How to remove Searcheq.com

What is Searcheq.com

Searcheq.com is a fake search engine that can be promoted by two unwanted browser apps – Easy Search and EQSearch. These applications are meant to alter browser settings and prevent users from resetting them manually. Such traits make these apps fall into the category of browser hijackers that sneak into a system most often without the consent of users. Just like many other browser hijackers, searcheq.com cannot generate its own results. Instead, it uses legitimate engines like Google or Bing to redirect queries. Many victims also reported they saw an intermediate address (dexum.org) while being redirected to Google or Bing. This is most likely used to fabricate traffic and earn illegal money on it. Allowing browser hijackers to control your settings may also lead to data surveillance. In other words, Searcheq.com developers may be able to gather your data (IP addresses, passwords, geolocations, etc.) and sell them to make additional profits. Thus, we strongly encourage you to remove unwanted software that caused unwanted browser changes. You can read our guide to do it correctly further below.

How Searcheq.com infected your computer

Browser hijackers are notoriously spread via third-party software. It can be pirated, cracked, or simply free software downloaded from unofficial resources. This means Easy Search or EQSearch hijackers could be promoted as something “useful” during the setup. Many users neglect to check “Advanced”, “Custom”, or similar sections containing promotional offers. Usually, they are selected by default, which means their omission will most likely lead to successful installation along with the main program. Such a distribution method is also known as “bundling”. Some other browser hijackers can also be offered for installation in suspicious ads redirecting to doubtful landing pages. Whatever it is, we advise you to be more careful and less naive while surfing the web. Read our tutorial below to learn how one can protect himself against such threats in the future.

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

Remove Searcheq.com manually for free

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

Note: Searcheq.com 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 Searcheq.com from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Searcheq.com you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Searcheq.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, Windows 11, or Mac.

Remove Searcheq.com from Windows XP:

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

Remove Searcheq.com from Windows 7:

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

Remove Searcheq.com 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 EQSearch or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Searcheq.com from Windows 10:

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

Remove Searcheq.com 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 EQSearch 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 Searcheq.com from Mac:

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

Cannot uninstall Searcheq.com in Windows

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

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

Cannot uninstall Searcheq.com in MacOS

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Searcheq.com 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 the Searcheq.com extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

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

Opera Browser:

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

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

EQSearch installs a search engine (Searcheq.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 Searcheq.com. 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 Searcheq.com, in future


SpyHunter 5 Dashboard

SpyHunter 5 Results

SpyHunter 5 System Guard

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Searcheq.com 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 Searcheq.com.

Download SpyHunter 5

Download SpyHunter for Mac