How to Remove Searching.com from Windows 10

To remove searching.com from Windows 10, uninstall any program you don’t recognize in Settings > Apps, run a full scan and then an offline scan in Windows Security, remove unfamiliar browser extensions, set your search engine and homepage back to the ones you want, and reset the browser if the change keeps coming back. Finish by checking your browser shortcuts, startup apps and scheduled tasks for anything that reopens searching.com. Do the steps in that order: if you only fix the browser, a leftover program can quietly change it back.

Applies to: Windows 10 version 22H2 with Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025, and only PCs enrolled in Extended Security Updates still get security fixes, through October 12, 2027.

What searching.com is and how to spot it

Searching.com (often seen as www-searching.com) is a browser hijacker: unwanted software that takes over your browser’s search engine, homepage or new tab page so your searches pass through its site. It usually arrives bundled with a free program, a fake update prompt or a download from an unofficial site, and it may install a browser extension, a Windows program, or both.

Microsoft’s criteria for unwanted software describe exactly this behavior: software that limits your ability to change browser settings or redirects web traffic without notice and consent. Microsoft Defender can flag and remove programs that fit those rules.

You probably have it if you notice any of these:

• Searches from the address bar briefly show searching.com (or a similar address) before landing on a results page.
• Your homepage or new tab page changed to a search page you didn’t choose.
• You change the search engine back, and it reverts after you restart the browser or the PC.
• A new extension, toolbar or program appeared around the same time.
• Chrome shows Managed by your organization on a home PC that no school or employer controls.

If what’s bothering you is web results in the Windows 10 taskbar search box, that’s a Windows feature rather than a hijacker. See Web results in the Windows search box near the end.

Before you start

• Sign in with an administrator account. Uninstalling programs, running an offline scan and editing scheduled tasks all need admin rights.
• Save your bookmarks and passwords. A browser reset keeps them in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, but a backup costs nothing. Signing in to browser sync or exporting bookmarks both work.
• Note when the problem started. Anything installed on or just before that date is your first suspect.
• Check every browser you use. Hijackers often change more than one. Each Windows user account also has its own browser profiles, so repeat the browser steps for other accounts on the PC if they’re affected.
• Save your work. The offline scan in Step 2 restarts the PC.

Step 1: Uninstall the program that brought it

Removing the Windows program first stops it from resetting your browser while you work.

1. Select Start > Settings (the gear icon) > Apps. The Apps & features list opens.
2. Open the Sort by menu above the list and choose Install date. The newest programs move to the top.

3. Look for anything you don’t remember installing, especially programs installed around the time searching.com appeared. Names vary: search helpers, “search module” or toolbar add-ons, PDF converters, media downloaders and system “optimizers” are common carriers.
4. Select the program, select Uninstall, and confirm. If the uninstaller offers to “keep your search settings” or install a different offer, decline it.
5. If a program won’t uninstall from Settings, open Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features, right-click it and choose Uninstall or Uninstall/Change. Microsoft’s uninstall apps and programs page lists both routes.

Be careful: don’t remove entries you can’t identify just because they’re unfamiliar. Drivers and utilities from Microsoft, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Realtek or your PC maker are normal. When in doubt, search the exact program name and publisher before removing it. For more on the uninstall screens, see how to uninstall programs on Windows 10.

If you also find Wave Browser installed, remove Wave Browser as well, since it often arrives the same way.

Step 2: Scan with Microsoft Defender

Microsoft Defender Antivirus is built into Windows 10 and catches many potentially unwanted apps that a manual check misses. Run a full scan first, then an offline scan.

Run a full scan

1. Select Start, type Windows Security, and open the app.
2. Select Virus & threat protection.
3. Under Current threats, select Scan options.
4. Choose Full scan, then select Start a full scan (the button may read Scan now). A full scan checks every file and program and can take an hour or more on a large drive. You can keep using the PC while it runs.
5. If Defender finds threats, choose Start actions or Remove for each one.

Run an offline scan

Some unwanted software protects itself while Windows is running. The offline scan restarts the PC and scans from outside Windows, where that trick doesn’t work.

1. In Windows Security, go to Virus & threat protection > Scan options.
2. Choose Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan) (older versions call it Microsoft Defender Offline scan) and select Start an offline scan or Scan now.
3. Confirm the prompt. The PC restarts into a blue scanning screen, runs the scan and restarts back into Windows on its own.
4. To see what was found, open Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Protection history.

Both scans are described on Microsoft’s Microsoft Defender Offline page. If you use another antivirus that replaced Defender, run that program’s full scan instead. A broader walkthrough, including what to do with quarantined items, is in scanning for and removing malware in Windows 10.

While you’re in Windows Security, check that potentially unwanted app blocking is on: go to App & browser control > Reputation-based protection settings and make sure Potentially unwanted app blocking is on with Block apps and Block downloads checked. Microsoft says this is on by default on Windows 10 since August 2021, but bundled installers sometimes run on PCs where it was turned off.

Step 3: Remove suspicious browser extensions

Extensions are the most common hiding place for search hijackers because they’re allowed to change the search engine and new tab page. Remove anything you didn’t add on purpose, anything with a vague name like “Search” or “New Tab,” and anything installed around the time the problem began.

Google Chrome

1. Select More (the three dots at the top right) > Extensions > Manage extensions.
2. Find the extension and select Remove, then Remove again to confirm.

If an extension has no Remove button and says it’s installed by your administrator, a policy is holding it in place. Skip to “Managed by your organization” appears.

Microsoft Edge

1. Select Settings and more (the three dots) > Extensions > Manage extensions. You can also type edge://extensions in the address bar.
2. Select Remove under the extension and confirm.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the menu (three lines at the top right) and select Add-ons and themes, then Extensions.
2. Select the … button next to the extension and choose Remove.

Removing an extension usually puts the search engine and new tab page back to what they were before it was installed, but check in the next step anyway.

Step 4: Restore your search engine and homepage

Set the search engine you actually want, then delete searching.com from the list so it can’t be picked again.

Google Chrome

1. Select More > Settings > Search engine.
2. Next to the current search engine, select Change and pick the one you want, such as Google or Bing.
3. Select Manage search engines and site search. If searching.com appears, select More (three dots) next to it and choose Delete. These steps match Google’s set your default search engine page.
4. Select On startup in the left menu. If it’s set to open a specific page you don’t recognize, remove that page or choose Open the New Tab page.

Microsoft Edge

1. Select Settings and more > Settings > Privacy, search, and services.
2. Select Search and connected services (or scroll to Services), then Address bar and search.
3. Choose your engine in Search engine used in the address bar. Microsoft’s change your default search engine in Edge page shows the same path.
4. Open Manage search engines on the same page and remove searching.com if it’s listed.
5. Go back to Settings and select Start, home, and new tab page. Check what opens when Edge starts and what the home button opens, and remove any searching.com address.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the menu > Settings > Search.
2. Choose your engine under Default Search Engine.
3. Under Search Shortcuts, select searching.com if it’s there and choose Remove.
4. Select Home on the left and set Homepage and new windows and New tabs back to Firefox Home or your own page.

The same settings are explained in more detail, browser by browser, in changing the default search engine in Windows 10.

Step 5: Reset the browser if the change comes back

If searching.com returns after a restart, reset the browser. A reset turns off extensions and puts the search engine, homepage, startup pages and site settings back to their defaults in one go. What it keeps depends on the browser.

Browser	Where to reset	Kept	Removed or turned off
Google Chrome	Settings > Reset settings > Restore settings to their original defaults > Reset settings	Bookmarks, history and saved passwords	Startup page, new tab page, search engine and pinned tabs reset; extensions turned off (not deleted); cookies cleared
Microsoft Edge	Settings > Reset settings > Restore settings to their default values > Reset	Favorites, history and saved passwords	Startup page, new tab page, search engine and pinned tabs reset; extensions turned off (not deleted); cookies cleared
Mozilla Firefox	Menu > Help > More troubleshooting information > Refresh Firefox	Bookmarks, history, passwords, cookies and form autofill	Extensions, themes, added search engines and changed preferences are removed

For Chrome, Google’s get rid of unwanted ads, pop-ups and malware page pairs the reset with uninstalling unwanted programs, the same order used here. Older guides also mention a built-in Chrome “clean up computer” tool; Google’s current page doesn’t list it, so rely on Steps 1 and 2 instead.

For Firefox, Refresh Firefox saves your old profile in a folder named Old Firefox Data on the desktop. It contains saved data, so delete it once you’re sure you don’t need anything from it.

After a reset, turn back on only the extensions you trust.

Step 6: Check your browser shortcuts

Some hijackers add the searching.com address to the end of a browser shortcut, so the page opens no matter what your settings say. This trick only affects the shortcut you click, which is why the problem can seem to “come back” after a reset.

1. Right-click the browser icon on your desktop and choose Properties. For a taskbar icon, right-click it, right-click the browser name in the menu that opens, then choose Properties.
2. On the Shortcut tab, look at the Target box. A clean Chrome shortcut ends with the closing quotation mark after chrome.exe, for example:
   “C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”

3. If a web address follows the quotation mark, such as http://www-searching.com, delete everything after the closing quotation mark.
4. Select Apply, then OK. If Windows asks for administrator permission, select Continue.

Check the desktop, taskbar and Start menu shortcuts for every browser you use. If a shortcut won’t save, delete it, then pin the browser to the taskbar again from the Start menu, which creates a fresh shortcut.

Step 7: Check startup apps and scheduled tasks

A leftover helper can start with Windows and reopen searching.com or change your settings again.

Startup apps

1. Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. Select More details if you see the small version.
2. Open the Startup tab. Look for entries with no publisher, odd names, or a browser that launches with a web address.
3. Right-click a suspicious entry and choose Open file location to see where it lives. Programs running from a random folder inside AppData deserve a closer look.
4. Right-click it and choose Disable.

You can also toggle startup apps in Settings > Apps > Startup. Disabling is safe and reversible; it doesn’t delete anything. More detail is in disabling startup programs in Windows 10.

