MaxAsk is a browser hijacker search engine that gets installed into Chrome, Edge, and other browsers without permission and redirects the user’s searches to itself. The purpose of this hijacker is to promote certain pages which is how it gains revenue for its creators. The problem is that these redirects, aside from being annoying, can land you on unsafe sites that could scam you or trick you into downloading malware.
Maxask.com is typically introduced into the browser by some unwanted extension that you accidentally added to your browser without realizing it. Some extensions that are likely to enforce this fake search engine in your browser are CelestialQuasaror and NebulaFractica, but there are many others. This means that you’ll typically need to remove the extension before you can get rid of Maxask.
The rogue extension itself can be pretty tough to remove because it will likely employ several sneaky persistence tactics, but we know how to take care of them and soon you will too.
Maxask Removal Tutorial
Most of the time, Maxask will resist a quick removal, but it’s still worth the try to delete it the conventional way, as it may save you a bunch of time if it works out:
- Open the browser affected by the hijacker.
- Look for the settings icon in the corner of the window. It’s usually three dots or lines. Click it.
- Head to the Extensions section. You’ll see a list of installed add-ons.
- Look for anything unfamiliar that could be linked to MaxAsk and click its remove button to uninstall it.
- Now go to Settings > Search Engine and restore your preferred search engine.
- Restart the browsing program and see if the situation is back to normal.
It’s possible that Maxask has returned or even that you were unable to complete these quick steps. Don’t worry about it. This shouldn’t surprise you. Just proceed to the detailed steps above, complete them as they are shown, and the hijacker will soon be gone from your PC.
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Important!: The next steps will help you remove Maxask from the browser. However, if the changes were enforced by a malicious app on your PC, they might return. In such a case, we recommend running a full system scan with the anti-malware tool from this page, which can hunt down and flush out all malware data from your PC.
How to Get Rid of Maxask.com in Edge and Chrome
The main persistence technique that hijackers like Maxask (and any extensions associated with it) use to stay in the browser is to introduce a third-party administrative policy. This policy prevents you from making changes to some or all of your browser settings which, in turn, prevents you from reversing the changes that Maxask has made to them.
If there’s a “Managed by your organization” message in the browser menu or at the top of the Settings page, this means you are dealing with one such policy.
The first and most tedious task in removing Maxask is to hunt down and delete its rogue policy. Here’s how to do that:
Open your browser, then type chrome://policy into the address bar, and press Enter.
- Note: If you are using Edge, Brave, or another Chromium browser, just replace “Chrome” with the browser’s name in the URL.
This brings up a list of policies controlling your browser. Look for ones with values made of random characters. These policies don’t belong there and are likely linked to the hijacker.
Write down their values in a text file because you’ll need this information later.
Go back to the Extensions section.
If you can’t do that and are constantly getting redirected to another page, do this:
Head to this path in your system: C:\Users\YourUser\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions.
You’ll find folders with strange names, much like the policy values you found earlier. Each folder represents an extension installed on your browser.
Delete all of them. Yes, including the folders of your legitimate extensions. You can easily restore them later, but for now, just delete everything in the Extensions folder.
Now go back to the Extensions page in the browser. Toggle on the Developer Mode feature, and look at the ID of the rogue extension or extensions linked to Maxask.
Save those IDs next to the rogue policy values and proceed to the next steps.
Delete MaxAsk Items From the System Registry
Now you’ve got the information you need to find and delete the rogue policy instructions from your system’s registry, which should get rid of the policy in the browser. This is how you do it:
Press Win + R. Type regedit into the Run dialog box. Press Enter.
In the Registry Editor window that opens, go to Edit > Find (or press Ctrl + F), and use the search box to find items linked to the policy values and extension IDs you noted earlier.
The search will likely show you individual values in the right panel, but you must delete the entire key (folder) in the left panel that contains them. Just be careful not to delete some other unrelated keys, because this can cause issues in the system.
Always search one more time after a deleted key. There could be others left, so only move on once there aren’t more relevant search results.
Sometimes, the hijacker protects its registry keys by denying you access to them. This is how you solve it:
Right-click the parent key that contains the one you must delete. Select Permissions > Advanced > Change. Change the owner by typing everyone, clicking on Check Names, and then on OK.
Put ticks in the two Replace options, then click Apply and OK.
The rogue key should now be deletable, so go ahead and delete it. Same thing with all other rogue keys.
Two More Ways to Remove Maxask Policies
The steps to clean the Registry should be enough most of the time, but if the “Managed by your organization” message is still visible in the browser, try this:
Search for “Edit Group Policy” in the Start Menu, press Enter, navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration, and right-click on Administrative Templates.
Select the Add/Remove button and delete everything in the next list that wasn’t added by you (most likely nothing there was added by you).
Afterward, run a Chrome Policy Remover tool. This free utility is a script designed to clear rogue policies from your browser.
Download the tool. Run it as an administrator. It might trigger a security warning, but that shouldn’t worry you – the tool is safe. Just click “More Info” and then “Run Anyway“.
The tool will clean out any remaining policies from your Chrome browser, including any linked to Maxask.
Uninstall Maxask Extensions From Chrome and Edge
You can now finally return to your browser and remove from it anything placed there by the hijacker. Here’s how to do it:
Go to the browser’s menu and open its Settings.
Start with the Extensions page – look for anything you don’t recognize and click Remove to get rid of it. The Remove button should now work normally and delete the unwanted extension/s.
Move on to the Privacy and Security tab. There first click Delete browsing data, check all data types except passwords, select an appropriate time period, and click Delete.
Then click Site Settings from below and check the different permission types for maxask.com or other questionable URLs that are given the respective permission.
If you see anything sketchy in the list of allowed sites, click the three dots next to it and click Block.
Now check the Search Engine settings and make sure the default search tool of the browser is one you can trust.
Then click Manage Search Engines, look for suspicious URLs, and delete them.
The final thing you must do is to go to the On Startup and Appearance settings sections, check them for maxask.com or other questionable addresses, and delete those addresses.
Delete the Maxask Virus
Even with the MaxAsk hijacker removed, you can’t relax just yet. Hijackers often arrive bundled with other unwanted software or even malware. These programs linger in your system and could potentially reinstall the hijacker if left unchecked.
Open your system’s settings (gear icon) from the Start Menu. Navigate to the Apps section.
Look for any recently installed programs that you don’t recognize and uninstall them.
This might help, but it won’t guarantee a clean system. Rogue programs that distribute hijackers are rarely so easy to remove. They often have several components that don’t all go away with a simple uninstall. To fully secure your system, our recommendation is to use reliable anti-malware software.
SpyHunter is the tool we chose when dealing with hijackers and the rogue apps that distribute the. It identifies and removes malware components that manual steps might miss.
So if you think there’s anything left in your system that might re-introduce Maxask or another hijacker into your browser, be sure to clean your PC with the help of SpyHunter or another reliable removal tool.
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