Remove GetStreamSearch browser hijacker

GetStreamSearch is a browser hijacker that is advertised as a useful extension that will improve the browsing experience. However, instead of making it a smoother experience, the hijacker will only hinder browsing. The hijacker makes unwanted browser setting changes and sets portal.getstreamsearch.com as the homepage. Your default search engine will also be changed to searchlee.com. The changes are made in order to redirect you to sponsored websites, which is the main purpose behind a hijacker.

 

 

This browser hijacker comes from the same group responsible for TigerVideoSearches, MovieSearchHome, and GetMovieSearch, seeing how the sites are essentially identical and promote the same questionable search engine. They all do the same thing – install without permission, make unwanted changes to the browser’s settings and try to redirect to sponsored websites by altering search engine results.

Browser hijackers are, for the most part, relatively harmless. While it will not directly harm the computer, it’s still recommended to delete GetStreamSearch sooner rather than later. It will set portal.getstreamsearch.com as the homepage and searchlee.com as the default search engine. These changes are done without your permission and will be irreversible while the hijacker remains installed on your device. It should also be mentioned that all popular browsers will be affected, including Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. So until you get rid of the hijacker, your browsers will load portal.getstreamsearch.com every time you open them.

The site that’s set as your homepage is pretty generic. It has a couple of shortcuts to a currency converter, a PDF converter, and a calculator. But what the site is promoting is the search bar that if used, would show results generated via searchlee.com, which is far from a reliable search engine. You will get the same results if you search via your browser’s address bar as searchlee.com has been set as your default search engine. The search results will contain sponsored content in order to redirect you to certain websites to generate traffic and revenue. Most of those sites will be harmless but since they will be mostly unrelated to what you were searching for, there is no reason to interact with them. It’s also worth mentioning that while hijackers are not directly dangerous, they can lead to potentially dangerous websites, such as ones that hide malware or promote scams.

Another thing about browser hijackers that should be mentioned is their data collection practices. As soon as GetStreamSearch installs onto your computer, it will start tracking your browsing. In particular, it will record what sites you visit, what you search for, what kind of content you interact with, your IP address, etc. It will not collect personal information but it’s still intrusive enough. Furthermore, the information would be shared with unknown third parties for advertisement purposes. While it does not collect personal information, it’s still quite intrusive and there is no reason to put up with this considering that the hijacker does not provide anything in return.

Lastly, browser hijackers are usually spread via software bundling. What likely happened is you installed a free program that had the hijacker attached. Continue reading to learn how you can avoid these kinds of infections in the future.

Overall, the hijacker installed without your permission, made unwanted changes to your browser’s settings, now pushes a questionable search engine, redirects to sponsored websites, and collects information about browsing habits. Since the hijacker is completely useless to you, there is no need to keep GetStreamSearch installed.

Browser hijacker installation methods

Since the hijacker is promoted as a legitimate extension, you may have installed it yourself thinking it would improve your browsing. However, if you did install it yourself, research programs before installing them in the future. If you used a search engine like Google to look into GetStreamSearch, you would have gotten many results recommending its removal, which indicates that you should not install it.

However, it’s much more likely that you don’t even remember installing it. Less serious infections like browser hijackers, adware, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) use software bundling to install. In short, those infections can be attached to free software as extra offers. These offers are permitted to install alongside automatically without explicit permission from users unless they are manually prevented from doing that. But the offers are often hidden, and unless users pay very close attention when installing programs, they will not be able to notice anything that has been added.

To correctly install freeware, it’s important that you pay attention during the installation process, particularly when the freeware is downloaded from non-official websites. When given the option during freeware installation, it’s important to opt for Advanced (Custom) settings instead of Default. The installation window will say that Default is the recommended option but if you use those settings, all added offers will remain concealed and be permitted to install alongside. If you opt for Advanced settings, you will be able to review all added offers and deselect the ones you do not want. Keep in mind that some of those offers may seem useful at first but installing them is not a good idea. No legitimate program will try to install via free software bundling since the method is quite sneaky and frowned upon.

The majority of free programs will come with these added offers, so you always need to pay attention to what you install and how you do it. Otherwise, you will quickly fill up your computer with all kinds of unwanted programs and junk that can be difficult to get rid of once installed.

GetStreamSearch removal

Browser hijackers are not particularly serious computer infections so you can delete GetStreamSearch both manually and using anti-virus software. The latter may be easier if you have very little experience with uninstalling programs. An anti-virus program like WiperSoft would not only uninstall GetStreamSearch but also undo all setting changes. However, if you prefer to do it yourself, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with manual GetStreamSearch removal. Once the hijacker is no longer present, you will be able to change your browser’s settings however you want.