How to remove Searchgoose.com

What is Searchgoose.com

Searchgoose.com falls into the list of fake search engines meant to disguise fraudulent activity on Mac. Such engines are usually assigned by unwanted programs known as browser hijackers. Once it plants into your browser, you will Searchgoose.com as a regular homepage address. These changes are impossible to revert as long as there is an unwanted program installed on your system. The reason why Searchgoose.com is considered fake lies in its inability to generate unique results. Instead, it uses legitimate search engines by Yahoo or Bing to display the found results. This technique is often abused to gather illegal traffic for revenue purposes. Moreover, browser hijackers that promote dubious changes are also capable of running data surveillance. Put differently, they may be configured to detect and record data entered during the browsing session. Based on this, it is more than reasonable to delete Searchgoose.com from your computer. Otherwise, it may cause privacy threats you will not be aware of. To run complete deletion without traces, follow our tutorial below.

How Searchgoose.com infected your computer

All kinds of Unwanted Software including browser hijackers are likely to use third-party programs for stealth delivery. This distribution technique is more known as “bundling”. It implies using free, pirated, or cracked software wrapped into repacks to spread promotional offers. These offers can be found lurking inside of “Advanced” or “Custom” sections. Sometimes users are given to choose between “Recommended” or “Manual” types of installation. Always opt for “Manual” types as you will be able to deselect additional software, if necessary. The best solution to eliminate the risk of getting infected with unwanted software is downloading programs only from trusted and official resources. Legitimate distributors may also advertise additional programs along with the setup but of a completely different sort. Follow our guide below to get protectionary tips for staying secure against various threats in the future.

Remove Searchgoose.com manually for free

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

Note: Searchgoose.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 Searchgoose.com from Control Panel

To start removing Searchgoose.com you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names, but usually “SwiftSelect” or “Swift-S”. 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 Searchgoose.com from Mac:

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

Remove Searchgoose.com from Windows XP:

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

Remove Searchgoose.com from Windows 7:

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

Remove Searchgoose.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 SwiftSelect or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Searchgoose.com from Windows 10:

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

Cannot uninstall Searchgoose.com

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Searchgoose.com from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has browser extensions and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Searchgoose.com related extensions 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 SwiftSelect extension.
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 SwiftSelect 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 SwiftSelect 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 Searchgoose.com from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Searchgoose.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 SwiftSelect or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

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

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Searchgoose.com installs a search engine 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.

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 Searchgoose.com. You can also reset your browser settings for each of your browsers: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox.