How to remove Search1.me

What is Search1.me

Search1.me is the name of a dubious search engine promoted by a browser hijacker named Better Search. It can be brought by potentially unwanted programs that alter browsing settings to replace default search engines and homepages with their own. Usually, the majority of such changes are useless or fake. Users infected with this browser hijacker will see their homepage URL migrate to search1.me and display new search results. There is also a heading like Custom Search Google added next to the search bar. While many browser hijackers cannot generate their own results and tend to exploit already popular and stable search engines like Yahoo, Google, or Bing, Search1.me is a real engine able to generate and display the entered queries on its own. Even so, it is heavily doubted in the quality and security of the provided content. Additionally, browser hijackers may put your privacy at risk by running data collection of passwords, IP addresses, or geolocations and promoting other internet threats as well. One of the methods is to display excessive amounts of ads on various websites and tempt users into clicking on them. Sometimes they may look helpful or legitimate, but deliver malware and insecure content instead. Unfortunately, it is often impossible to undo the affected changes unless you delete the culprit program itself. The Managed by your organization feature gets enabled and stops users from reverting the changes. If you spot any weird activity similar to the above, use our instructions below to find the unwanted app and delete it as soon as possible.

How Search1.me infected your computer

Developers of browser hijackers and other types of software try to proliferate them as stealth as possible. They integrate unwanted software into third-party installers and disguise them as useful or “good in addition with the main program” tools or programs. Many users do not see and leave them unnoticed as a result of skipping all of the steps to speed up the installation process. Within some time, users spot something new and do not recognize where it came from. To avoid it in the future, it is better to stop relying on pirated, cracked, or freeware software advertised on first-seen websites. Even if you do, make sure to pay close attention to details and uncheck selective offers inside “Advanced”, “Custom” or similarly-named sections. Apart from this, some unwanted programs can be installed after initiating executable scripts on malicious pages. This is another stealth, yet the rarer method of spreading software like Better Search (search1.me) hijacker. We encourage you to read our guide below and learn advice and practical solutions toward securing yourself again such threats in the future.

1. Download Search1.me Removal Tool
2. Remove Search1.me from Control Panel and Applications
3. Remove Search1.me extensions from browsers
4. Reset browser search and homepage settings
5. Alternative way to remove Search1.me search redirects
6. Clean browser shortcuts from Search1.me
7. How to protect from threats like Search1.me

Remove Search1.me manually for free

Here is a manual step-by-step tutorial for full Search1.me removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of the Search1.me an installer on operating systems with the latest updates and browser versions.

Note: Search1.me 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 Search1.me from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Search1.me you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Search1.me”. 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, Windows 11, or Mac.

Remove Search1.me from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Search1.me-related or other suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Search1.me from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Search1.me-related or other suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Search1.me 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 Search1.me-related or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Search1.me from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Search1.me 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 Search1.me-related 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 Search1.me-related or other suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Remove Search1.me from Windows 11:

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the Apps tab on the left side.
4. Click Apps & features and locate Search1.me-related or other recently installed suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on 3-dots icon near it and then click Uninstall button near it.
6. Depending on the type of application (Windows Store app or classic Win32 app) it will be removed immediately or you will need to confirm the action and go through standard uninstall procedure.

Remove Search1.me from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Search1.me might have an Uninstaller.
3. Otherwise, drag Search1.me from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Cannot uninstall Search1.me in Windows

In some cases, Search1.me won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Search1.me. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Search1.me 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 Search1.me 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 Search1.me or other suspicious program

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

Cannot uninstall Search1.me in MacOS

If you can’t uninstall Search1.me using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Search1.me. Follow instructions below:

1. Download free AppCleaner.
2. Drag Search1.me from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Search1.me.
4. Click Delete button.

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Search1.me from Control Panel or Applications often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has a browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Search1.me-related extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Search1.me related extension.
4. Click the Remove button 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. Find Search1.me related extension.
4. Click three-dots icon near it and choose Remove in the menu.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Click Extensions tab.
3. Find Search1.me extension.
4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) edge://extensions.
3. Find Search1.me related extension.
4. Click Remove link under the name of extension.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. 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 Search1.me from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Search1.me, 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 Search1.me or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Search1.me 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 Search1.me or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Search1.me installs a search engine that hijacks your browsers. Here is the instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. On the left panel expand Advanced options.
4. Choose Reset and clean up.
5. Click on Restore settings to their original defaults link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Google Chrome > Settings > Advanced

Reset and clean up

Reset Google Chrome

Mozilla Firefox:

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

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.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser
2. Click on 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
3. On the left panel find and click Reset settings option.
4. Click on Restore settings to their default values link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

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. Start Opera browser and click on Opera icon in the top-left corner.
2. Choose Settings and click Advanced on the left side and choose Browser.
3. Scroll down to the very bottom and click on Restore settings to their original defaults link.
4. Confirm by clicking Reset button.

Alternative way to remove adware browser extensions and reset browser settings

For safe and effective browser extension removal use avast! Browser Cleanup utility. Run it with administrator privileges and remove all extensions with bad rating including related to Search1.me. You can also reset your browser settings for each of your browsers: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox.

Download Avast Browser Cleanup

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:

Download Shortcut Cleaner

How to protect from threats, like Search1.me, in future


SpyHunter 5 Dashboard

SpyHunter 5 Results

SpyHunter 5 System Guard

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Search1.me 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 Search1.me.

Download SpyHunter for Windows

Download SpyHunter for Mac