OFFER*Source of claim SH can remove it.
ChillSearch
ChillSearch belongs to the type of software known as browser hijackers. ChillSearch is specifically designed to target Mac users and can integrate with almost any browser.
This includes popular browsing programs such as Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. If this software has entered your system, you will be able to recognize it by a handful of symptoms almost instantly. The first will hit you as soon as you open your browser in the form of a new homepage. And pretty much immediately after you should notice that your default search engine is no longer the same.
And then shortly after you should begin to take note of the many pop-ups, banners, box messages, and other aggressively appearing online ads on your screen such as Bing. These are all the results of Chill Search’s activity and below we will explain why that is.
The Chillsearch xyz virus
The ChillSearch xyz virus generates large amounts of ads for the purposes of generating revenue. The developers of the ChillSearch xyz virus profit from the number of clicks and views said ads receive.
This is part of such popular remuneration systems as, for example, Pay Per Click. And that is why it often becomes impossible to maneuver past all the many popping notifications while you’re trying to browse the web.
Thankfully, however, there is a way to rid yourself of this annoying activity. On this page, we have posted a step-by-step removal guide that will show you exactly how to remove the ChillSearch xyz virus and any of its traces from your machine. You can also use our professional removal tool to scan your system for any other potential hijackers or unwanted programs.
What is Chillsearch.xyz on Mac?
As a browser hijacker, Chillsearch.xyz on mac can also be monitoring your browsing patterns. Chillsearch.xyz on mac can then use the gathered data to optimize the flow of ads and display those that are most relevant to you.
In addition, the browsing data can also be sold to third parties for marketing purposes and in order to make an extra profit for the developers.
But since most of this activity is rarely ever consented to on the user’s part, you might not be too happy to learn about this. This is commonly also another reason why people prefer to simply do away with the pesky software and not deal with it ever again.
The Chill Search Virus on Safari
As established, the Chill Search problem on Safari is not a real virus. However, Chill Search on Safari may expose your mac to potential threats.
This can happen as a result of all the page redirects that it initiates. For instance, you can end up on an infected webpage like QSearch, or among the many ads that you encounter, you could click on one that has been contaminated by malware such as a Trojan or ransomware virus.
For this reason, we like to advise our readers to try and avoid all the online ads that are constantly coming your way. Furthermore, it’s best to take the necessary measures and remove this browser hijacker from your system in order to prevent any mishaps from taking place. And for that, you can use our free removal guide below.
SUMMARY:
| Name | ChillSearch |
| Type | Browser Hijacker |
| Danger Level | Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk) |
| Detection Tool | We tested that SpyHunter successfully removes parasite* and we recommend downloading it. Manual removal may take hours, it can harm your system if you re not careful, and parasite may reinstall itself at the end if you don't delete its core files. |
*Source of claim SH can remove it.
How to remove Chillsearch.xyz
Remove ChillSearch.xyz from Safari
To remove ChillSearch.xyz from Safari, it would be a good idea to first check the browser’s extensions for unwanted items and delete anything you may find there.
- Start by opening Safari and going to the Safari menu from the top.
- Open Preferences and then go to the Extensions tab.
- If there are extensions you don’t recognize and/or ones that seem connected to the unwanted software, remove them to uninstall Chill Search from Safari.
- Restart the machine and go to your browser again to check if the hijacker symptoms have gone away.
In some cases, deleting the unwanted extension(s) from the browser is all that is needed to solve the hijacker problem but in other instances, the unwanted software may have made other changes in the computer that would also need to be reversed before you could fully deal with the issue. If deleting the undesirable extensions from Safari didn’t stop the hijacker from disrupting you, we suggest moving on to the more advanced steps shown below and completing them.
Step 1: Quit the ChillSearch process
*Source of claim SH can remove it.
You should first check the Activity Monitor of your Mac and try to find in it the process(es) launched by the hijacker in order to quit them. To do this, open Finder and go to Applications > Utilities. Open the Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder and look for resource-intensive processes that have odd names that seem unfamiliar and/or potentially linked to Chill Search. If you think that a certain process may be the one that’s causing disturbances in your system, open your browser and look up the name of that process to find out more about it. If it is truly related to Chill Search, this should come up in the results and you will know that you must quit the suspected process.
There’s one additional way to check any suspicious processes – select the process in question and then click on the “i” icon.
Next, select Sample and then Save and save the sample file in a location that’s easy to reach (such as the Desktop).
Then go to the file, select it and drag it to our free online scanner that you can see below:
The scanner will test the file for malware and if it detects anything, you will know that the process that you sampled should probably be stopped. To stop the process, click on it in the Activity Monitor and then select the X button in the top-left.
