Remove AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker (Virus Removal Guide)

Remove AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Safari

To remove AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Safari we will check if there are any malicious extensions installed on your browser and what settings have been changed by this malicious program.

1. Go to Safari’s “Preferences”.

   On the menu bar, click the “Safari” menu and select “Preferences”.
   

2. Check Homepage.

   This will open a new window with your Safari preferences, opened to the “General” tab. Some browser hijackers may change your default homepage, so in the Homepage field make sure it’s a web page you want to use as your start-up page.

   

3. Click “Extensions”

   Next, click on the “Extensions” tab.
   

4. Find and uninstall AssistiveDisplaySearch.

   The “Extensions” screen will be displayed with a list of all the extensions installed on Safari. Scroll through the list until you find the AssistiveDisplaySearch extension, and then click on “Uninstall” to remove it.
   

   The malicious extension may have a different name on your computer. Look out for any suspicious browser extension that could be behind all the drama – anything you don’t remember downloading or that doesn’t sound like a genuine extension. By default, there are no extensions installed on Safari so it’s safe to remove any extension.

If the above steps didn’t help you remove the AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Safari, you can follow the below steps:

• Workaround for greyed out Safari’s homepage

  In some cases, after being changed by browser hijackers or malware, Safari’s home page can become stuck (greyed out). You will be able to edit the Homepage field in Safari’s preferences, but the change will not stick. This appears to be a bug, and there is an odd workaround. Try this:

  1. In Safari, choose Preferences from the Safari menu.
  2. In the window that opens, click the General icon (if necessary)
  3. Enter your desired home page in the “Homepage” field, but DO NOT press return!
  4. At the top of the window, click any of the other icons (eg, Tabs, AutoFill, etc).
  5. You may see a prompt asking for confirmation for changing the home page. If so, confirm.
  6. Switch back to the General page and check to make sure the home page has been changed.

• Delete Safari’s preferences file to remove malicious changes

  Some malicious programs are known to install managed preferences to set the homepage and search engine settings in Safari. If the above options didn’t help you remove the malicious redirects, we’ll need to delete the Safari’s preferences. To do this, follow the below steps:

  1. Quit Safari
  2. Click the desktop to make sure you’re in the Finder, choose “Go” then click on “Go to Folder“.
     
  3. Type or copy/paste the following path into the window that opens, then click Go: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist
  4. If the file is found, delete it, then re-open Safari

Remove AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Google Chrome

To remove AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Chrome we will reset the browser settings to its default. Resetting your browser settings will reset the unwanted changes caused by installing other programs. However, your saved bookmarks and passwords will not be cleared or changed.

1. Click on the three dots at the top right and click “Settings”.

   Click on Chrome’s main menu button, represented by three dots at the top right corner. Now click on the menu option labeled Settings as shown by the arrow in the picture below, which will open the basic settings screen.
   

2. At the bottom, click “Advanced”.

   Chrome’s “Settings” should now be displayed in a new tab or window, depending on your configuration. Next, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Advanced” link (as seen in the below example).
   

3. Under the section “Reset,” click “Reset”.

   Chrome’s advanced settings should now be displayed. Scroll down until the “Reset and clean up” section is visible, as shown in the example below. Next, click on the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
   

4. Confirm by clicking “Reset”.

   A confirmation dialog should now be displayed, detailing the components that will be restored to their default state should you continue on with the reset process. To complete the restoration process, click on the “Reset Settings” button.
   

If the above steps didn’t help you remove the AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Chrome, you can follow the below steps:

• Remove the unwanted policies created by malware from Chrome

  In many cases, changes to Chrome may not be fixed with a simple browser reset. In such a case, it’s very possible that a malicious program has created unwanted policies on your browser. You can check if any unwanted policies are loaded into the browser by typing chrome://policy into the URL bar.
  To reset these policies, follow these steps:

  1. Open a new Terminal window. To do this, go to Finder > Go > Utilities > Terminal
  2. Enter the following commands, pressing enter after each line:
     • defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageIsNewTabPage -bool false
     • defaults write com.google.Chrome NewTabPageLocation -string “https://www.google.com/”
     • defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageLocation -string “https://www.google.com/”
     • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL
     • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderNewTabURL
     • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderName
     • defaults delete com.google.Chrome ExtensionInstallSources
  3. After running these commands, quit Chrome if you haven’t already done so, then launch it again and check chrome://policy to see if the same keys are still present (you may need to click the “Reload policies” button for changes to show up). If they’re gone, you should be able to change your search engine and home page back to your preferred defaults in Chrome’s settings.

• Remove the “Managed by your organization” policy from Chrome

  Some malicious programs are known to install managed preferences to set the home page and search engine settings in Chrome. To check for these, do the following:

  1. Quit Chrome
  2. Click the desktop to make sure you’re in the Finder, choose “Go” then click on “Go to Folder“.
     
  3. Type or copy/paste the following path into the window that opens, then click Go: /Library/Managed Preferences/
  4. Paste the below path into the window that opens, then click Go:
     Look for the following files, where [username] is your username:
     • com.google.Chrome.plist
     • [username]/com.google.Chrome.plist
     • [username]/complete.plist

     These may be legitimate, so open these files with TextEdit and see if they have links to the troublesome site in them. If they do, delete them and restart Chrome.

• Uninstall Google Chrome from your computer

  If the above options didn’t help you remove the malicious redirects, it is easier to completely remove Chrome and all data, then reinstall the browser. To do this, click the Finder icon, from the menu bar. Choose Go, and click Go to Folder, then paste one of the below paths into the window that opens.
  You will need to delete all of the below items, but before doing this be aware that this will delete all data for all Google apps you have installed, such as your bookmarks, so you will need to export them before doing this.

  • /Applications/Chrome.app
  • /Library/Application Support/Google/
  • /Library/Google/
  • ~/Library/Application Support/Google/
  • ~/Library/Google/
  • ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist

  Note: The “~” indicates that it’s the current user’s Library which is often invisible in recent versions of macOS. To get to it you must hold down the Option (sometimes labeled Alt) key down and select Library from the Finder’s Go menu.

  After deleting all of the above files, restart your device. You can now download and re-install Google Chrome on your device. You will need to import any exported bookmarks or other data, and may need to reinstall any other Google apps that you use.

Remove AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Firefox

To remove AssistiveDisplaySearch browser hijacker from Firefox we will reset the browser settings to its default. The reset feature fixes many issues by restoring Firefox to its factory default state while saving your essential information like bookmarks, passwords, web form auto-fill information, browsing history, and open tabs.

1. Go to the “Help” menu.

   Click on Firefox’s main menu button, represented by three horizontal lines. When the drop-down menu appears, select the option labeled “Help“.
   

2. Click “Troubleshooting Information”.

   From the Help menu, click on “Troubleshooting Information“.

   If you’re unable to access the “Help” menu, type about:support in your address bar to bring up the Troubleshooting information page.

   

3. Click on “Refresh Firefox”

   Click the “Refresh Firefox” button in the upper-right corner of the “Troubleshooting Information” page.
   

4. Confirm.

   To continue, click on the “Refresh Firefox” button in the new confirmation window that opens.
   

5. Click on “Finish”.

   Firefox will close itself and will revert to its default settings. When it’s done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click on the “Finish“.