Scheduled tasks

1. Select Start, type Task Scheduler, and open it.
2. Select Task Scheduler Library in the left pane.
3. Select each task you don’t recognize and open the Actions tab at the bottom. Be suspicious of tasks that start a browser with a web address, or that run a program from AppData or Temp.
4. Right-click a suspicious task and choose Disable. Restart the PC and test before you delete anything.

Warning: Windows and many legitimate apps (browsers, updaters, drivers) use scheduled tasks, and the folders under Microsoft belong to Windows. Disable only tasks you can clearly tie to the hijacker, and turn a task back on with Enable if something stops working.

How to confirm it’s gone, and how to undo changes

Restart the PC, open each browser from its normal shortcut, and check:

• The browser opens to the page you chose, not a search page.
• Typing a search in the address bar goes straight to your chosen engine. Watch the address bar: it shouldn’t flash a different address first.
• The search engine list no longer includes searching.com.
• Windows Security > Protection history shows no new detections after another quick scan.

Check again after a day or two of normal use, since some scheduled tasks run only once a day.

To undo something: turn an extension back on from the extensions page, re-enable a startup app or scheduled task the same way you disabled it, reinstall a program you removed by mistake from its official site, or copy what you need from the Old Firefox Data folder. Items Defender quarantined can be restored from Protection history if you’re sure they’re safe.

Troubleshooting

“Managed by your organization” appears

On a personal PC, this usually means a program set browser policies, which can lock the search engine or force-install an extension. In Chrome, type chrome://policy in the address bar to see which policies are applied. Google’s managed Chrome browser page recommends removing unwanted programs and extensions and then resetting Chrome. If the policies stay after Steps 1 to 5, run the offline scan again. Removing policies by hand means editing the registry, so create a restore point in Windows 10 first if you go that route. If the PC really is managed by work or school, ask that IT team instead.

It comes back after every restart

Something is still installed. Go back through Steps 1, 6 and 7, then run the offline scan again. If you use browser sync, the hijacked setting may sync back from another device: fix the setting on every device that signs in to the same browser account, or pause sync until all of them are clean.

A program won’t uninstall or keeps reinstalling

Start Windows in Safe Mode, where most third-party programs don’t load, and try the uninstall and the full scan there. The steps are in starting Windows 10 in Safe Mode.

Defender finds nothing, but the redirect continues

That’s common, because the cause is often an extension or a setting rather than a file Defender treats as a threat. Recheck Steps 3 to 6 in each browser and each Windows user account. Also try a different browser: if only one browser is affected, the problem lives in that browser’s profile, and a reset or a new profile fixes it.

Nothing works

As a last resort, back up your files and use Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC with Keep my files. This removes installed apps (including the hijacker) and settings, so you’ll need to reinstall your programs afterward.

Web results in the Windows search box

Several guides that show up for this topic are really about the search box on the Windows 10 taskbar, which shows Bing web results next to your files and apps. That isn’t searching.com and it isn’t malware: it’s how Windows Search is designed. Turning it off requires a policy or registry change rather than a simple switch on most PCs. If that’s what you’re trying to stop, see how to get rid of Bing on Windows 10.

Keep it from coming back

• Download software from the developer’s own website or the Microsoft Store, not from download portals that wrap installers in their own setup program.
• Choose Custom or Advanced during installs and uncheck any extra offers, toolbars or “recommended” search settings.
• Ignore pop-ups that claim your browser, Java or a video player needs an urgent update. Update browsers from their own settings menu.
• Keep Potentially unwanted app blocking turned on in Windows Security.
• Review your extensions every few months and remove any you no longer use.

FAQ

Is searching.com a virus?

Not in the traditional sense: it doesn’t usually damage files or spread to other PCs. It’s classed as a browser hijacker or potentially unwanted program. The real risk is what comes with it, such as ad-heavy search results that can lead to more unwanted downloads, and tracking of what you search for.

Will resetting my browser delete my passwords or bookmarks?

No, in Chrome, Edge and Firefox a reset or refresh keeps bookmarks (favorites), history and saved passwords. Firefox’s refresh is the more thorough of the three: it removes extensions and added search engines entirely, while Chrome and Edge only turn extensions off.

Do I need a paid removal tool?

Usually not. The built-in Microsoft Defender full and offline scans plus the manual checks in this guide handle most search hijackers. If you already own another reputable antivirus, running its scan as a second opinion is reasonable, but be wary of “free scanners” advertised in pop-ups, which are sometimes unwanted software themselves.

Should I change my passwords?

A search hijacker’s main goal is redirecting and monetizing searches, not stealing passwords. Still, if Defender found other threats alongside it, or you typed passwords into pages that appeared through the redirect, change the passwords for your email and banking accounts from a clean device.

Does this work on Windows 11?

The browser steps are the same. In Windows 11 the program list is under Settings > Apps > Installed apps, and the malware scan steps are in running a malware scan on Windows 11.

Once your browsers open to the right page and searches go to the engine you picked, set a reminder to glance at your extensions list now and then. Catching an unfamiliar add-on early is much easier than cleaning up after it.