How to remove Key Tag

What is Key Tag

Also known as Tag Search, Key Tag is a browser hijacker designed to change your default search provider. Put differently, instead of having search queries redirected through regular engines like Google or Yahoo.com, users are forced to face other dubious domains. Key Tag was spotted to navigate users’ queries through two suspicious domains – keysearchs.com and search-land.com. Such modifications assigned by hijackers are most likely used to generate illegal traffic and earn money from it. Also, Key Tag may use its capabilities to forward users to many potentially unwanted or dangerous pages. Resources of such may be designed to promote fake push notifications, dubious ads, or malicious software. Although Key Tag is not a virus itself, its capabilities are more than enough to make your PC face serious risks. Thus, we strongly advise you to immediately wipe its operation and restore a safe browsing experience. Do it using our full-fledged guide below.

How Key Tag infected your computer

Key Tag is likely to be installed in your browser as an extension or add-on. Although such extensions are very unwanted, they are still likely to be officially available in legitimate extension web stores. The download page for this specific hijacker has been promoted through the dubious “Flash SD App” download page. After clicking on the download button, the page advertising fake Flash SD Apps dropped users over to the Key Tag web store page. Users may be tricked into downloading such software because they are said it is important or urgent. Phishing pages use mental levers to pull inexperienced users into following their requests. Never do this and beware of such distribution methods in the future. It is also worth mentioning that unwanted extensions and apps can be delivered through pirated or cracked software downloaded from torrent and P2P pages. Be careful and try to avoid such channels as much as possible. Along with the removal instructions below, we also attached some recommendations for protecting yourself against such threats in the future.

1. Download Key Tag Removal Tool
2. Remove/Uninstall Key Tag from Control Panel and Applications
3. Remove Key Tag extensions from browsers
4. Reset browser search and homepage settings
5. Block Key Tag search redirects
6. How to protect from threats like Key Tag

Remove Key Tag manually for free

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

Remove Key Tag from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Key Tag you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Key Tag”. 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, and Mac.

Remove Key Tag from Mac:

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

Remove Key Tag from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Key Tag or other recently installed suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Key Tag from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Key Tag or other recently installed suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Key Tag 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 Key Tag or other recently installed suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Key Tag from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Key Tag 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 Key Tag or other recently installed 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 Key Tag or other recently installed suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Cannot uninstall Key Tag

In some cases, Key Tag won’t uninstall and gives you a message that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Key Tag. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Key Tag 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 AntiMalware or uninstall Key Tag 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 Key Tag or other recently installed suspicious program

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

and for Mac:

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Key Tag from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has browser extension and it may still be active in Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Key Tag related extensions from your browsers manually.

Safari:

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

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Key Tag extension.
4. Click the trash can icon 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. Choose Key Tag extension.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.
5. 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 Key Tag from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Key Tag, 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 or Key Tag extension.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Key Tag 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 Key Tag extension.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Key Tag may install a search engine that hijacks your browsers (keysearchs.com and search-land.com). Here is an 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.

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.

Remove following files, folders and registry keys

Files and folders:


C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\eoddhgjaoadhpdlfaepfnbalbhbkicpb
bg.js
manifest.json
computed_hashes.json
verified_contents.json


Registry keys


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Chrome\PreferenceMACs\Default\extensions.settings
"eoddhgjaoadhpdlfaepfnbalbhbkicpb"="REG_SZ" "EF49889A4BFF3398968D680355469D4E81AC2A4983DC42E680C88E777C1EDB4D"


How to block ads and pop-ups from Key Tag

Key Tag push notifications, in most cases, are caused by a program installed on your PC or add-on installed in browsers. However, sometimes it can appear on a clean computer when visiting a malicious website, using an advertising script. Also, apps that generate “Key Tag” ads and banners are themselves installed from pop-ups. To protect your PC and browsers from phishing websites, pop-up ads, banners, malicious scripts it is recommended to use AdGuard. Download free trial here:

Download AdGuard for Windows

Download AdGuard for Mac

Final tips

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs, like Key Tag, 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-spyware and anti-malware programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats, like Key Tag.