84,488,480 programs installed

Should I remove Search-Protect?

What percent of users and experts removed it?
83% remove it17% keep it
Overall Sentiment
Bad
What do people think about it?
(click star to rate)
How common is it?
Global Rank #27,926
United States Rank #17,049
Reach 0.0056%
Lifespan of installation (until removal)
< 8.38 days
247.15 days >
Average installed length: 129.86 days

Versions

VersionDistribution
0.15.0.0 8.18%
0.13.0.0 1.82%
0.11.0.0 3.64%
0.9.0.0 9.09%
0.8.0.0 6.36%
0.7.0.0 0.91%
0.6.0.0 9.09%
0.5.0.0 10.00%
0.4.0.0 1.82%
0.3.0.0 2.73%
0.2.0.0 6.36%
0.1.0.0 40.00%

Search-Protect

What is Search-Protect?  (from the publisher)

Search Protect is a separate piece of software installed on your hard drive in connection with your installation of a Toolbar or third-party software. It is designed to change and protect your preferred Browser home page and default search settings from unintentional takeover by third-party software during redirection ...  Read more

Overview

The most common release is 0.1.0.0, with over 98% of all installations currently using this version. A scheduled task is added to Windows Task Scheduler in order to launch the program at various scheduled times (the schedule varies depending on the version). The primary executable is named Updater.exe. A majority of users end up uninstalling this less than a week of it being installed. The setup package generally installs about 2 files and is usually about 684.72 KB (701,158 bytes). The installed file Updater.exe is the auto-update component of the program which is designed to check for software updates and notify and apply them when new versions are discovered. Relative to the overall usage of users who have this installed on their PCs, most are running Windows 7 (SP1) and Windows 10. While about 84% of users of Search-Protect come from the United States, it is also popular in United Kingdom and Canada.
  • Malware detected in the program
  • The experts agree, you should remove it!
Warning, multiple anti-virus scanners have detected possible malware in Search-Protect.
Updater.exe (f5c951c94bf898c0e36f11a7a17a0d72) has been flagged by the following 40 scanners:
Anti-Virus softwareVersionDetection
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 537 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
Agnitum Outpost 7.1.1 Trojan.Badur
AhnLab-V3 2015.06.15 Trojan/Win32.HDC
ALYac 1.0.1.4 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
Antiy-AVL 1.0.0.1 Trojan/Win32.Badur
Arcabit 1.0.0.425 Trojan.Generic.D1F425E
avast! 2014.9-150817 Win32:Malware-gen
Avira 8.3.1.6 ADWARE/Agent.364544.8
AVware 1.5.0.21 Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT
Baidu-International 4.0.3.15817 Trojan.Win32.Badur.miks
Bitdefender 1.0.20.1145 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
CAT-QuickHeal 8.15.14.00 Trojan.Badur.r5
Comodo Security 22450 ApplicUnwnt
Cyren 5.4.16.7 W32/Application.QAJW-1679
Emsisoft Anti-Malware 8.15.08.17.10 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
ESET-NOD32 9.11785 a variant of Win32/Toolbar.Visicom.D potentially unwanted
Fortinet FortiGate 8/17/2015 Riskware/Visicom
F-Secure 11.2015-17-08_2 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
G Data 15.8.25 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
IKARUS anti.virus t3scan.1.9.5.0 Trojan.Win32.Badur
K7 AntiVirus 13.205.16237 Trojan
K7GW 13.205.16237 Trojan ( 00499e801 )
Kaspersky 14.0.0.1568 Trojan.Win32.Badur
Malwarebytes v2015.08.17.10 PUP.Optional.Visicom
McAfee 5600.6671 RDN/Generic PUP.x!cqx
McAfee-GW-Edition 7.6671 RDN/Generic PUP.x!cqx
MicroWorld-eScan 16.0.0.687 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
NANO AntiVirus 0.30.24.2086 Trojan.Win32.Badur.dicpbc
nProtect 15.06.12.01 Trojan.GenericKD.2048606
Panda Antivirus 15.08.17.10 Trj/Genetic.gen
Qihoo-360 1.0.0.1015 HEUR/QVM10.1.Malware.Gen
Sophos 4.98 Conduit Search Protect
Symantec 8/17/2015 rev. 2 Trojan.Gen
Tencent 1.0.0.1 Win32.Trojan.Badur.Eeqz
Trend Micro 10.465.17 TROJ_GEN.F0C2C00AA15
TrendMicro-HouseCall 7.2.229 TROJ_GEN.F0C2C00AA15
Vba32 AntiVirus 3.12.26.4 Trojan.Badur
VIPRE Antivirus 41128 Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT
ViRobot 2014.3.20.0 Trojan.Win32.A.Badur.364544.A[h]
Zillya 2.0.0.2223 Trojan.Badur.Win32.13616
       View all 40 all detections
Bundled relationships

Program detailsProgram details

Installation folder: C:\Program Files\search-protect
Uninstaller: "C:\Program Files\Search-Protect\uninstall.exe"
Estimated size: 684.72 KB

Program filesFiles installed by Search-Protect

Program executable:Updater.exe
Name:Search-Protect
Path:C:\Program Files\search-protect\Updater.exe
MD5:0e664de3e36998a10d5e6e21d4d65b4d
Additional files:
  • Updater.exe - Search-Protect
  • uninstall.exe

Program behaviorsBehaviors exhibited

Scheduled Task
  • Updater.exe is scheduled as a task named 'Search-Protect' (runs daily at 9:17 AM).

How do I remove Search-Protect?

You can uninstall Search-Protect from your computer by using the Add/Remove Program feature in the Window's Control Panel.
  1. On the Start menu (for Windows 8, right-click the screen's bottom-left corner), click Control Panel, and then, under Programs, do one of the following:
    • Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall a Program.
    • Windows XP: Click Add or Remove Programs.
  2. When you find the program Search-Protect, click it, and then do one of the following:
    • Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall.
    • Windows XP: Click the Remove or Change/Remove tab (to the right of the program).
  3. Follow the prompts. A progress bar shows you how long it will take to remove Search-Protect.
  4. If for some reason uninstallation fails, please install Microsoft's uninstall fixer utility which will help fix problems with programs that can't be uninstalled at support.microsoft.com.

OS VERSIONS
Win 7 (SP1) 51%
Win Vista 1%
 
USER ACTIONS
Uninstall it 83%
Keep it 17%
 
GLOBAL RANK
#27,926

Windows OS versionsWindows

Which Windows OS versions does it run on?
Windows 7 55.45%
Windows 10 37.27%
Windows Vista 7.27%
Which OS releases does it run on?
Windows 7 Home Premium 39.09%
Windows 8.1 18.18%
Windows 7 Professional 8.18%
Windows 8 6.36%
Windows Vista Home Premiu... 6.36%
Windows 7 Ultimate 6.36%

Distribution by countryGeography

83.83% of installs come from the United States
Which countries install it?
  United States 83.83%
  United Kingdom 5.39%
  Canada 2.40%
  Belgium 1.20%
  Australia 1.20%
  Ireland 0.60%
  MA 0.60%
  Netherlands 0.60%
  Philippines 0.60%
  Slovenia 0.60%
  Switzerland 0.60%
  Croatia 0.60%
  NG 0.60%
  Saudi Arabia 0.60%

OEM distributionPC manufacturers

What PC manufacturers (OEMs) have it installed?
Hewlett-Packard 40.70%
Dell 24.42%
Acer 11.63%
Toshiba 9.30%
Lenovo 5.81%
Intel 3.49%
Samsung 2.33%
Gateway 1.16%
Sony 1.16%
Common models
Hewlett-Packard p6-2000uk... 2.02%
Dell XPS 8700 2.02%
HP 2000 Notebook PC 2.02%
Hewlett-Packard s5-1114 2.02%
TOSHIBA Satellite S855D 1.01%
TOSHIBA Satellite L870 1.01%

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