How to remove Search Potato

What is Search Potato

Search Potato is a browser hijacker that alters the settings of a user’s web browser without their consent. It changes the homepage, new tab URL, and default search engine to search-potato.com, a website promoted by the hijacker. This deceptive practice undermines the user’s ability to access accurate and trustworthy information, compromising the very purpose of a search engine. Search Potato can infect a variety of web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. It alters the settings of these browsers, changing the homepage, new tab URL, and default search engine to search-potato.com. This can lead to a compromised browsing experience, as users are redirected to this website whenever they open a new tab or conduct a search. Removing Search Potato involves several steps. First, users need to locate and remove the Search Potato extension from their browser. In Google Chrome, for example, this can be done by clicking the Chrome menu icon, selecting “Extensions”, and then “Manage Extensions”. From there, users can locate “Search Potato” and other recently-installed suspicious extensions, select these entries, and click “Remove”. Next, users need to change their homepage back to their preferred URL. This can be done by clicking the Chrome menu icon, selecting “Settings”, and then adjusting the “On startup” section. Users should disable “Search Potato” and remove any browser hijacker URLs.

How Search Potato infects computers

Search Potato typically infects computers through deceptive practices. It is often bundled with other software, and users inadvertently install it when they install the primary software. Once installed, it alters the settings of the user’s web browser. The most common symptoms of a Search Potato infection include changes to the web browser’s homepage and new tab page, and the default search engine being set to search-potato.com.

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

Remove Search Potato manually for free

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

Note: Search Potato 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 Search Potato from Control Panel or Applications

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

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

Remove Search Potato from Windows 7:

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

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

Remove Search Potato from Windows 10:

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

Remove Search Potato 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 Search Potato 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 Search Potato from Mac:

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

Cannot uninstall Search Potato in Windows

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

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

Cannot uninstall Search Potato in MacOS

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Search Potato 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 Search Potato extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

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

Opera Browser:

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

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Search Potato installs a search engine (search-potato.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 Search Potato. 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 Search Potato, in future


SpyHunter 5 Dashboard

SpyHunter 5 Results

SpyHunter 5 System Guard

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

Download SpyHunter for Windows

Download SpyHunter for Mac