Cheetasearch.com Removal Guide

Cheetasearch.com is a browser hijacker that might be only after your clicks. Our researchers learned that the application might show modified search results that could include third-party advertising. It is possible that the ads could belong to the search engine’s third-party partners, and they could be paying a particular amount of money for each user’s click. Unfortunately, the user herself might not get anything useful out of this. On the contrary, some of the advertisements could promote potentially harmful web pages. If you do not want to endanger the computer, we would advise you to erase the threat with our prepared deletion instructions that you can find below the text. Also, we encourage you to read more about Cheetasearch.com and learn how to protect the computer from other browser hijackers.

As it would seem, the application might be distributed with suspicious pop-up ads that could be displayed by another potentially harmful program on the computer. For example, it could be another browser hijacker, potentially unwanted program, or adware. You might download such software from unreliable file-sharing web pages. In some cases, users install such threats accidentally when they launch bundled installers. If you wish to keep the system clean, you should make sure that the software you are downloading is harmless. Also, you should download installers from reliable sources and pay attention to the installation process.

Cheetasearch.com hijacks the browser without adding any data to the system. The application modifies particular browser data instead. For instance, if the threat affected your Internet Explorer it should have altered a value name called Start Page. It is located in the following path on the Windows Registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main. The hijacker is also compatible with two other browsers that are known as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

It is easy to notice that the browser was hijacked by the application since it should start loading Cheetasearch.com instead of the previous homepage, new tab page, or default search engine. What’s more, the user might be unable to remove the search engine without either deleting or fixing the modified data we mentioned earlier. Nevertheless, you should not put up with the application as the search engine might be dangerous for you to use.

Apparently, the browser hijacker could display third-party advertisements among the results. The ads might appear as pop-ups, banners, links, and so on. It is important to know that once you click these ads, you could be redirected to malicious websites. The web pages could be dangerous because they might contain malware, such as Trojans, viruses, worms, and other infections. You should also watch out for third-party sites that may gather private data and use it without the user’s permission.

To summarize, the application might be potentially dangerous as it could lead you to unreliable web pages. Thus, it might be better to get rid of Cheetasearch.com before anything bad happens. If you think alike, you should follow the provided instructions below. They will show you how to fix the affected browser’s data or how to remove it. However, if you think that the system needs to be checked for other possible threats, we advise you to get a reliable antimalware tool and leave the job to it. The tool can perform a system scan and locate the browser hijacker or other threats. To eliminate the detections, you should simply click the deletion button that appears after the scan.

Remove Cheetasearch.com from browsers

Internet Explorer

1. Press Win+R, type regedit and press OK.
2. Navigate to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
3. Search for a Value Name titled as Start Page.
4. Right-Click the Start Page and choose Modify.
5. Replace Value Data with a web page you trust, e.g., google.com.
6. Click OK.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the Explorer (Win+E).
2. Navigate to C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{Unique Mozilla user ID}
3. Find a file named as Prefs.js and open it with Notepad.
4. Find and delete this line: user_pref(“browser.startup.homepage”, “http://Cheetasearch.com”).
5. Save the document.

Google Chrome

1. Launch the Explorer.
2. Locate the following path C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
3. Find the listed files: Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data.
4. Right-click these files separately and select Delete.