In some cases, the sample file may not get detected as malicious even if the process in question is from the hijacker so if your online search for the process’ name told you that the process is from the hijacker, quit it even if no malware was detected during the sample file scan.
Step 2: Remove the Hijacker app
WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!
*Source of claim SH can remove it.
Usually, Mac users land undesirable software such as ChillSearch and other hijackers after installing some low-quality free app downloaded from a download platform that’s not the official App Store. This is not to say that apps downloaded from third-party sources are guaranteed to contain hijacker components and malware but it is still important to be careful when downloading such app.
Now, to clean your Mac from Chill Search, you should go to Finder > Applications and check what recently installed apps you have there. Anything that seems questionable or out of place as well as anything that you’ve downloaded from third-party sources should be considered as a possible carrier of the hijacker and should therefore be deleted. Do not worry if you end up removing the wrong app – you can always re-install it at a later time. To delete an application, simply drag it to the Trash on your Desktop and then empty the Trash.
Step 3: Safe Launch the browser
You must now close Safari and start it again but without allowing pages that were previously loaded to load again. To do this, keep holding down the shift button when starting Safari and it should start anew, without any of the old pages. If some previous pages are loaded again, close Safari once more, disconnect from the Internet and try the safe launch again.
To disconnect from the Internet, plug out your Ethernet cable if that’s how your Mac is connected to the web. If, on the other hand, you are using a wireless connection, you can temporarily disable it from the Wi-Fi menu at the top – click on it and select Turn Wi-Fi off and when you are done with the guide, go back to that menu to turn back on the Wi-Fi connection.
Step 4: Delete hijacker and settings from Safari
When Safari is safe-launched, you must check its Extensions again like we explained at the start and delete anything unwanted that may be left there.
After that, select the General tab from Preferences and check the current address of the browser’s homepage. It is likely that Chill Search has changed it to a site that you don’t want to be the homepage of your browser so change it back to what it used to be or change it to another trusted and safe site.
You must also go to Privacy and use the Remove All Website Data command to clear the browsing data. This will delete temporary data like cached files and site cookies, hopefully removing any leftover Chill Search files.
Though not necessary, it may also help if you clear the browsing history so go to the History menu of Safari, click on Clear History, choose the All History setting and click on Clear History again to delete the Safari browsing history from the beginning.
Step 5: Check your other browsers
It is important to clean any other browsers that are on your Mac even if you don’t normally use them and even if they don’t seem to be affected by Chill Search. Below, you can see how this could be done on Chrome and Firefox but even if you have another browser, deleting unwanted extensions from it and refreshing its settings should be done in pretty much the same way.
Removing ads from Firefox for Mac:
When you are in Firefox, click on the icon with three lines that’s right below the Close/X button in the upper-right corner and select Extensions to go to the Extensions page. There, delete everything that you don’t recognize and that has been installed without your approval. If you don’t usually use Firefox, you might as well delete all extensions for good measure.
Next, you should reset the settings of the browser so follow the link we’ve provided to a page where you can find detailed instructions on how to do this and follow those instructions.
Removing ads from Chrome for Mac:
For Chrome users, once you start the browser, select the three dots in the top-right, select More Options, and then Extensions from the sub-menu. Again, look for suspicious-looking, out-of-place items on the Extensions page and delete everything that might not be needed in the browser. If a given extension that you are trying to remove won’t go away, try disabling it first by toggling off the button below it and then attempting to delete the extension again.
Next, you should check the search engines of Chrome so open the browser menu again, select Settings, and then click on Search Engine from the left. Now go to Manage Search Engines and look for search engines tools listed there that you don’t recognize. If you see such entries, click on their respective three-dot icons and then click on Block to prevent Chrome from using those search engines. Once you block the unwanted search engines, you should only be left with ones that you trust and are familiar with (such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.)
Lastly, you should also reset the settings of Chrome so use the instructions shown on this page to do this.
Final Notes
Deleting a hijacker from a Mac system isn’t particularly difficult and you should have no problem taking care of Chill Search so long as you correctly follow the steps we have shown here. However, some hijackers tend to be a bit trickier to get rid of and if this turns out to be the case with Chill Search on your Mac, you should try using a specialized removal tool that can help you uninstall the hijacker and delete all data it may have left behind. You can find such a specialized tool linked in the guide that we recommend using in case you face any difficulties with the removal of the hijacker. Also, note that this advanced anti-malware tool can help you keep the system safe from other unwanted software and more dangerous threats like Spyware or Trojans so that you can browse the web in peace without worrying about malware attacks.
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