An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum for 4 years. Enjoys ‘Mr. Robot’ and fears ‘1984’. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles!
An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum for 4 years. Enjoys ‘Mr. Robot’ and fears ‘1984’. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles!
An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum for 4 years. Enjoys ‘Mr. Robot’ and fears ‘1984’. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles!
Note! Your computer might be affected by guard-search.com and other threats.
Threats such as guard-search.com may be persistent on your system. They tend to re-appear if not fully deleted. A malware removal tool like SpyHunter will help you to remove malicious programs, saving you the time and the struggle of tracking down numerous malicious files. SpyHunter’s scanner is free but the paid version is needed to remove the malware threats. Read SpyHunter’s EULA and Privacy Policy
An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum for 4 years. Enjoys ‘Mr. Robot’ and fears ‘1984’. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles!
Guardbox promises to guard users against online frauds and phishing attacks. It installs its own search engine.
Symptoms
The search provider is changed to guard-search.com.
Distribution Method
Via freeware packages (bundling), or from its official website.
Detection tool
Download SpyHunter, to See If Your System Has Been Affected By guard-search.com
Guardbox.net or guard-search.com is a search engine developed by IncrediMail, Inc. It may take over the user’s browser without his permission or knowledge. Hence, it may be regarded a browser hijacker. Guard-search uses results by Bing. However, as explained in the Privacy Policy section, the developers of the search provider may obtain certain information from its users and thus, may compromise their online anonymity.
Why Do I Have guard-search.com as My Homepage?
One of the primary reasons users end up having unpermitted search providers set as default is their downloading habits. In most cases, the average user who has decided to download a free software product, doesn’t pay attention to its Download Agreement, Privacy Policy, EULA, etc. Thus, he ends up having unwanted software installed on his machine – mostly PUPs and ad-supported applications.
This scenario applies to a prevalent number of browser ‘infections’ – because a PUP has entered the system, the browser’s settings have been changed, including its search page, error page and tabs. Browser hijackers and third party search engines are also known to redirect users to suspicious pages that may be employed for drive-by downloads or phishing attacks.
In the case of Guardbox.net and guard-search.com, a particular software most likely has been downloaded – GuardBox. The same company has developed both the product and the search engine. GuardBox promises users to protect their computers from online frauds and phishing attacks. Once the software is downloaded, the settings of the default browser will be changed, possibly registry keys will be added as well.
GuardBox Software Description
The setup package of GuardBox generally installs three files:
GuardboxApp.exe
node.exe
Uninstaller.exe
Should I Uninstall Guardbox?
Overall, the program doesn’t appear harmful. However, if users have it installed on their systems without noticing (via the bundling method), they may want to remove it. The website provides uninstallation steps. Nonetheless, using professional software to scan the system is always a good idea. Refer to the removal steps below the article to uninstall all files associated with GuardBox.
Here is a method in few easy steps to remove that program.No matter if you are using Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP, those steps will get the job done. Dragging the program or its folder to the recycle bin can be a very bad decision. If you do that, bits and pieces of the program get left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, mistakes with the file type associations and other unpleasant activities. The proper way to get a program off your computer is to Uninstall it. To do that:
Hold the Windows Logo Button and “R” on your keyboard. A Pop-up window will appear (fig.1).
In the field type in “appwiz.cpl” and press ENTER (fig.2).
This will open a window with all the programs installed on the PC. Select the program that you want to remove, and press “Uninstall” (fig.3).
Follow the instructions above and you will successfully uninstall guard-search.com.
2. Restore the settings in your browser
2. Remove guard-search.com from your browser
Remove a toolbar from Mozilla FirefoxRemove a toolbar from Google Chrome Remove a toolbar from Internet Explorer Remove a toolbar from Safari
Start Mozilla Firefox Open the menu window
Select the “Add-ons” icon from the menu
Select guard-search.com and click “Remove”
After guard-search.com is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red “X” in the top right corner and start it again.
Start Google Chrome and Open the drop menu
Move the cursor over “Tools” and then from the extended menu choose “Extensions“
From the opened “Extensions” menu locate guard-search.com and click on the garbage bin icon on the right of it.
After guard-search.com is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red “X” in the top right corner and start it again.
Start Internet Explorer:
Click “‘Tools’ to open the drop menu and select ‘Manage Add-ons’
In the ‘Manage Add-ons’ window, make sure that in the first window ‘Add-on Types’, the drop menu ‘Show’ is on ‘All add-ons’
Select guard-search.com to remove, and then click ‘Disable’. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected toolbar, and some additional toolbars might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click ‘Disable’.
After guard-search.com has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red ‘X’ in the top right corner and start it again.
Start Safari
Open the drop menu by clicking on the sprocket icon in the top right corner.
From the drop menu select ‘Preferences’ In the new window select ‘Extensions’ Click once on guard-search.com Click ‘Uninstall’
A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall guard-search.com. Select ‘Uninstall’ again, and the guard-search.com will be removed.
To clean your computer with the award-winning software Spy Hunter – It is highly recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by SpyHunter.
An inspired writer and content manager who has been with SensorsTechForum for 4 years. Enjoys ‘Mr. Robot’ and fears ‘1984’. Focused on user privacy and malware development, she strongly believes in a world where cybersecurity plays a central role. If common sense makes no sense, she will be there to take notes. Those notes may later turn into articles!
Remove a toolbar from Mozilla Firefox
Remove a toolbar from Google Chrome
Remove a toolbar from Internet Explorer
Remove a toolbar from Safari
