Mobility Search is a fake search engine that tends to suddenly appear in user browsers and replace the default search engine up to that point. Its address is mobility-search.com and if your browser was hijacked by it, you’ll find that all your searches get redirected through it.
The obvious goal of this browser hijacker is the same as that of other similar rogue sites like boyu.com.tr or maxask.com. It’s to earn revenue for its creators by promoting various sites in your browser and generating fake traffic for them.
Not only is this annoying, but it could also lead to exposure to malware-distributing sites and scam pages with phishing elements. Therefore, your only viable course of action is to perform a thorough cleanup of your browser and system to ensure the hijacker is fully removed.
Mobility Search Removal Guide
Hijackers like Mobility Search employ various methods to make themselves as difficult and as frustrating to remove as possible. The good news is we have experience in dealing with such hijackers and the guide we’ve prepared for you will show you how to get rid of Mobility Search once and for all.
However, before you get to the full guide, we recommend trying a couple of quick browser-cleaning steps that might be enough if you’re lucky:
- Open the menu of the affected browser and go to Settings.
- Go to Privacy and Security > Site Settings > Notifications and delete any rogue or unfamiliar URLs.
- Go to Search Engine and change the browser’s default search tool to something reliable.
- In Extensions, click the Remove button of any potentially unwanted extensions.
For some of you, this might be all that’s needed to get rid of Mobility Search. However, most users will usually need to go through a number of other steps before they can fully eliminate the hijacker. If that’s the situation you’re in right now, proceed to the detailed guide you’ll find below the table.
SUMMARY:
| Name | Mobility Search |
| Type | Browser Hijacker |
| 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. |
OFFERImportant! Read Before Proceeding!
Most of the time, hijackers like Mobility Search get introduced into the browser after the user installs some other questionable software that is allowed to make changes in the browser.
Unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing what specific software brought you this hijacker, so we can’t offer specific instructions. At the same time, if the rogue program remains in the computer, it might re-add the hijacker to your browser.
For these reasons, we recommend cleaning your system with the help of SpyHunter – a powerful anti-malware program that you can find on this page.
How to Get Rid of Mobility-search.com Policies in Chrome
One of the most common and most effective methods for hijackers to gain persistence in a system is to employ the Enterprise policies feature in Chromium browsers.
A rogue policy in the browser is indicated by a “Managed by your organization” message in its menu and settings page. This prevents the user from reversing the changes they’ve made in the browser but we can show you how to tackle this problem:
Head to the policy management page of your browser:
Chrome users go to chrome://policy, Edge users to edge://policy, Brave users to brave://policy (just change the name in the URL for other Chromium browsers).
Here, you’ll find a list of any policies installed in the browser. Look closely. Strings of letters and numbers might appear as the values of some of the policies.
These are usually tied to Mobility Search or other hijackers. Write them down. You’ll need them soon.
The next place you must visit is Settings > Extensions in the browser, but the hijacker might sometimes block your access to it by redirecting you elsewhere. The solution to this is simple:
Navigate to C:\Users\[Your Username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions in your file system and delete everything inside. Yes, everything. This will disable all extensions. But don’t worry; you can reinstall the good ones later.
Once you’ve cleared the folder, return to the Extensions page in your browser.
By now, you should see all the installed extensions. Activate Developer Mode in the Extensions Manager to reveal the ID of all installed extensions, including any rogue ones that may be linked to the hijacker.
Take note of their IDs and save them too.
Video walkthrough for this step:
Clean the Registry From Mobility Search Items
Time to dig into the system registry. Precision is key.
Open the Registry Editor with administrative privileges. You can do this by searching for “regedit” in the Start Menu, right-clicking the first thing, and selecting “Run as administrator“.
Inside, go to the Edit menu and use the Find function to search for the policy values you previously noted down.
When you find a matching registry key (folder in the left panel), delete it. Repeat this until all keys related to this search are gone.
It’s tedious, but necessary.
Sometimes, Mobility Search restricts access to certain registry keys. If you encounter this, don’t panic. There’s a way around it:
Right-click on the parent key, select “Permissions“.
Open Advanced > Change, and type “Everyone“. Click Check Names then OK.
Enable the “Replace…” options (both of them) and then Apply + OK.
Now, you should have access to delete the stubborn keys.
Just remember to search for and delete keys related to all Policy values and Extension IDs that you saved earlier.
Video walkthrough for this step:
Additional Policy Removal Steps
The Registry cleanup is usually enough, but we want to be thorough, so here are two more steps you can do to ensure no rogue policies remain:
Search for “Edit Group Policy” in the Start Menu and press Enter.
Once open, navigate to and right-click on Administrative Templates (it’s under the Computer Configuration section).
Select “Add/Remove Templates” and delete everything in the next list.
Then download the Chrome Policy Remover tool and run it with admin rights. It’s a free utility designed to eliminate any lingering policies automatically.
Ignore any warnings from Windows by clicking More Info > Run Anyway. The tool is safe, so don’t worry.
Let it run its course. This step adds an extra layer of security.
Video walkthrough for this step:
Manual Group Policy Removal
Automatic Group Policy Removal
How to Delete the Mobility Search Virus Extension
Time to finish the job. You’ll basically have to perform the quick steps we showed you at the start of the guide but with a couple of additions:
Go back to the Extensions tab. By now, you should be able to remove any rogue extensions that you haven’t yet managed to get rid of.
The “Remove” button should be functional so click it on browser add-ons you consider unwanted.
Now, clean your browsing data. Go to your browser’s Privacy and Security settings. Select “Delete browsing data“. Choose a suitable timeframe that extends to the time when Mobility Search first appeared.
Delete everything except for passwords. Cached images, cookies, site data. All of it needs to go (you can make the adjustments in the Advanced tab of the data deletion window).
Also re-visit the Site Settings section and this time check each permissions type for mobility-search.com, searching.com, or any other rogue URLs.
Then check the search engine settings. Make sure your default search engine is trustworthy. Remove any suspicious entries in the Manage Search Engines section.
Video walkthrough for this step:
Chrome
Microsoft Edge
Mozilla Firefox
Finally, review the Appearance and On Startup settings, too. Get rid of any unfamiliar URLs you might see there. Now, your browser should be clean.
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