Remove Certified Search Toolbar hijacker
“Certified toolbar” is a browser hijacker program that changes your internet home page to “search.certified-toolbar.com” and modifies browser search settings. The "Certified toolbar" emulates the Google Search engine and performs browsing redirects to malicious websites. Another symptom of "Certified toolbar" infection is the slow activity on the infected computer. "Certified toolbar" hijacker is bundled inside other software installation programs and for that reason you must always pay attention when you install free software on your computer.
If you want to remove “Certified toolbar search settings” from your computer, use the steps below:
* Click here to see a detailed video on how to remove Certified toolbar search settings.
How to remove "Certified toolbar" from your computer:
Step 1. Uninstall applications installed by “Certified toolbar” from your Control panel.
1. To do this, go to Start > Control Panel.
{Windows 8: Right click on the bottom left corner and select Control Panel }
{Windows XP: Start > Settings > Control Panel. }
2. Double click to open “Add or Remove Programs” if you have Windows XP or
“Programs and Features” if you have Windows 8, 7 or Vista).
3. In the program list, find and remove/Uninstall these applications:
a. Certified Toolbar (By Certified Toolbar)
b. Protected Search (By Protected Search)
Step 2. Remove “Certified Toolbar” from your internet browser application.
Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox
Internet Explorer
How to remove “Certified Toolbar” from Internet Explorer and restore search settings:
1. Open Internet Explorer and then open “Internet Options”.
To do this from IE’s file menu, choose “Tools” > “Internet Options”.
Notice*: In the latest versions of IE press the “Gear” icon on the top right.
2. Click the “Advanced” tab.
3. Choose “Reset”.
4. Check (to enable) the “Delete personal settings” box and choose “Reset”.
5. After the resetting action is completed, press “Close” and then choose “OK” to exit Internet Explorer options.
6. Restart your browser and proceed to Step 3 to completely remove Certified settings from IE.
How to remove “Certified Toolbar” from Google Chrome and restore search settings:
1. Open Google Chrome and go to chrome menu and choose "Settings".
2. Find the "On startup" section and choose "Set Pages".
3. Delete the "search.certified-toolbar.com" from startup pages by pressing the "X" symbol on the right.
4. Set your preferred startup page (e.g. http://www.google.com) and press "OK".
5. Under "Appearance" section check to enable the "Show Home button" option and choose "Change".
6. Delete the "search.certified-toolbar.com" entry from "Open this page" box.
7. Type (if you like) you preferred webpage to open when you press your "Home page" button
(e.g. www.google.com) or leave this field bank and press "OK".
5. Go to "Search" section and choose "Manage search engines".
6. Choose your preferred default search engine (e.g. Google search) and press "Make default".
7. Then choose the "search.certified-toolbar.com" search engine and remove it by pressing the "X" symbol at the right. Choose "Done" to close "Search engines" window.
8. Choose "Extensions" on the left.
9. At the "Extensions" pane, remove the "Certified Toolbar " entry by pressing the "recycle bin" icon in that line.
10. Close all Google Chrome windows and proceed to Step 3.
How to remove “Certified Toolbar ” from Mozilla Firefox and restore search settings:
1. Click on "Firefox" menu button on the top left of Firefox window and go to:
Help > Troubleshooting Information.
2. In "Troubleshooting Information" window, press "Reset Firefox" button to reset Firefox to its default state.
4. Press "Reset Firefox" again.
5. After the resetting job is completed, Firefox restarts.
6. Close all Firefox windows and proceed to the next Step.
Step 3.Clean your computer from remain malicious threats.
Download and install MalwareBytes Antimalware to clean all the malicious threats remaining on your computer.*
*If you don’t know how to install and use “MalwareBytes Anti-Malware“, read these instructions.
Advice: To ensure your computer is clean and safe, perform a Malwarebytes Anti-Malware full scan in windows “Safe mode“.*
*To get into Windows Safe mode, press the “F8” key as your computer is booting up, before the appearance of the Windows logo. When the “Windows Advanced Options Menu” appears on your screen, use your keyboard arrows keys to move to the Safe Mode option and then press “ENTER“.
Step 4. Clean unwanted files and entries.
Use “CCleaner” program and proceed to clean your system from temporary internet files and invalid registry entries.*
*If you don’t how to install and use “CCleaner”, read these instructions.
Step 5. Restart your computer for changes to take effect and perform a full scan with your antivirus program.
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