How to remove Yandex Bar (yandex.com)

What is Yandex Bar

Yandex Bar is classified as a browser hijacker causing a number of browser changes in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox. Usually, the most visible change spotted after its installation is the connection to all Yandex services. For example, your homepage, searched queries, and ads will go through the official Yandex domains. Although Yandex is a company providing a legitimate experience for its users, it can be installed against your will. The presence of Yandex Bar is less likely to cause any significant damage to your data, however, it also remains a question. There is no doubt that Yandex tends to employ “bundling” methods (a technique of promoting software with other programs) to advertise their products, but how about the clones? Whilst such Yandex products may be legitimate despite the distribution methods, there can be software that copies the appearance of legal services to run suspicious activity. A cloned version may look precisely the same, but collect sensitive data and sell it to cybercriminals. Also, worth mentioning that Yandex Bar is part of a browser plug-in, which hijacks your browser settings. The original Yandex, on the contrary, usually promotes the entire browser with full capabilities. On top of that, if you are unable to remove Yandex Bar manually, this might be another testament to its dubious intentions. This is because most unwanted programs install certain values that prevent users from removing the software. If you do not know how and which Yandex Bar ended up on your PC, it is better to remove it and roll back to default settings.

How Yandex Bar infected your computer

Just like other toolbars and browser hijackers, Yandex Bar exploits repacked software to spread itself. We have already mentioned this information above, however, it would be useful to shed some more light on this part. Most developers involve freeware download websites to help them in the promotion of their software. This is quite cheap and does not require a big brain to carry it out. For instance, if you download a pirated or cracked program from any popular resource, you will more likely have to deal with additional offers bundled inside of a setup. Different plug-ins, add-ons, extensions, programs, utilities, and other types of software can be included and offered to be installed along with the chosen program. To avert this, users have to decline the promoted programs at some step of the installation. Developers make their best to hide the buttons allowing to deselect extra offers, so sometimes it may be hard to find them out. In other cases, developers may not give you a choice to see and decide whether you want it to be installed at all. In such a situation, people have to guess and hope nothing else will pounce on their system. To be more effective at dodging unnecessary software, we recommend using special anti-malware programs that neutralize unwanted apps right off the bat. Below, you will be able to find more information about it.

Remove Yandex Bar manually for free

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

Disable push notifications from yandex.com in browsers

Remove yandex.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. 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 yandex.com in the list and click cross icon to remove it. Click Done button to confirm the action.

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

Remove yandex.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 yandex.com in the list and click Remove button.

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

Note: Yandex Bar 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 Yandex Bar from Control Panel

To start removing Yandex Bar you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Yandex Bar” or “yandex.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 Yandex Bar from Mac:

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

Remove Yandex Bar from Windows XP:

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

Remove Yandex Bar from Windows 7:

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

Remove Yandex Bar 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 Yandex Bar or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Yandex Bar from Windows 10:

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

Cannot uninstall Yandex Bar

In some cases, Yandex Bar won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Yandex Bar. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Yandex Bar 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 Yandex Bar 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 Yandex Bar 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 Yandex Bar using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Yandex Bar. Follow instructions below:

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

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

Opera Browser:

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

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Yandex Bar installs a search engine (yandex.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 Yandex Bar. 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 Yandex Bar 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 Yandex Bar.