spot from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Explore Spot, please, do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu Manage Add-ons.
4. Select Toolbars and Extensions.
5. Click Disable Explore Spot or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Explore Spot does not install in Opera browser however you can always double check. Do the following:

1. Start Opera browser.
2. Go to Tools > Extensions > Manage Extensions.
3. Find Explore Spot or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Explore Spot installs a search engine (explorespot.io) that hijacks your browsers. Here is the instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. On the left panel expand Advanced options.
4. Choose Reset and clean up.
5. Click on Restore settings to their original defaults link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Google Chrome > Settings > Advanced

Reset and clean up

Reset Google Chrome

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:support.
3. Click Refresh Firefox… button.
4. Click Refresh Firefox button in opened dialog window to confirm.

Reset Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Go to the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.
3. Click Remove All Website Data button.
4. In opened window click Remove Now button to remove data stored by websites in Safari.
5. Go to the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences.
6. Click the Show Develop menu in menu bar option.
7. In the menu click Develop and select Empty Caches from this menu.
8. Again, go to Safari menu and choose Clear History….
9. Choose to clear all history and click Clear History button.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser
2. Click on 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
3. On the left panel find and click Reset settings option.
4. Click on Restore settings to their default values link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu choose Internet options.
4. Click Advanced tab.
5. Click Reset button.
6. Choose Delete personal settings and click Reset.

Opera Browser:

1. Start Opera browser and click on Opera icon in the top-left corner.
2. Choose Settings and click Advanced on the left side and choose Browser.
3. Scroll down to the very bottom and click on Restore settings to their original defaults link.
4. Confirm by clicking Reset button.

Alternative way to remove adware browser extensions and reset browser settings

For safe and effective browser extension removal use avast! Browser Cleanup utility. Run it with administrator privileges and remove all extensions with bad rating including related to Explore Spot. You can also reset your browser settings for each of your browsers: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox.

Download Avast Browser Cleanup

Cleaning browsers shortcuts

You can clean your browser shortcuts manually right-clicking on your browser icon, choosing “Properties” and removing hijacker address from “Target” field (leave just the path to your browser). However it is easier to use free Shortcut Cleaner from BleepingComputer. Download it here – its FREE:

Download Shortcut Cleaner

How to protect from threats, like Explore Spot, in future


SpyHunter 5 Dashboard

SpyHunter 5 Results

SpyHunter 5 System Guard

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Explore Spot may become a real headache as they are hard to remove and break your privacy. To keep safe from such threats we recommend you always use antivirus and one of the anti-malware programs available on the market. One of the best anti-virus programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats like Explore Spot.

Download SpyHunter for Windows

Download SpyHunter for Mac