Search.searchlwradar.com Removal Guide

Search.searchlwradar.com is a new questionable search website with a featured toolbar that may put your virtual security at risk by exposing you to potentially unreliable third-party content. We have classified this malware threat as a browser hijacker just like all the other ones coming from the same family, including Search.searchdirex.com, Search.searcheazel.com, and Search.searchtpo.com. This hijacker family seems to create very similar and sometimes identical search pages that may also change their themes from time to time. For instance, Search.searchtpo.com used to be completely identical to this browser hijacker; yet, right now it seems to feature different links. This malware infection offers you a toolbar with easy access to free online game-related websites among others but we do not advise you to use it in any way. As a matter of fact, we recommend that you remove Search.searchlwradar.com from your browsers. But restoring your previous level of system security may require more than that. Please read on for further details.

Since we have not yet found any official way for this search website to spread on the web, its purpose should be obvious right away when you learn that it is mostly distributed in questionable freeware bundles. Well, maybe "questionable" is not even the right word here as these bundles can be downright malicious and pack several malware infections and potentially unwanted applications alongside authentic free software. Infecting your computer with such a lot can cause serious vulnerability issues for your system, let alone privacy issues for you. Thus, it is vital that you learn how it is possible to download such a malicious package in the first place.

There are actually a number of ways for you to be exposed to a bundle but the first step is always the same: You need to click on unsafe content. This can be a third-party advertisement, such as a banner ad, a pop-up ad, a fake button, and a fake notification, but it can also be a download button on a shady file-sharing website (torrent or freeware). You can be introduced to questionable third-party ads when you land on suspicious websites hosting several third-party contents or when your system is infected with adware or browser hijackers. We advise you to always download programs and other files from official and reputable websites because ending up on an unfamiliar questionable site could be quite dangerous for you. Finding this browser hijacker on your computer may easily mean that there could be other malicious threats hiding on your system. This is why we recommend that you delete Search.searchlwradar.com from your browsers and use a reliable online malware scanner to detect every single harmful application that may still be there endangering your PC.

Once you let this browser hijacker on board, it changes your homepage settings in the affected browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer. This can expose you to this risky search page every time you launch your browsers. Since this page looks similar to other popular and reputable search engine pages, you may not even realize the change and leave this hijacker untouched. This infection provides you with a fake toolbar featuring the usual search box on the left, the link to the local weather widget page that contains several questionable third-party ads, and a couple of other quick links associated with third-party gaming websites, such as terraarcade.com, which again contains possibly unreliable ads. This hijacker also displays a panel right below the main search box that contains thumbnail links to popular and also questionable websites (Amazon.com and addictinggames.com). If you engage with any of the questionable ads on these linked pages, you may risk infecting your computer with more malware threats. But you may also find yourself on a malicious website trying to scam you out of your money.

The main issue however is with the search engine. Every keyword you enter is first forwarded to its own server, query.searchlwradar.com, and only then to Yahoo. This means that the search results you will see on the Yahoo page could be modified. In other words, the results may contain promoted affiliates' advertisements and links. Unfortunately, not all of these affiliates are reliable since cyber crooks can also take advantage of this malware infection. Therefore, clicking on any of the displayed results might end badly for you, i.e., you could drop infections onto your system or you could also open new tabs or windows with malicious content and be tricked into sharing your personal and banking details. We advise you to delete Search.searchlwradar.com from your computer as soon as possible because, before long, you might experience the unfortunate consequences.

After all this cold shower, there is also at least one good thing about this browser hijacker: You can easily eliminate it. Our tests show that it may only change your homepage settings, so it is enough for you to restore those settings in the related browsers. If you want to go deeper and do manual removal, you can use our instructions below. Believing that your computer is all safe now would be a mistake. You cannot feel secure until the last questionable and malicious program is dealt with. You may not have the skills to go after all the possible infections manually; therefore, we suggest that you consider installing a reliable anti-malware program like SpyHunter. What could be more effective than automatic malware removal?

How to remove Search.searchlwradar.com from browsers

Mozilla Firefox

1. Tap Win+E to launch Windows Explorer.
2. Locate %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ and open the folder representing your profile.
3. Open prefs.js in a text editor.
4. Find the user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://Search.searchlwradar.com"); string and overwrite the hijacker’s URL.
5. Save the file and close it.

Google Chrome

1. Tap Win+E to open Windows Explorer.
2. Locate %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default folder if that is the profile you are using.
3. Delete these files: Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data

Internet Explorer

1. Tap Win+R and type regedit. Press OK.
2. Navigate to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page registry entry.
   
3. Replace "http://Search.searchlwradar.com" value data with a URL of your preference.
4. Navigate to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\{0633EE93-D776-472f-A0FF-E1416B8B2E3A}.
5. Overwrite the value data of these value names: FaviconURL, FaviconURLFallback, TopResultURL, and URL
6. Close the editor.