This guide will help you to delete iStartSurf browser hijacker from Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. We’ve seen iStartSurf to attack these particular browsers, but the chances are for other browsers to be also vulnerable to its attack. This iStartSurf is not a virus, but it isn’t a good program either. It does a lot of harm for your browser through modifying its home page and search settings and your personal search preferences. In this tutorial we will help yo to remove iStartSurf from your computer.

The truth is that iStartSurf, as well as many other browser hijackers, are actively spread in the world wide web today along with many other cost-free applications. Many of them are indeed free, but the problem is that they’re by default bundled with all kinds of useless extras which users surely do not need. But the problem is that users often fail to notice such information about third-party software installation offers. In fact, if users read these instructions of the Setup Wizards more thoroughly, they could have avoided all unwanted installations from taking place on their PCs. Yet, their failure to be duly attentive often results in all sorts of such potentially unwanted programs to be installed and running on their computers.

If you would like to avoid iStartSurf from implanting your PC and infecting your browser, we recommend you to be very careful when you decide to install any free programs. Make sure that you always carefully read the End User’s License Agreements of all free software you are going to install into your PC. It is also mandatory that you select the option of a custom installation, instead of the standard one, when you are in the process of installing any free programs. Do not allow any concealed installations to take place on your computer without your knowledge or approval. This will actually help you to avoid all sorts of unwanted installations from being performed on your PC.

This iStartSurf is a very stubborn browser hijacker, by the way. It has a built-in module that prevents users from removing it. This module is called Search Protect, which is run by a special process called HpUI.exe. So, if you would like to get rid of iStartSurf completely, you will need to stop HpUI.exe and Search Protect potentially unwanted program (PUP), which is located in the SupTab folder of the Program Files section of your Windows operating system. In fact, this SupTab folder needs to be removed completely.

To remove all malware related to iStartSurf as reviewed above, you have the option to do it either automatically or manually. All these two separate removal methods are explained very well below. Remember that it is mandatory for you to surf the web carefully, especially when you install any free programs downloaded from online resources. Do not allow any hidden installations to take place on your computer without your consent or approval. This iStartSurf will not help you to surf the web faster. The home page of your browser hijacked by iStartSurf will be full of annoying ads. And you will see many sponsored links displayed together with the search results redirected through this browser hijacker. If you click on such links, you may be redirected to the websites which might infect your system even more. So, we definitely recommend you to remove iStartSurf from your system as explained in the guide below.

Download antimalware we recommend you to get rid of iStartSurf automatically (click on the button below):

IMPORTANT NOTICE before you download! GridinSoft Trojan Killer is a shareware application. Its 15-day free trial is only able to remove 2 (two) infected items for free. In case your system is seriously infected payment must be made for its full registered version, which will remove all threats identified during the scan of your computer. If your computer requires a powerful real-time protection from GridinSoft Trojan Killer to prevent your computer from being infected with iStartSurf and similar browser hijackers in the future, payment needs to be made for its license key after 15 days of its free trial expire. If you would like to extend the duration of free trial period of GridinSoft Trojan Killer and the limit of infected items to be removed during this free trial, please create the support ticket by going to this online form. We will give you a personal temporary license key to evaluate GridinSoft Trojan Killer and will send it to you by email, hoping that you will seriously consider purchasing its full version for ultimate antimalware protection.

Steps to uninstall iStartSurf automatically:

• Download GridinSoft Trojan Killer through the download button above.
• Install the software and scan your computer with it.
• At the end of scan select the action you would like Trojan Killer to perform with infected items in your PC (“Delete“, “Ignore“, “False positive” and “Move to quarantine” actions are available). You may select some specific action for single infected item, or apply such actions to all items:



• Click on “Apply” button to apply these actions selected by you.
• In the upper menu of GridinSoft Trojan Killer click on “Tools” button (in the form of suitcase) and select the option “Reset browser settings“:



• Choose browsers you want to be reset and select specific reset options. Finally, click on “Reset” button as shown below:

How to prevent your PC from being infected with iStartSurf and similar browser hijackers using GridinSoft Trojan Killer.

• In the upper menu of GridinSoft Trojan Killer click on “Protection” button (in the form of shield) and click on “Start“:



• You will notice this option enabled in system tray of your PC:



• With this option enabled, Trojan Killer will help you to prevent execution of malicious files by you ahead of time:



• We recommend that you click on the “Confirm” button each time threat is detected by Trojan Killer with “Protection” mode enabled.

Milestones for manual removal of iStartSurf.

1. Restoring the home pages of your infected browser to default parameters.
2. Fixing the Desktop shortcuts and Quick Launch icons of your browsers infected by iStartSurf.
3. Additional steps to fix Mozilla Firefox browser.
4. Resetting specific browsers (optional).

Milestone number one (1). Restoring the home pages of your infected browser to default parameters.

