How to remove Octagon Find

What is Octagon Find

Octagon Find is a browser hijacker that presents itself as a search engine but primarily serves to redirect users’ search queries to other platforms, typically bing.com. This hijacker modifies browser settings without explicit user consent, setting itself as the default search engine, homepage, and new tab page. Often bundled with free software or installed via deceptive ads, Octagon Find usually comes with an extension that facilitates these changes. The extension not only redirects searches but also has the ability to read and modify user data on visited websites, posing potential privacy and security risks. By tracking browsing habits and possibly collecting sensitive information, it exposes users to unwanted ads, phishing sites, and other online threats. Users may notice increased advertisements and redirected searches, which highlight the intrusive nature of this hijacker. To prevent such issues, it’s crucial to scrutinize installation processes and regularly review browser extensions for any suspicious additions.

How Octagon Find infects computers

Octagon Find, a browser hijacker, typically infiltrates computers through deceptive software bundling techniques, often packaged with free or dubious software downloads. Users unknowingly install the hijacker when they proceed with default or “Express” installation settings, overlooking pre-selected checkboxes that allow Octagon Find to slip through. Additionally, it can be distributed through misleading advertisements, fake software updates, or notifications from untrustworthy websites. Once installed, Octagon Find alters browser settings, assigning octagonfind.com as the default search engine and homepage, which cannot be easily changed unless the hijacker is removed. This not only disrupts the browsing experience but also poses privacy risks by tracking user data and redirecting to potentially harmful websites. To avoid infection, users should be vigilant during software installations, opting for “Custom” settings to deselect unwanted components and relying on reputable sources for downloads.

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

Remove Octagon Find manually for free

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

Note: Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Octagon Find you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Octagon Find”. 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 Octagon Find from Windows XP:

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

Remove Octagon Find from Windows 7:

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

Remove Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Octagon Find from Windows 10:

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

Remove Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find from Mac:

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

Cannot uninstall Octagon Find in Windows

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

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

Cannot uninstall Octagon Find in MacOS

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Octagon Find, 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 Octagon Find or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

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

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Octagon Find installs a search engine (octagonfind.com) 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 Octagon Find. 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 Octagon Find, in future


SpyHunter 5 Dashboard

SpyHunter 5 Results

SpyHunter 5 System Guard

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Octagon Find 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 Octagon Find.

Download SpyHunter for Windows

Download SpyHunter for Mac