How to remove Play-bar.net

What is Play-bar.net

Play-bar.net is questionable website by Via Advertising Group Limited, that acts like search engine. It is distributed with freeware and installs as default homepage, newtab and search engine in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. This search redirects user queries to search.safefinder.com and then to search.yahoo.com. Main page can be customized by color and offers links to various games and shows local weather. Play-bar.net tries to seem legitimate search engine, but, in fact, shares personal data of users with doubtful and malicious resources. Hijacker overrides browser settings using Playbar extension, that need to be removed. Play-bar.net also modifies browser shortcut properties and redirects to this URL. Our team created this guide to assist you in removal of Play-bar.net in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP.

How Play-bar.net infected your PC

Play-bar.net is offered as practical add-on for browsers, during installation of free utilities. If users skip or accept it, it will alter browser settings and install extensions. Users unable to revert these changes, since extension reassigns settings, when users try change them. To protect yourself from this infection, be attentive, when you download and install programs from internet or use special anti-malware programs. Among the best are SpyHunter 5 and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

Download Removal Tool

Download Removal Tool

To remove Play-bar.net completely we recommend you to use SpyHunter 5. It detects and removes all files, folders and registry keys of Play-bar.net and several millions of other adware, hijackers, toolbars.

Remove Play-bar.net manually for free

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

Remove Play-bar.net from Control Panel

To start removing Play-bar.net you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Playbar” or just “Play-bar.net”. 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 and Windows 8.

Remove Play-bar.net from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Playbar.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Play-bar.net from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Playbar and click Uninstall.

Remove Play-bar.net 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 Playbar, click Uninstall.

Remove Play-bar.net from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Play-bar.net 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 Playbar 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 Playbar in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Cannot uninstall Play-bar.net

In some cases Play-bar.net won’t uninstall and gives you message that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Play-bar.net. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing Play-bar.net folder and files. This happens, because 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 Play-bar.net 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 “Playbar”

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Play-bar.net from Control Panel often does not bring desired effect. It sometimes have browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Play-bar.net related extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

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

Opera Browser:

Generally, Play-bar.net 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 Playbar extension.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Play-bar.net installs search engine that hijacks your browsers. Here is instruction to reset your browsers homepage, newtab and search engine to default values.

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 Play-bar.net. 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 Play-bar.net 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 antimalware programs available on the market. One of the best anti-spyware and antimalware programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats like Play-bar.net.