How to remove Best Searcher (aatub.xyz)

What is Best Searcher

The Malwarebytes experts have classified Best Searcher as another browser hijacker, which manipulates browser settings in favor of various changes. To be more precise, it changes your homepage domain to mh.aatub.xyz and affects some visual adjustments to the start page of your browser. Whilst all of these changes are meant to improve the browsing experience, our investigation proves completely the opposite. Best Searcher does not generate unique results, instead, it might mimic the capabilities of legitimate search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) to show ostensibly better results. Using Best Searcher makes no sense as it also causes redirects to other suspicious pages, which contain dangerous content. A number of ads and banners being displayed along with the usage, can gobble up system resources and downgrade your system significantly. The last, but most important thing to mention is data-tracking abilities. Browser hijackers do not guarantee any privacy terms. This is why your data may be at risk of being spied by Best Searcher developers. If you suspect something is wrong with your browser, we recommend you get rid of the program causing the above-mentioned changes. Our guide below will show how to do this.

How Best Searcher infected your computer

Repacks and free downloads used by extortionists to promote their software has become a staple thing. They choose websites with high traffic of visitors and collaborate on barter-based terms to advertise their programs. Most website holders agree on that and bundle third-party offers inside of free installers. This is especially spread with pirated or cracked software streamed on illegitimate pages. When users download them, they choose “Recommended” settings or forget to check additional sections (“Advanced” or “Custom”) during the setup. As a result, because optional software hidden inside is initially set for the installation, it will end up on users’ PCs after such an omission. To prevent this, we recommend you avoid recommended and all sorts of settings imposed by developers. Better step into each of the sections yourself and make sure nothing unnecessary will be installed along the way.

Remove Best Searcher manually for free

Here is a manual step-by-step tutorial for full Best Searcher removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of the Best Searcher installer on operating systems with the latest updates and browser versions.

Disable push notifications from aatub.xyz in browsers

Remove aatub.xyz from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Google Chrome

1. Go to Google Chrome settings, by clicking 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choosing Settings.
2. Open advanced settings by clicking Advanced in the bottom.
3. Under opened Privacy and security tab, choose Content settings.
4. Click on Notifications menu (with the bell icon).
5. Set up preferred overall settings for push notifications and click Manage exceptions… button.
6. Find aatub.xyz in the list and click cross icon to remove it. Click Done button to confirm the action.

Remove aatub.xyz from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Mozilla Firefox

1. Go to Mozilla Firefox options, by clicking 3-bars icon in the top-right corner and choosing Options.
2. Choose Content tab on the left side.
3. Under Notifications, set up preferred overall settings for push-notifications and click Choose… button.
4. Find aatub.xyz in the list and click Remove site to remove it.
5. Click Save Changes button to confirm the action.

Remove aatub.xyz from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Safari

1. Open Safari, and in the top menu click Safari, choose Preferences.
2. In the Preferences window, click on Websites tab.
3. On the left side, choose Notifications. You will see the list of websites and their settings for showing notifications.
4. Find aatub.xyz in the list and click Remove button.

Remove aatub.xyz from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Android (Chrome)

1. Open Google Chrome app on Android, and tap on three dots to open main menu.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, scroll down and under Advanced section tap on Site Settings.
3. In the Site Settings menu tap on Notifications.
4. In the Allowed list of websites allowed to show notifications find aatub.xyz, tap on it and in the bottom of the window tap on Clean & Reset button.
5. Confirm your action by tapping on Clean & Reset again in opened dialog box.

Remove aatub.xyz from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Microsoft Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge, and click on the three-dots menu, in the top-right corner.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, and in the left part click Advanced.
3. Under Website permissions section, click Manage permissions button.
4. Find aatub.xyz in the list and click on the cross sign to remove the setting and disable its notifications.

Note: Best Searcher can be installed as Google Chrome extension as Administrator (you may see Installed by enterprise policy inscription near it), and this will not allow removal. Therefore, before starting removal process, perform these actions:

1. Start the Command Prompt by clicking the Start menu button and typing command prompt (or just searching for “command prompt” in Windows 10 search field). Right click on the Command Prompt result and choose Run as Administrator.



