How to remove GlobalSearchConverter

What is GlobalSearchConverter

GlobalSearchConverter is a browser hijacker that affects your browser settings by replacing the default search engine. It does so to generate ostensibly better results. Once it is installed in your browser, the original homepage address will appear as portal.globalsearchconverter.com. However, all of the queries entered into the search bar will be redirected to legitimate Yahoo.com. This is why it is hard to benefit from the capabilities provided by GlobalSearchConverter. All of the changes are mostly meant to surveil activity and gather personal data (e.g. passwords, IP-addresses, geolocations, etc.). Unlike other hijackers, GlobalSearchConverter also uses web push-notifications to send unwanted ads. If you decide to enable them, your desktop will start receiving a set of suspicious ads, which may lead to malicious or explicit pages. To stave off such problems, we recommend you delete GlobalSearchConverter and reset the browser settings. Our tutorial below will help you to do so.

How GlobalSearchConverter infected your computer

The way browser hijackers can infect your system is via third-party repacks. Put differently, this means downloading pirated or cracked software. When users go through the installation process, they often dismiss reading Terms of Use and checking additional offers (inside of “Advanced/Custom” options). This, therefore, becomes a fatal mistake, leading to unwanted infections. Also, it is recommended to avoid clicking on ads posted around the web. Some of them can drop users over to websites promoting Potentially Unwanted Programs, so be careful about that. Below, we tell more about online protection and ways to improve it.

Remove GlobalSearchConverter manually for free

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

Disable push notifications from portal.globalsearchconverter.com in browsers

Remove portal.globalsearchconverter.com 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. On a Mac you can also go to Chrome and choose Preferences.
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 portal.globalsearchconverter.com in the list and click cross icon to remove it. Click Done button to confirm the action.

Remove portal.globalsearchconverter.com 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 portal.globalsearchconverter.com in the list and click Remove site to remove it.
5. Click Save Changes button to confirm the action.

Remove portal.globalsearchconverter.com 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 portal.globalsearchconverter.com in the list and click Remove button.

Remove portal.globalsearchconverter.com 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 portal.globalsearchconverter.com, 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 portal.globalsearchconverter.com 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 portal.globalsearchconverter.com in the list and click on the cross sign to remove the setting and disable its notifications.

Note: GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter from Control Panel

To start removing GlobalSearchConverter you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “GlobalSearchConverter” or “portal.globalsearchconverter.com”. 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 GlobalSearchConverter from Mac:

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

Remove GlobalSearchConverter from Windows XP:

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

Remove GlobalSearchConverter from Windows 7:

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

Remove GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove GlobalSearchConverter from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter or other suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Cannot uninstall GlobalSearchConverter

In some cases, GlobalSearchConverter won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall GlobalSearchConverter. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter in Safe Mode. To boot in Safe Mode do the following:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. While it starts booting press 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 GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of GlobalSearchConverter. Follow instructions below:

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling the program from Control Panel. To disable GlobalSearchConverter, 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 GlobalSearchConverter or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, GlobalSearchConverter 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 GlobalSearchConverter or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

GlobalSearchConverter installs a search engine (portal.globalsearchconverter.com), 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 GlobalSearchConverter. 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 GlobalSearchConverter may become a real headache as they are hard to remove and 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 GlobalSearchConverter.