Restoring the home page of Internet Explorer:

• Click on gear-wheel icon of Internet Explorer in the upper right part of it, then click on “Internet Options“:



• In the “General” tab, click on “Use new tab“, or type http://www.google.com or other site you prefer to be displayed in the home page of Internet Explorer, instead of iStartSurf.com:



• Click on “Apply” and “OK“, then restart Internet Explorer.

Restoring the home page of Google Chrome:

• In Google Chrome browser, click on the button in the upper right corner of it (in the form of three horizontal lines), then click on “Settings“:



• Go to “On startup” section, then click on “Set pages“:



• You will see iStartSurf.com page set to be displayed on startup. Click on the “X” button related to it and remove it. Then you may add a new page, such as http://www.google.com, or some other page you want to be displayed in the home page of Google Chrome:



• Go to “Search” section of Google Chrome Settings, then click on “Manage search engines…“:



• Remove iStartSurf as the default search engine of Google Chrome by clicking on the “X” button related to it, and make Google as the default search engine of Google Chrome by clicking on “Make default” button:



• Click on “Done” and restart Google Chrome.

Restoring the home page of Mozilla Firefox:

• In Mozilla Firefox browser, click on the button in the upper right corner of it (in the form of three horizontal lines), then click on “Options“:



• In the “General” tab of Mozilla Firefox, click on “Restore to Default” button, then click on “OK“:



• Alternatively, you may select “Show a blank page” in order to see the blank page of Mozilla Firefox on startup:



• Restart Mozilla Firefox browser.

Restoring the home page of Opera:

• In Opera browser, click on “Opera” button in the upper left part of it, then click on “Settings“:



• Go to the “On startup” section of Opera settings, then click on “Set pages“. Remove (delete) iStartSurf.com page from being displayed on startup of Opera browser, and add http://www.google.com to be displayed instead:



• Do not select the option to continue where you left Opera!
• Restart Opera browser.

Milestone number two (2). Fixing the Desktop shortcuts and Quick Launch icons of your browsers infected by iStartSurf.

• If you use Windows XP, right-click on the Quick Launch icons of all your browsers infected by iStartSurf, then click on “Properties“. In Windows Vista, 7 and 8 you will need to right-click on Quick Launch icons, and then right-click on the name of your infected browser again. Then click on “Properties“:



• Likewise, right-click on Desktop shortcuts of your infected browsers, then click on “Properties“:



• Go to the “Shortcut” tab of your infected browsers and check the destination paths to their main executable files. Make sure that they don’t contain any remnants added by iStartSurf. If you see any of such rudiments after the main destination path to the main executable file of your infected browser, remove this rudiment, then click on “Apply” and “OK” to save all changes introduced by you:



Note! These are the clean targets to the executable files of today’s most popular browsers:
“C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” – for Internet Explorer
“C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” – for Mozilla Firefox
“C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe” – for Google Chrome
“C:\Program Files\Opera\launcher.exe” – for Opera

• Make sure that you leave the (“) symbol after “exe“. Remove such rudiments of iStartSurf from both the destination path in the Desktop shortcut and from the destination path in the Quick Launch icon of your infected browser:



• Restart your browser.

Milestone number three (3). Additional steps to fix Mozilla Firefox browser.

• In Mozilla Firefox type “about:config” in the address bar and hit “Enter” on your keyboard.
• Click on “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button:



• This will open the “Settings” page of your Mozilla Firefox browser.
• Type “keyword.url” in the search box, then right-click on it and reset.
• Type “browser.search.defaultengine” in the search box, then right-click on it and reset:



• Type “browser.search.selectedengine” in the search box, then right-click on it and reset.
• Look for “browser.newtab.url“. Right-click on it and reset. This is a very important step that will prevent the search page of iStartSurf virus from opening in each new tab of Mozilla Firefox browser.



• Restart Mozilla Firefox browser.

Milestone number four (4). Resetting specific browsers (optional).

Use this fourth milestone only in cases other steps to remove iStartSurf malware didn’t work. You might need to reset your browser infected by iStartSurf as explained in the guidelines below.

Instructions to reset Google Chrome browser.

To reset your Google Chrome browser, please follow this guide.

Instructions to reset Mozilla Firefox.

• In Mozilla Firefox browser, click on the button in the upper right corner of it (in the form of three horizontal lines), then click on “?“:



• Click on “Troubleshooting information“:



• Click on “Reset Firefox” button:



• Alternatively, you may type “about:support” in the address field of Mozilla Firefox browser, hit “Enter” and then press “Reset Firefox” button:



• Make sure that you carefully read what happens when you reset Mozilla Firefox browser, then click on “Reset Firefox” button:



• Restart Mozilla Firefox.

Instructions to reset Internet Explorer browser.

• Click on gear-wheel icon of Internet Explorer in the upper right part of it, then click on “Internet Options“:



• Click on the “Advanced” tab, then click on the “Reset” button:



• Please carefully read what will take place when you reset Internet Explorer, then click on “Reset“: