Remove Search1.me Virus — How to Fix Guide

Search1.me pop-up alerts can show up unexpectedly, covering the post of the website you visited or opening your web browser when you do not want it to be opened.

Clicking the Search1.me promotion can result in the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the tutorial of Search1.me popups clearing in a couple of methods, as well as checking your personal computer for other malware existence.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing Search1.me manually may take hours and may damage your PC in the process. I recommend you to download GridinSoft Anti-Malware for threats removal. Allows to complete scan and cure your PC during the trial period.

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What are Search1.me pop-ups?

Search1.me popups are a result of adware activity. Adware is a type of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which generates a massive amount of revenue for adware distributors. These advertisements might contain explicit composition, or have a web link to harmful content/website, considering that adware maintainers have no reason to check the goodness of the material they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Search1.me push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is a good, affordable and also extremely productive advertising instrument¹. It makes it possible for the seller to link the buyers’ attention to their website, and the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they want to buy. When the customer will get a pop-up alert that the TV set he wishes to buy is available at the online shop he/she visited previously with a 15% price cut, one will definitely use this opportunity and purchase it. Considering the exceptionally small cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising tool is a favorite thing among the advertising teams of large online retailers.

Nevertheless, such a rewarding system could not be missed by virus developers. Option to demonstrate the popup ads by force to the people of malware invasion is an ideal basis for evil-minded manipulations with the popup ads. And Search1.me ads is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short info for the Search1.me site

How have I got the Search1.me virus?

There are a plenty of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that cause the Search1.me popups storm. A lion’s part of this computer virus incidents is after the free software or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Free software may additionally be downloaded from the main site, and the adware is offered as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of users oftentimes make use of the dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, various apps that are free, or perhaps hacked programs. All of these types of programs are risky, due to the fact that it is extremely easy to integrate a Search1.me malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Search1.me popup virus may also be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the strange website. Such web pages are usually loaded with intense and blinking advertisements, and their owners often permit any promotions to be posted on their page. Hence, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the ad provider knows what will happen when you press this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may likewise receive something far more dangerous, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners distribution is exactly after the malicious promotions.

The statistic shows that people dislike popup advertising more than other types of promotions

Potentially unwanted programs, like Search1.me pop-up virus may cause a variety of troubles on your computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-up notifications can present you the banners, where you are offered to get one more strange program, or “a amazing anti-malware tool”. Scareware is often spread with the last motto. Potentially unwanted applications, in turn, may have spyware functionality. And it is very hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a good one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also used as a spreading method by various trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such viruses is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these advertisements, they may be clicked by someone who also makes use of your computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without data and money loss. It is recommended to get rid of the viruses with anti-malware programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Search1.me pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Search1.me adware elimination consists of 2 parts. Initially, we need to eliminate the malware, and after that repair the results of its activity. The elimination process is very easy, since it can be performed even with using Microsoft Defender – anti-malware tool that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, because of its significant resources usage, as well as some failures that can be crucial for some types of users, Defender is oftentimes turned off by the users, so its utilization is likely impossible. Moreover, a wide range of trojan viruses can shut off the embedded antivirus. It is far better to use the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I’d suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven anti-malware device that will undoubtedly exterminate the malware from your system and also create an impenetrable shield with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s take care of Search1.me adware first.

Removing Search1.me popup virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

• Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. After the installation, you will be offered to perform the Standard Scan. Approve this action.

• Standard scan checks the logical disk where the system files are stored, together with the files of programs you have already installed. The scan lasts up to 6 minutes.

• When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of Search1.me malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.

Now, when the computer is clean of viruses, we can proceed to the browser reset. You can do this step manually, as well as with the use of GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

Reset browser settings to default

Manual method of browser reset

To reset Edge, do the following steps :

1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :

2. After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original :

For Mozilla Firefox, do the next actions :

1. Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :

2. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :

After choosing this option, you will see the next message :

If you use Google Chrome

1. Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button :

2. In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :

3. Finally, you will see the window, where you can see all the settings which will be reset to default :

Opera can be reset in the next way

1. Open Settings menu by pressing the gear icon in the toolbar (left side of the browser window), then click “Advanced” option, and choose “Browser” button in the drop-down list. Scroll down, to the bottom of the settings menu. Find there “Restore settings to their original defaults” option :


2. After clicking the “Restore settings…” button, you will see the window, where all settings, which will be reset, are shown :

When the browsers are reset, you need to make sure that your browser will definitely connect the right DNS while connecting to the website you need. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your computer’s desktop, then open it and fill it with the following lines³:

Find the hosts.txt file in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc directory. Rename this file to “hosts.old.txt” (to distinguish it from the new one), and then move the file you created on the desktop to this folder. Remove the hosts.old from this folder. Now you have your hosts file as good as new.

However, there is one trouble that makes the things much harder to fix, particularly without the anti-malware program. A lot of adware versions that are utilized to show you the Search1.me pop-up advertisements are adjusting the deep browser settings, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to change your browser settings after your PC was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse soon. In certain cases, you will see no crash, however, large lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and afterwards it will be back to the typical, till you try to open settings one more time.

Reset your browser settings with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

To reset your browser with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, open the Tools tab, and click the “Reset browser settings” button.

You can see the list of the options for each browser. By default, they are set up in the manner which fits the majority of users. Press the “Reset” button (lower right corner). In a minute your browser will be as good as new.

The browser reset is recommended to perform through the antivirus tool by GridinSoft, because last is also able to reset the HOSTS file without any additional commands.

How to Remove Search1.me Pop-ups?

Name: Search1.me

Description: Search1.me - a lot of users became a target for the pop-up advertisements. I have a lot of friends who literally bombed me with the questions like “how to remove Search1.me push notifications?” or “why do Search1.me pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Search1.me pop-ups, which may corrupt your browser’s correct performance, and create a lot of troubles while you are working.

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Adware

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1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview and the reasons why I suggest it for malware removal.
3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.