Re: How To Remove Qsearch From Chrome Windows 10
Avery Blaschko
Thank you, thank you tacoma for this helpful advice! About a month ago, my laptop browser was hijacked, and, instead of the Google Chrome browser, all that came up was the Smartsearch screen you displayed above. We ran various anti-malware, anti-virus programs including Malwarebytes to no avail. We tried "nuking Chrome" as described above but that didn't work either. We paid a tech expert $80 to remove it, and it seemed to work for a few hours until the "weKnow" search took over again. I was thinking of just buying a new laptop, when I found this thread and followed your directions for changing the Chrome policies through terminal. Finally, problem solved! Can't thank you enough!
Thanks for the reply alvarnell. We actually couldn't find any listings for Chrome in the Library Preferences folder on our MacBook Pro. If we'd been able to locate and delete the item above, that might have solved the problem also.
I literally just had the same exact issue, and could only fix it by wiping the user account and starting a new one. This is not just a chrome issue--safari (but not firefox) was infected. I was very surprised that MWB didn't successfully clean this issue. So, the above suggestions are clearly helpful for Chrome, but I suspect there is more going on here under the hood if Safari is also affected.
I had this problem as well last night. I have a cold and mistakenly installed a fake Adobe Flash Player (something I normally would never have done...) on my MacBook Air. I am attaching some screenshots here that are not in the above posts, so that if someone else is trying to fix their computer, they will know they are on the right track.
If I had stopped to check the Custom Installation options of this fake Adobe Flash Player, I would have noticed something was wrong. It was installing things called MyShopcoupon, WeKnow, and Mac Cleanup Pro:
Since I didn't check the Custom Install options, though, my first clue was only when the installer opened a Terminal script window while the installation was in progress. Then when I opened up Chrome and Safari, they were both taken over by new home pages and weird search engines. In Chrome, it was as shown in the original post - where Google is normally written on the google homepage, instead the word "search" appeared with the letters in Google colors, and with a button for "Smart Search" below it.
I first installed Malware Bytes. It found some bad files that it quarantined that were part of the MyShopcoupon mess, and then required a restart. After restarting though, Safari and Chrome were both still hijacked. I then searched a bunch and eventually found this thread. Thanks a bunch to you guys here for the good advice!
I entered the six lines into Terminal as suggested by the original poster (tacoma). It didn't fix the problem with the hijacked browsers, but I still think they were good measures to take. I then followed the link in Alvarnell's post above, which led to a post in this forum by Treed entitled "How to remove WeKnow malware (and others)". This was extremely helpful. Be sure to also follow the link in this post to remove fake profiles that are installed, as well. Here are what the fake profiles looked liked on my laptop, when I opened System Preferences and then Profiles (Normally the Profiles icon is not even listed in System Preferences on my laptop. This Malware had just created two new profiles - one each that modified Safari and Chrome, which you can see if you scroll down to the "DETAILS" section). Then I selected each of them and clicked on the minus sign to remove each one. Here are screenshots showing what the two bad profiles looked like:
I then followed the rest of the instructions in Treed's post for cleaning up Safari and Chrome. I mostly use Chrome, so I first exported my bookmarks before deleting Chrome, so they wouldn't get erased. I restarted my laptop, imported the bookmarks and everything looks good so far! I am appreciative of this forum and all of its great advice. I waded through a lot of junk and ineffective advice to remove this malware before finding this post. A lot of the bad advice included instructions to install other programs to remove the malware. Some google searching revealed that these programs are themselves malware. Fortunately I knew enough to not install programs like that, or I would next be searching forums to figure out how to remove the new malware!
I still worry a little whether there are lingering files or spyware, even though everything looks back to normal (probably an irrational fear). I would be curious to hear from others that have followed the same steps, about whether their computer has remained totally clean after employing the fixes above.
As @tacoma explained, you need to open the Terminal application, found in /Applications/Utilities/ then copy and paste each of the 6 commands listed and hit return, one line at a time to make changes to the chrome policies. I suppose you might be able to change them using the Chrome interface you have shown, but that's not what is being recommended here.
