How to remove Select-search.net

What is Select-search.net

Browser hijackers have been one of the most prevalent methods for generating money and Select-search.net is not an exception. Unfortunately, most users remain unaware that potentially unwanted programs can lead to various privacy issues. Luckily, it is easy to detect the activity of Select-search.net. After installation, it changes your address bar and search engine to Select-search.net which ostensibly improves the browsing experience. Instead, they generate fake advertisements and display results from legitimate Google search engine. It is also necessary to point out that browser hijackers are primarily focused on gathering personal data and transmitting it to cybercriminals for revenue purposes.

How Select-search.net infected your computer

Potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) are known to be distributed via fake software cracking tools, malicious ads, and bundling. Extortionists tend to advertise banners that promote fake cracking tools. Initially, these tools are meant to bypass the activation of the licensed software and contain no malware, but cybercriminals learned how to skillfully cover PUAs under them. Therefore, the downloaded tool turns out to be very painful because of the unwanted app that hijacked your browser. Besides that, cybercriminals pack their software into other products. Once installed, people get unexpectedly infected with unwanted programs because they rushed till the end of the setup and missed checking “Advanced” or “Custom” options. Additionally, intrusive advertisements also proliferate such software by stealthily running executable scripts after opening. To remove Select-search.net and undo the affected changes, follow the instructions below.

Remove Select-search.net manually for free

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

Note: Select-search.net 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 Select-search.net from Control Panel

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

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

Remove Select-search.net from Windows XP:

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

Remove Select-search.net from Windows 7:

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

Remove Select-search.net 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 SelectSearch or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Select-search.net from Windows 10:

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

Cannot uninstall Select-search.net

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Select-search.net 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 Select-search.net related 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 SelectSearch 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 SelectSearch 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 SelectSearch 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 Select-search.net from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Select-search.net, 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 SelectSearch or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Select-search.net 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 SelectSearch or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Select-search.net 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 Select-search.net. You can also reset your browser settings for each of your browsers: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox.