How to remove Mazy Search (browser.mazysearch.com)

What is Mazy Search

Mazy Search is a paradigm of pure browser hijacker that alters browser settings and switches your search engine to browser.mazysearch.com. Besides replicating search results from legitimate Google.com and showing intrusive ads, it also adds “Managed by your organization” headline in the menu of your browser. This means that extortionists have full control over your browser and can manage it by sending commands remotely. This, in itself, creates a soil for cybercriminals to collect your data (passwords, IP-addresses, geolocations, etc.) and sell it to shady figures. Unfortunately, any attempts to disable or delete the Mazy Search extension get negated because of the potentially unwanted program that might be installed on your system. To ruin fraudulent plans and bring the safe experience back, you should delete Mazy Search right now through our free guide below.

How Mazy Search infected your computer

Potentially unwanted applications like browser hijackers get installed on user’s PCs via bundling methods. Cybercriminals exploit the frailties of badly protected websites and inject malicious banners or offer instead. Sometimes they pay website holders to include their software in posted repacks. These repack, however, contain “Advanced” and “Custom” sections that should be checked and deselected unless you want Potentially Unwanted Programs like Mazy Search to bother your life. In fact, there are many other ways that could let such programs creep into your system. To prevent his, you should be careful and precise whilst surfing the web. Choose trusted and official resources for downloading software and other pieces.

Remove Mazy Search manually for free

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

Disable push notifications from browser.mazysearch.com in browsers

Remove browser.mazysearch.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Google Chrome

1. Go to Google Chrome settings, by clicking 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choosing Settings.
2. On a Mac you can also go to Chrome and choose Preferences.
3. Under opened Privacy and security tab, choose Content settings.
4. Click on Notifications menu (with the bell icon).
5. Set up preferred overall settings for push notifications and click Manage exceptions… button.
6. Find browser.mazysearch.com in the list and click cross icon to remove it. Click Done button to confirm the action.

Remove browser.mazysearch.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Mozilla Firefox

1. Go to Mozilla Firefox options, by clicking 3-bars icon in the top-right corner and choosing Options.
2. Choose Content tab on the left side.
3. Under Notifications, set up preferred overall settings for push-notifications and click Choose… button.
4. Find browser.mazysearch.com in the list and click Remove site to remove it.
5. Click Save Changes button to confirm the action.

Remove browser.mazysearch.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Safari

1. Open Safari, and in the top menu click Safari, choose Preferences.
2. In the Preferences window, click on Websites tab.
3. On the left side, choose Notifications. You will see the list of websites and their settings for showing notifications.
4. Find browser.mazysearch.com in the list and click Remove button.

Remove browser.mazysearch.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Android (Chrome)

1. Open Google Chrome app on Android, and tap on three dots to open main menu.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, scroll down and under Advanced section tap on Site Settings.
3. In the Site Settings menu tap on Notifications.
4. In the Allowed list of websites allowed to show notifications find browser.mazysearch.com, tap on it and in the bottom of the window tap on Clean & Reset button.
5. Confirm your action by tapping on Clean & Reset again in opened dialog box.

Remove browser.mazysearch.com from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Microsoft Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge, and click on the three-dots menu, in the top-right corner.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, and in the left part click Advanced.
3. Under Website permissions section, click Manage permissions button.
4. Find browser.mazysearch.com in the list and click on the cross sign to remove the setting and disable its notifications.

Note: Mazy Search can be installed as Google Chrome extension as Administrator (you may see Installed by enterprise policy 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 Mazy Search from Control Panel

To start removing Mazy Search you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Mazy Search” or “browser.mazysearch.com”. 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 or Mac.

Remove Mazy Search from Mac:

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

Remove Mazy Search from Windows XP:

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

Remove Mazy Search from Windows 7:

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

Remove Mazy Search 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 Mazy Search or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Mazy Search from Windows 10:

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

Cannot uninstall Mazy Search

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

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

and for Mac:

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Mazy Search from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove the Mazy Search extension 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 Mazy Search extensions.
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 Mazy Search or other suspicious extensions.
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 Mazy Search or other suspicious extensions.
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 Mazy Search from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Mazy Search, 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 Mazy Search or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Mazy Search 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 Mazy Search or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Mazy Search installs a search engine (browser.mazysearch.com), that hijacks your browsers. Here is the instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

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.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. Scroll down and find Show advanced settings link.
4. Click on it and scroll down to the bottom again.
5. Click Reset browser settings button and click Reset to confirm.

Mozilla Firefox:

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

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. Close Opera and open command prompt from the start menu.
2. Type following command del %AppData%\Opera\Opera\operaprefs.ini
3. Start Opera.

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 Mazy Search. 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

Final tips

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Mazy Search 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 Mazy Search.