How to remove PDFConverterSearch

What is PDFConverterSearch

PDFConverterSearch is an unwanted application providing access to file-converting services right from the browser homepage. Whilst these features may be found useful for some of the users, PDFConverterSearch is still categorized as a browser hijacker. The reason for the poor reputation of such programs lies in their ability to spy on personal data and promote dubious content. For example, PDFConverterSearch changes your search engine to pdfconverter-search.com, which makes all of your queries redirected through it. Because pdfconverter-search.com is not capable of generating unique results, it channels your queries through legitimate Yahoo search to make illegal traffic. By doing so, developers are able to earn money on people who let PDFConverterSearch run on their system. To prevent this and similar applications from collecting your data, you are advised to remove it once spotted. Below, you will find the necessary tools to do it.

How PDFConverterSearch infected your computer

Usually, such software sneaks by the consent of users via third-party downloads. Because people tend to download pirated or cracked software for bypassing the license, cybercriminals are happy to promote their software. Most users (especially inexperienced) remain unaware of possible offers hidden inside of the setup. They rush down the last step missing Advanced or Custom settings. As a result, additional software gets unintentionally installed leading to unexpected changes. Besides removal instructions, we also offer a range of protectionary tools that will help you combat unwanted threats in the future of usage.

Remove PDFConverterSearch manually for free

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

Disable push notifications from portal.pdfconverter-search.com in browsers

Remove portal.pdfconverter-search.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 portal.pdfconverter-search.com in the list and click cross icon to remove it. Click Done button to confirm the action.

Remove portal.pdfconverter-search.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 portal.pdfconverter-search.com in the list and click Remove site to remove it.
5. Click Save Changes button to confirm the action.

Remove portal.pdfconverter-search.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 portal.pdfconverter-search.com in the list and click Remove button.

Remove portal.pdfconverter-search.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 portal.pdfconverter-search.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 portal.pdfconverter-search.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 portal.pdfconverter-search.com in the list and click on the cross sign to remove the setting and disable its notifications.

Note: PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch from Control Panel

To start removing PDFConverterSearch you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “PDFConverterSearch” or “portal.pdfconverter-search.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 PDFConverterSearch from Mac:

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

Remove PDFConverterSearch from Windows XP:

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

Remove PDFConverterSearch from Windows 7:

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

Remove PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove PDFConverterSearch from Windows 10:

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

Cannot uninstall PDFConverterSearch

In some cases, PDFConverterSearch won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall PDFConverterSearch. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of PDFConverterSearch. Follow instructions below:

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling the program from Control Panel. To disable PDFConverterSearch, 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 PDFConverterSearch or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

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

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

PDFConverterSearch installs a search engine (portal.pdfconverter-search.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.

For safe and effective browser extension removal use avast! Browser Cleanup utility. Run it with administrator privileges and remove all extensions with bad ratings including related to PDFConverterSearch. 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 PDFConverterSearch 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 PDFConverterSearch.