How to remove SportSearchStream

What is SportSearchStream

SportSearchStream is an unwanted app classified as a browser hijacker. It targets unprotected systems to alter browser settings and impose its own changes. For example, developers behind SportSearchStream change your default homepage along with the search engine to portal.sportsearchstream.com or feed.sportsearchstream.com. This means that all queries entered into the search bar will be redirected through this new address to legitimate Yahoo or unwanted searchlee.com. Sportsearchstream.com is fake and has no correlation with any unique generation of results. Browser hijackers use such a scheme to create illegal traffic and earn money on page visits. In addition to that, SportSearchStream may also keep track of personal data used during the browser session. Such info like passwords, IP addresses, geolocations, and more can be captured and passed to fraudulent servers. Some users may like SportSearchStream due to helpful widgets available on the homepage itself, however, because SportSearchStream runs tons of suspicious activities, it is necessary to remove it from your system.

How SportSearchStream infected your computer

Potentially Unwanted Programs like browser hijackers are cunning and sneaky. They are oftentimes seen getting spread via third-party installers of free, cracked, or pirated software. SportSearchStream may come as a browser add-on operated by a dubious program, which is likely to be installed on your system. It is possible that you could catch it whilst installing repacked software. Cybercriminals create separate installers that contain additional offers apart from the main program. Such offers are usually hidden and already selected inside of “Advanced”, “Custom”, “Manual”, or other sections that may be changed during the setup. It is also common to see users choose “Recommended” types of installation to avoid spending time on manual selection. As a result, such installers end up successful in spreading dubious software like SportSearchStream to unprotected systems. Sometimes promotional offers may be legitimate and useful programs, but yet install completely different software along the way. Thus, it is important to find and untick any third-party software advertised during the setup. To learn how to combat such threats now and in the future, follow our instructions below.

Remove SportSearchStream manually for free

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

Disable push notifications from portal.sportsearchstream.com in browsers

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

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

Remove portal.sportsearchstream.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.sportsearchstream.com in the list and click Remove button.

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

Note: SportSearchStream 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 SportSearchStream from Control Panel

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

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

Remove SportSearchStream from Windows XP:

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

Remove SportSearchStream from Windows 7:

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

Remove SportSearchStream 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 SportSearchStream or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove SportSearchStream from Windows 10:

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

Cannot uninstall SportSearchStream

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

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

Opera Browser:

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

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

SportSearchStream installs a search engine (portal.sportsearchstream.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 SportSearchStream. 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 SportSearchStream 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 SportSearchStream.