Goqrench.net Removal Guide

Goqrench.net is a suspicious search engine and a browser hijacker, so naturally, computer security specialists advise getting rid of it if it affects your browsing application. Researchers who tested the tool are saying it should work on browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Apparently, the search engine could modify particular browser preferences to make you surf the Internet with Goqrench.net. Moreover, it seems like the application could place advertising content while you are browsing with it, and if you click such ads, the browser hijacker’s developers might get advertising revenue from it. Of course, we do not recommend interacting with any suspicious advertising content since there is not knowing where it could come from. Therefore, if you would rather not risk your system's safety, it might be best to remove the threat as soon as possible with the instructions located at the end of the article or a legitimate antimalware tool.

So far it is still unknown how Goqrench.net is being distributed, although, from our experience with threats alike, we could say such search engines quite often travel with bundled installation files. Also, browser hijackers can be spread with doubtful browser extensions that might be classified as potentially unwanted programs. One way or another, if the threat hijacked your browser, it is most likely because you installed doubtful freeware or pirated software downloaded from torrent and other P2P file-sharing networks. Such web pages may not necessarily distribute malicious applications, but their installers could be bundled with malware, so users who occasionally download programs from them should be extremely cautious. Probably, it would be best to keep a reliable antimalware tool that could notify about harmful installers and stop them from doing any damage to the system.

As we mentioned in the beginning, the search tool might modify some browser preferences, for example, your default search provider, new tab page, or start page. Thus, the affected browser may open Goqrench.net when it is launched when you create a new tab or initiate a new search. If your browsing application redirects you to this website, you might have already noticed that there are no links to the software’s End User License Agreement and Privacy Policy documents. No doubt some users rarely review these documents or do not read them at all, but even so the fact they are missing should raise a suspicion to any user. Perhaps, the application’s creators do not wish to share information about themselves or the product because it could ruin the impression about it? We cannot say, and it makes us doubt the software's reliability.

What’s more, our specialists think that same as other similar browser hijackers, Goqrench.net could show various advertising content among its provided results since it might be using a modified search engine. Without the End User License Agreement document, we cannot know where such ads would originate from. This means there are no reassurances the advertisements cannot be malicious. Because of this risk, we encourage you to erase the browser hijacker from your browser and find a more trustworthy search tool to surf the Internet. You can remove it quite easily with the recommended deletions steps located below or with a reliable antimalware tool.

Eliminate Goqrench.net

Internet Explorer

1. Press Windows key+R.
2. Type Regedit and click Enter.
3. Identify a value name called Start page in the following location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
4. Right-click this particular value name and press Modify.
5. Replace the hijacker’s link (http://Goqrench.net) and press OK.
6. Exit Registry Editor.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Click Windows key+E.
2. Locate file titled prefs.js in the provided location: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{unique user ID}
3. Launch this file as a Notepad document.
4. Search for a code line with the hijacker’s link: user_pref(“browser.startup.homepage”, “http://Goqrench.net”).
5. Replace http://Goqrench.net and press Ctrl+S.
6. Exit Notepad.

Google Chrome

1. Tap Windows key+E.
2. Navigate to provided path: C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
3. Find these listed files:
   Preferences
   Secure Preferences
   Web Data
4. Right-click these files one by one and select Delete.
5. Leave File Explorer.