I wrote this article to help you remove PowerfulSearch.net. This PowerfulSearch.net removal guide works for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

If all of a sudden your homepage and search engine get replaced with the PowerfulSearch.net page, we have bad news for you. Your machine is infected with a browser hijacker and you need to take immediate actions against it. Hijackers are incredibly sneaky and annoying parasites. They enter your PC in complete silence and then proceed to wreck it. This is why you must take measures as soon as you notice the malicious page taking over your browsers.

Keep in mind that the longer this pest stays on board, the more problems it will cause and the harder it is going to get for you to remove it. Every infection gets out of control eventually. Don’t let this happen. Don’t procrastinate. We assure you that you won`t gain anything from hosting this virus. If you delete it, on the other hand, you will gain a lot.

As soon as the hijacker lands on your machine, your browsers get modified. The pest hijacks Mozilla, Chrome and Internet Explorer so you don’t even have one reliable browser to use. The hijacker makes some completely unauthorized changes in their settings. Your permission it not needed. You are not even notified about the reshuffle. You just open one of your browsers one day to see that your previously trusted search engine is gone and PowerfulSearch.net is in its place. Moreover, you cannot change it back.

No matter what you do, you are stuck with this shady page. And, as you probably figured, nothing this engine shows you can be trusted. You get buried with sponsored and dangerous search results which hackers use to gain money via the dubious pay-per-click mechanism. By clicking, you are sponsoring crooks AND risking compromising your PC even more. These links can easily lead you to sites that are brimming with infections or they can conceal infections themselves. Either way, one click is enough for you to invite more malware on board. It doesn’t matter if you click on purpose or by accident, you still get infected.

The hijacker also ads a pesky plugin to your browsers thus injecting them with ads. So, aside from the unreliable search results, you are also flooded with tons of commercials which serve the exact same purpose and are just as dangerous. This is how the pest effectively ruins your browsing experience. You suffer constant intrusions while online and you are always a single click away from more parasites. And don’t think that all of this goes unnoticed by your machine. It is also affected.

Because of the hijacker, its speed slows down to a crawl. It lags and crashes all the time. Your browsers freeze due to the ad bombardment. Even your Internet connection may become unstable. And like this is not enough, the hijacker also spies on you and monitors your every online move. It keeps on gathering sensitive data from the moment it enters and when it decides it has enough it sends it all to the hackers who published it. These are the last people to have access to such private information. They won’t think twice before using it for their own malicious purposes or sending it to third parties. End this while it is not too late. Follow our removal guide at the end of this article and get rid of this hijacker for good.

How did the hijacker enter? Did you download it on purpose? Of course, not, and yet, here it is. One of the most popular infiltration methods which crooks use is called freeware bundling. The hackers simply attach their malware to another program and you do the rest by throwing caution to the wind when installing said program. If you want to keep your computer infection-free, pay more attention.

Never skip the Terms and Conditions/EULA unless you want to agree to something you are totally against. Also, choose safety over speed. Opt for the Advanced settings in the Setup Wizard instead of the Basic ones. They take a little bit more of your time but they also allow you to see each additional program in the bundle as well as deselect it. Don’t head straight for the “I agree” without knowing what you agree to. Take your time and don’t make hackers` job easier by being negligent.

PowerfulSearch.net Uninstall

Before starting the real removal process, you must reboot in Safe Mode. If you are familiar with this task, skip the instructions below and proceed to Step 2. If you do not know how to do it, here is how to reboot in Safe mode:

For Windows 98, XP, Millenium and 7:
Reboot your computer. When the first screen of information appears, start repeatedly pressing F8 key. Then choose Safe Mode With Networking from the options.

For Windows 8/8.1
Click the Start button, next click Control Panel —> System and Security —> Administrative Tools —> System Configuration.‌

Check the Safe Boot option and click OK. Click Restart when asked.
For Windows 10
Open the Start menu and click or tap on the Power button.

While keeping the Shift key pressed, click or tap on Restart.

Here are the steps you must follow to permanently remove from the browser:

Remove From Mozilla Firefox:

Open Firefox, click on top-right corner , click Add-ons, hit Extensions next.

Look for suspicious or unknown extensions, remove them all.

Remove From Chrome:

Open Chrome, click chrome menu icon at the top-right corner —>More Tools —> Extensions. There, identify the malware and select chrome-trash-icon(Remove).

Remove From Internet Explorer:
Open IE, then click IE gear icon on the top-right corner —> Manage Add-ons.

Find the malicious add-on. Remove it by pressing Disable.

Right click on the browser’s shortcut, then click Properties. Remove everything after the .exe” in the Target box.

Open Control Panel by holding the Win Key and R together. Write appwiz.cpl in the field, then click OK.

Here, find any program you had no intention to install and uninstall it.

Run the Task Manager by right clicking on the Taskbar and choosing Start Task Manager.

Look carefully at the file names and descriptions of the running processes. If you find any suspicious one, search on Google for its name, or contact me directly to identify it. If you find a malware process, right-click on it and choose End task.

Open MS Config by holding the Win Key and R together. Type msconfig and hit Enter.

Go in the Startup tab and Uncheck entries that have “Unknown” as Manufacturer.

Still can not remove PowerfulSearch.net from your browser? Please, leave a comment below, describing what steps you performed. I will answer promptly.