2. Type in and execute the following commands:

   
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy"
gpupdate /force

Remove Best Searcher from Control Panel

To start removing Best Searcher you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Best Searcher” or “aatub.xyz”. It should uninstall correctly, however, we recommend you to use IObit Uninstaller to clean leftover items after uninstalling. Here are instructions for Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 or Mac.

Remove Best Searcher from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Best Searcher might have an Uninstaller.
3. Otherwise, drag Best Searcher from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Remove Best Searcher from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Best Searcher or other suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Best Searcher from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Best Searcher or other suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Best Searcher from Windows 8:

1. Hover mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner to see Menu.
2. Click Search.
3. After that click Apps.
4. Then Control Panel.
5. Click Uninstall a Program under Programs.
6. Find Best Searcher or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Best Searcher from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Best Searcher from Windows 10

Way one

1. Click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the System tile.
4. Click Apps & features and locate Best Searcher or other suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on it and then click Uninstall button near it.

Way two (classic)

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Programs and Features.
3. Locate Best Searcher or other suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Cannot uninstall Best Searcher

In some cases, Best Searcher won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Best Searcher. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Best Searcher folder and files. This happens because the process or service does not allow you to do it. In this case, I will recommend you to use SpyHunter 5 or Malwarebytes or uninstall Best Searcher in Safe Mode. To boot in Safe Mode do the following:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. While it starts booting type F8 button.
3. This will open Advanced Boot Options menu.
4. Choose Safe Mode and wait until Windows loads.
5. Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program and remove Best Searcher or other suspicious program

>> See detailed instructions and video tutorial on how to boot in Safe Mode

and for Mac:

If you can’t uninstall Best Searcher using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Best Searcher. Follow instructions below:

1. Download free AppCleaner.
2. Drag Best Searcher from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Best Searcher.
4. Click Delete button.

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Best Searcher from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove the Best Searcher extension from your browsers manually.

Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Click Extensions tab.
3. Find Best Searcher extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Best Searcher or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click the trash can icon to remove them.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
3. Choose Best Searcher or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.
5. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

Note: There is no feature to remove browser extensions from browser in latest version of Internet Explorer. To remove Best Searcher from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling the program from Control Panel. To disable Best Searcher, please, do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu Manage Add-ons.
4. Select Toolbars and Extensions.
5. Click Disable Best Searcher or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Best Searcher does not install in Opera browser however you can always double check. Do the following:

1. Start Opera browser.
2. Go to Tools > Extensions > Manage Extensions.
3. Find Best Searcher or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Best Searcher installs a search engine (aatub.xyz), that hijacks your browsers. Here is the instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

Reset Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Go to the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.
3. Click Remove All Website Data button.
4. In opened window click Remove Now button to remove data stored by websites in Safari.
5. Go to the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences.
6. Click the Show Develop menu in menu bar option.
7. In the menu click Develop and select Empty Caches from this menu.
8. Again, go to Safari menu and choose Clear History….
9. Choose to clear all history and click Clear History button.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. Scroll down and find Show advanced settings link.
4. Click on it and scroll down to the bottom again.
5. Click Reset browser settings button and click Reset to confirm.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:support.
3. Click Reset Firefox… button.
4. Click Reset Firefox to confirm.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu choose Internet options.
4. Click Advanced tab.
5. Click Reset button.
6. Choose Delete personal settings and click Reset.

Opera Browser:

1. Close Opera and open command prompt from the start menu.
2. Type following command del %AppData%\Opera\Opera\operaprefs.ini
3. Start Opera.

For safe and effective browser extension removal use avast! Browser Cleanup utility. Run it with administrator privileges and remove all extensions with bad ratings including related to Best Searcher. You can also reset your browser settings for each of your browsers: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox.

Cleaning browsers shortcuts

You can clean your browser shortcuts manually right-clicking on your browser icon, choosing “Properties” and removing hijacker address from “Target” field (leave just the path to your browser). However it is easier to use free Shortcut Cleaner from BleepingComputer. Download it here – its FREE:

Final tips

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Best Searcher may become a real headache as they are hard to remove and able to break your privacy. To keep safe from such threats we recommend you always use antivirus and one of the anti-malware programs available on the market. One of the best anti-virus programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats like Best Searcher.