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

Softonicstart.com is a malicious domain. If it takes over your browsers all of a sudden, you are in trouble. The page indicates the presence of a browser hijacker on your machine. A nasty parasite has managed to sneak in and it will turn your browsing experience into a nightmare unless you remove it ASAP. Hijackers are not only incredibly irritating and intrusive but they are also dangerous. The pest you are currently stuck with exposes you to both malware and security risk. And the longer it stays, the bigger the risks get. Take the Softonicstart.com`s appearance as a warning. That’s what it is. The hijacker uses this site to lurk behind. As soon as you see it, take actions and find this pest. The sooner you get rid of it, the better.

The hijacker enters your PC relying on trickery and deception. The pest needs your permission on its installment so it asks for it in the sneakiest ways possible. One of the most popular infiltration methods is freeware bundling. All crooks need to do is attach the hijacker to a bundle and you do the rest by not being careful enough while installing said bundle. You have to pay more attention to what you agree to. You probably got this hijacker as a “bonus” because you were distracted. This is what hackers want. They pray for your haste, distraction, and carelessness.

Next time you are installing a bundle, don’t rush. Take the time to actually read the Terms and Conditions/EULA. Carefully double-check what you are giving green light to. Also, opt for the Custom settings in the Setup Wizard instead of the Basic ones. They allow you to see each program in the bundle as well as to decide which one stays and which one goes. Other getting in tactics include spam email messages, fake updates, corrupted pages, third-party pop-ups, etc. However, what none of them would work without is your carelessness. So, don’t provide it.

Once the hijacker is on board you start enduring a never-ending pile of issues. Let`s start with the minor ones. The hijacker does exactly what it names implies – it hijacks all of your browsers. It makes changes in your browsers` setting without your consent. It doesn’t need permission to make modifications. This is why you open your browser one day to find out that both your homepage and search engine have been replaced with Softonicstart.com. This suspicious page is now in their places. It fact, it is everywhere. You see it all the time. If you want to surf the web, you have to use it. If you try loading another page, you get redirected back to it. When you open a new tab, it is there. It even appears among the search results.

Softonicstart.com traces your every online move. But not only that. As we said, the page is your new search engine. Not a good one, to be honest. It does not provide the safe and accurate results it promises. What is provides is mostly dangerous sponsored links which crooks use to gain effortless profits via the pay-per-click mechanism. Those links are your major problem. They cannot be trusted. No sponsored link is reliable.

A single click on the wrong one and you infest your machine with more threats. Is that what you want? So, click nothing the hijacker generates. There might be some safe links as well but you cannot tell which is which unless you click and the risk it just not worth it. Also, aside from the Softonicstart.com and the redirects, you are flooded with ads as well. They come in all shapes, popping in front of you and prompting you to click. Needless to say, don’t. These commercials are just as shady as the links your new search engine generates.

The last thing you need is to compromise your already compromised and underperforming machine even more. Because of the hijacker, it is slow, it lags, it crashes and freezes frequently. The best thing to do is to delete the intruder immediately. And like all of this is not enough, your private information is being spies on. The pest keeps close track of your data, gather is and then sends it to the crooks behind it. Consider your private life no longer private as long as you are hosting this infection. If you want to protect yourself and your privacy, get rid of the hijacker now. To do so manually, use our detailed removal guide below.

Softonicstart.com Removal

Before starting the real removal process, you must reboot in Safe Mode. If you know how to do this, 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.

Please, follow the steps precisely to remove Softonicstart.com 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 Softonicstart.com from your browser? Please, leave a comment below, describing what steps you performed. I will answer promptly.