Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com Removal Guide

Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com is a search tool better known as a browser hijacker for malware analysts. Once inside the system, it changes one important preference on all users’ browsers – a default homepage. Because of this, a new search tool is opened to users when they launch their browsers. Some of them do not pay much attention to the presence of a new website because it does not differ much from a legitimate search provider judging from its appearance. It is also possible not to notice the changes, but we are sure that the majority of users notice a new search tool in front of their eyes soon. Has Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com already changed the settings of your browsers as well? If so, delete it without consideration and do not even try it out because it can provide you with untrustworthy search results which might redirect you straight to corrupted third-party pages. Untrustworthy search tools do not have uninstallers and, consequently, cannot be erased via Control Panel, but it does not mean that users cannot remove them from their browsers. We will talk about the removal procedure in detail in the last paragraph of this report. Let’s find out first why Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com cannot be called a reputable search tool.

Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com shares similarities with Search.yourmapscenter.com and Search.classifiedscenter.com, so our researchers did not need to put much effort into the analysis. They quickly realized that this search tool is a browser hijacker. The first symptom showing that a search tool is not a reputable search provider is its ability to show up on browsers without permission. In other words, if a website can change browsers’ settings against a user’s will, it can barely be called trustworthy. Since Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com can hijacks web browsers too, it has been put into the category of dubious search engines. Unfortunately, it is not the only feature making it an untrustworthy search provider. Research has shown that it might show unreliable search results either. Specifically speaking, users will see advertisements next to ordinary search results. Of course, they will not be distinguished from the rest of the search results, so users performing web searches with Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com could not recognize them and, as a result, will click on these ads sooner or later. All of them open third-party pages, but, unfortunately, nobody knows anything about them. According to our experienced specialists, users might be taken even to pages with malware. It is not necessary to click on malicious links to download them. In some cases, it is enough to open a website promoting bad software to end up with it. Do not let this happen to you – uninstall the suspicious search tool from your browsers speedily no matter that it looks like a powerful search provider, displays the page with search results, and contains buttons opening popular third-party pages.

Specialists at 411-spyware.com have also opened its Privacy Policy and analyzed this document thoroughly so that it would be possible to say how Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com treats the users’ privacy. It has turned out that this search tool is going to record two types of information on users’ computers: non-personal information and personal information. Non-personal details are these: type of browser, language preference, OS version, IP address, etc. As for the personal information, it encompasses all the details that can personally identify users. Since it might disclose this information to third parties (“We may disclose your personal information to third parties”), this information might end up in the hands of bad people and, consequently, privacy-related issues might arise. Of course, we do not say that this will necessarily happen to all the users of Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com.

You see Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com because you have set it as your homepage yourself or downloaded a malicious software bundle from descargar.es, filewin.com, filewon.com, or another suspicious P2P page recently. Delete it as soon as possible no matter how it has been set on your web browsers. Below this article, you will find our manual removal guide – you are welcome to use it if you need some help with its deletion. What else you can do is to acquire a security application and then scan your system with it to remove active infections automatically.

How to delete Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com

Internet Explorer

1. Tap Win+R.
2. Enter regedit in the box.
3. Click OK.
4. Open HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
5. Right-click on the Start Page value, select Modify, and enter a new URL in the Value data field.
6. Click OK.
7. Go to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}.
8. Find and modify the following Values one by one too (the 5thremoval step of this removal guide will help you):

• URL
• TopResultURL
• FaviconURLFallback
• FaviconURL

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the Windows Explorer (Win+E).
2. Open %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ and check all folders.
3. When you find the prefs.js file, open it with Notepad.
4. Delete the following string from this file: user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://Search.geniusmediatabsearch.com"); .
5. Save the changes.

Google Chrome

1. Tap Win+E to launch the Windows Explorer and type %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default in the address bar to open this directory.
2. Delete Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data files one by one.
3. Clear the Recycle bin.