www.startsearches.net : How to remove it in 3 steps

Oscar Sodani is a founder of Help2Go and owner of Help2Go Networks, an IT consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. Oscar holds the CISSP certification as well as industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco and Novell.

Does your web browser keep directing you to www.startsearches.net every time you connect to the Internet? It's a scam. They are showing you false information about your system, all in the hope that you will purchase one of their garbage products.

In fact, you have a malware program on your PC that is causing your browser to show you that web site, and we'll show you how to remove it once and for all. Just follow the steps below, and your PC will be clean. All of the programs we will use to remove the malware/virus are free.

You should bookmark or print this page before proceeding. 

Step 1: Run SmitfraudFix

The first step is to download SmitfraudFix here. It's a ZIP file, so once it has downloaded, you will need to extract (unzip) it. (Click here if you're not sure how to unzip files).

The SmitfraudFix download site also offers instructions on how to use SmitfraudFix. Follow the instructions exactly.

Note: If you plan on getting help from our spyware removal experts in the Spyware Help Forum, do the following: After selecting Option 1 (Search) in SmitfraudFix and before selecting Option 2 (Clean), rename the rapport.txt file in your C:\ drive to report1.txt. That way, if the spyware fighters in our Spyware Help Forum ask you for those files for analysis, you will have them.

SmitfraudFix does an excellent job of removing most of the www.startsearches.net infection, however there is still more work to be done. Once it has finished, return to this tutorial and go through the next two steps.

Step 2: Run Ewido Scanner 

The free Ewido scanner effectively removes any residue left over by startsearches.net - follow the steps in our Ewido tutorial to download and run this tool.

When it is complete, reboot your computer again.

Step 3: Run Online Virus Scanners 

Now run the Panda ActiveScan virus scanner and the Housecall virus scanner as detailed in Step 1 of our guide to Get Rid of Spyware, Adware, and Web Browser Hijackers. Only then can you be completely sure than your computer is clean from infection.

You should now be free of www.startsearches.net - however, you may have additional spyware on your PC. These things tend to travel in packs ;) Go through the rest of the instructions in the Get Rid of Spyware guide to remove any other infections, and to protect your PC from future spyware.

If you have been referred to this Tutorial from the help forums:  please find the C:\rapport.txt file. Open it in notepad and copy & paste the contents in your next post in the forum.

Have a question? Need help? Get free, friendly person-to-person help with your computer questions or spyware questions in our help forums!