Search.yourmovietimenow.com Removal Guide

Search.yourmovietimenow.com is a browser hijacker whose purpose is to redirect web traffic and subject you to commercial advertisements presented in its search results. Its malicious actions include changing your browser’s homepage and other search-related settings. You should remove this hijacker because it changes your browser’s settings without your permission and its promoted links could redirect to malicious websites. In short, this hijacker is part of a web monetization campaign, and it will in no way improve your search results.

This hijacker is injected by a browser extension called Your Movies Now on Google Chrome and Movies on Firefox, while on Internet Explorer it does not appear in the extensions list because it works as an application. This extension’s files have been signed by Express Software, which is most likely a bogus name to give the extension a more confident appearance. Search.yourmovietimenow.com has been marked with the “by SaferBrowser” label which indicates that this hijacker belongs to an established malware family. We would like to point out that it has many clones that include Search.searchtmp.com, Search.searchlcl.com, Search.searchwag.com, and Search.easyinterestsaccess.com, among others.

Our research has revealed that this browser hijacker is currently being distributed via three channels. First, its direct download is promoted via advertisements presented by various adware-type applications. In this case, this hijacker enters the computer without stating the changes it intends to impose on your web browser. The second channel is its dedicated website at Yourmovietimenow.com, which features the aforementioned browser extension. In this case, if you download it from the main site, the installer gives you the opportunity to opt-out of changing the new tab page, homepage, and search engine. However, the third channel involves software bundling and in this case, the installer might inject this hijacker’s browser extension without your knowledge or consent. In summary, this hijacker is distributed using legitimate and malicious methods, but since one method involves modifying your browser’s settings without your permission, classifying it as a browser hijacker is entirely justifiable.

Irrespective of the distribution method, when Search.yourmovietimenow.com is injected into the browser, it will modify its settings, but it will affect different browsers differently. If you use Chrome, then it will replace its homepage address. If you use Firefox, then it will change the search provider and new tab page while for Internet Explorer it will only modify the homepage. As mentioned, this hijacker is part of a web monetization campaign, so the only reason for changing the aforementioned settings is to redirect web traffic to Search.yourmovietimenow.com which when used will display promotion links in its search results. As a search engine it is not too bad because it redirects all search queries to Yahoo.com. However, you get not only ads that are presented by Yahoo.com by default, but also additional ads by Search.yourmovietimenow.com, which may be unreliable and, in the worst case scenario, provide you with links to websites that contain malware downloads.

So clicking the promoted links is not a good idea, but there is more to this hijacker than meets the eye. We want to elaborate on this hijacker’s ability to collect information about you. Its privacy policy states that “we may collect personally-identifiable information through the use of our Services upon your contacting us.” The collected information includes “your name, email or mailing address, or other information you include when contacting us.” Also, this hijacker will gather non-personal information that includes URLS that you visited and search queries. Furthermore, this information might even be shared with third parties that, according to the privacy policy, “use Search Data to function.” Note that the collected information is used to tailor the ads according to your browsing preferences to increase the chance of you clicking the promoted links.

In summary, Search.yourmovietimenow.com is useless as a search engine because it redirects all search queries to Yahoo.com. It main objective is to force you to use its search function and show you advertisements. So, if you want to get rid of this browser hijacker and restore your browser’s settings, please consult the removal instructions located below.

How to Uninstall YourMoviesNow (Internet Explorer only)

Windows 10 and 8/8.1

1. Right-click on the Start menu/Start screen.
2. Go to Programs and Features.
3. Locate the program and uninstall it.

Windows Vista/7

1. Click the Start menu button and select Control Panel.
2. Click Uninstall a Program.
3. Find the unwanted software and click Uninstall.

Windows XP

1. Click the Start menu button and select Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove Programs.
3. Find the program and click Remove.

Remove the browser extension

Google Chrome

1. Press Alt+F.
2. Open More tools.
3. Select Extensions.
4. Click Remove the extension.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+A.
2. Open Extensions.
3. Click Remove the unwanted extension.