SportSearchly browser hijacker removal

SportSearchly is a generic browser hijacker that gets installed without your explicit permission. While it’s not a dangerous computer infection, it will make unwanted changes to the browser’s settings. It will set sportsearchly.com as the homepage and nearbyme.io as the default search engine. The hijacker will also try to redirect you to sponsored websites by altering your search results. Some of the sites you could be redirected to may be dangerous so the hijacker is not entirely harmless.

 

 

As far as browser hijackers go, SportSearchly is pretty generic. It’s practically identical to MovieSearchHome, GetMovieSearch, and SearchStreamz, with only the name being different. They all act the same, they make unwanted changes without permission, promote questionable search engines like searchlee.com and nearbyme.io, and try to redirect to sponsored websites. While this hijacker may be advertised as a useful extension, it doesn’t actually do anything. Some hijackers at least have a few useful features to convince users to not get rid of them but SportSearchly offers nothing. Though at least it’s not directly harmful to the computer. However, it will make unwanted changes to your browser’s settings. More specifically, it will set sportsearchly.com as the homepage and nearbyme.io as the default search engine. These changes will affect all popular browsers, including Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. You will also be unable to undo these changes while the hijacker is installed. Unless you remove SportSearchly, you will be stuck with generic site loading every time your browser is opened.

Sportsearchly.com is a very generic website with minimal features. It has shortcuts to a PDF converter, a cryptocurrency and currency converter, and a calculator. The main thing the site is promoting is the search box. If you were to use it or search via your browser’s address bar, you will be shown search results by nearbyme.io. It’s is not a reliable search engine, so we don’t recommend using it or clicking on any of its results. Keep in mind that the hijacker’s main purpose is to redirect to sponsored websites, and they do that by altering search results. The results will have little to do with what you were searching for. Avoid clicking on those results because you may be redirected to dangerous sites, such as ones promoting scams or hiding malware. Even if the hijacker by itself is pretty harmless, its redirects are a different story.

To add to the unwanted changes and potential redirects, browser hijackers also track your browsing. SportSearchly will track what you search for, what sites you visit, what content you interact with, your IP address, etc. While it doesn’t collect personal information, the hijacker’s data collection is still rather intrusive. Furthermore, the information would also be shared with unknown third parties and used for advertising purposes. You don’t need to put up with the hijacker and all the problems that come with it, especially because SportSearchly has no useful features.

We should also explain how the hijacker was installed on your computer. These kinds of infections use software bundling to install, which essentially means that they can install without your explicit permission. You can avoid this by correctly installing free programs. Continue reading to learn how software bundling works and how you can avoid unwanted installations in the future. Preventing these unwanted installations is easy, as long as you correctly install freeware.

How do browser hijackers install

Minor infections like adware, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) install using the software bundling method, which means that they come added to free software as extra offers. These extra offers are permitted to install alongside the program without your explicit permission. Since users would rarely install browser hijackers otherwise, this is the perfect installation method for such programs. Most free programs will come with these added offers, and once they’re installed, they can be difficult to get rid of. Because it’s such a sneaky installation method, it’s quite controversial, and programs that use it are often classified as potential threats by anti-virus programs.

The offers that come attached to a free program are optional, which means their installation is preventable. To avoid these unwanted installations, all you need to do is be more attentive when installing freeware. Most importantly, you need to use Advanced (Custom) settings instead of Default when installing programs. The installation window will suggest using Default but if you do, all offers attached to the free program will be permitted to install without your explicit permission. However, if you opt for Advanced, all added offers will be made visible, and you will have the option to deselect what you do not want. Generally, offers attached to free programs should not be allowed to install. They will be completely useless to you, not to mention persistent when you want to remove them. It’s much easier to deselect a few boxes than it is to later have to uninstall pesky programs.

You could have also encountered the hijacker advertised as a useful extension and decided to install it knowingly. Hijackers can often be encountered on questionable free download websites. If you did install it yourself, we recommend doing more research before installing programs in the future. If you were to use Google to look into SportSearchly, you would have gotten plenty of results suggesting its removal, which indicated that you should not install it.

SportSearchly removal

Because browser hijackers are not serious infections, you will be able to delete SportSearchly manually without too many issues. However, using anti-virus software would be much easier, particularly if you have little experience when it comes to removing persistent programs like browser hijackers. There are many reliable anti-virus programs like WiperSoft that will not only remove SportSearchly hijacker but also undo all setting changes. Once the hijacker is gone, you will be able to make changes to your browser’s settings as normal.