Thanks @alvarnell for clarifying going into the Terminal application. That was the key I was missing. Great information @tacoma finally got it off of my computer and back to the REAL Google start engine!
I was trying to help a user with the WeKnow Smart Search issue on OS X in Chrome. Followed the instructions for nuking Chrome. Reinstalled Chrome and everything looked OK until I opened a New Tab and guess what? Here comes WeKnow and Smart Search all over again. The user says that installing an update for Flash was the culprit. User ended up doing a reset of the OS. So strange that MWB couldn't pickup the malware. So hope this helps someone else. This malware is not easy to remove. Any suggestions are always appreciated.
This drove me nuts as I managed to changed the Home page icon to Google. When I came across this page in my desperate search I decided to throw caution to the wind and copy the commands into Terminal. IT FLIPPING WORKED and I am so proud of myself - but more so I am grateful to @tacoma for taking the time to post his comment. ?
There are many fake search engines such as qsearch.pw on the internet. The site supposedly enhances the browsing experience by delivering faster and more accurate results. It may seem similar to other, legitimate search engines created by Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., however, you are advised not to trust qsearch.pw or other similar search engines.
Typically, developers promote fake search engines through rogue download/installation set-ups that change browser settings, which are called browser hijackers. To promote qsearch.pw, they use the setup of a fake Adobe Flash Player. Additionally, most fake search engines gather information relating to users' browsing habits.
Typically, browser hijackers change settings of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari browsers - they modify the address of the default search engine, homepage, and new tab - in this case, assigning them to qsearch.pw.
Therefore, users of hijacked browsers are forced to visit this site when they open a browser/new browser window, new tab, or enter a search query into the URL bar. These set-ups generally install 'helper objects' (third party apps such as browser extensions, plug-ins, or add-ons) to prevent users from changing the settings.
To revert or change them, the helper objects must be uninstalled. Note that qsearch.pw displays results generated by Yahoo (it opens search.yahoo.com) and generates no unique results (and is, thus, redundant). Furthermore, when search.yahoo.com is opened through qsearch.pw, the search results contain various dubious ads.
Note that browser hijackers and fake search engines such as qsearch.pw also gather information such as IP addresses, geolocations, URLs of visited pages, entered search queries, and so on. Some might also be designed to collect personal data.
Typically, people who develop fake search engines and information-tracking apps share the data with other parties (potentially, cyber criminals) who misuse it to generate revenue. To avoid privacy issues, problems with browsing safety, and even identity theft, uninstall all unwanted apps immediately.
Other fake search engines similar to qsearch.pw include smartsearch.pw, search.epolife.com, and searchbaron.com. Unfortunately, there are many more. Typically, these search engines are presented as 'useful and legitimate', however, they deliver no real value. Developers design them to gather various data that can be used to generate revenue.
Most search engines such as qsearch.pw are promoted through dubious download and installation set-ups. One of the set-ups used to promote qsearch.pw is that of a fake Adobe Flash Player. Many people allow these set-ups to change browser settings unintentionally.
Generally, information about these modifications is hidden in settings such as "Custom", "Advanced", etc. People often leave these setting unchanged, thereby inadvertently allowing rogue set-ups to make changes to the default browser.
To avoid unwanted downloads and installations, download software from official and trustworthy websites. Do not use third party downloaders, installers, Peer-to-Peer networks (torrent clients, eMule, and so on), or other similar software or unofficial web pages. Study each setup and check "Advanced", "Custom", and other similar settings.
If a setup includes unwanted, additional software or offers to change browser settings, deselect them before completing the download/installation process. Do not trust intrusive ads. When clicked, they can cause redirects to untrustworthy websites or unwanted downloads/installations.
To stop your browser from showing ads or opening dubious web pages, uninstall all unwanted extensions, plug-ins, and add-ons. Problems can also be caused by programs installed on the operating system, so check the list of programs installed on your computer.
Click the Finder icon. In the Finder window, select "Applications". In the applications folder, look for "MPlayerX", "NicePlayer", or other suspicious applications and drag them to the Trash. After removing the potentially unwanted application(s) that cause online ads, scan your Mac for any remaining unwanted components.
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