How to remove bing.com redirect
bing.com is a legitimate search engine, often set as the homepage without users’ permission by infections like browser hijackers. Bing.com itself is perfectly safe to use and is not related to any malware or scam. Infections like browser hijackers essentially misuse it to generate revenue in a deceitful way. If you suddenly find that your browser redirects you to bing.com because it’s been set as your homepage without your permission, a browser hijacker is likely installed on your device. It’s not a serious infection and mainly focuses on redirecting you to questionable/sponsored websites. What the hijacker is likely doing in your case is redirecting you to a questionable website for a second and then immediately to bing.com. Unless you pay close attention, you may not even realize it’s happening.
Whenever your browser suddenly starts loading an unknown site as your homepage, a browser hijacker is likely responsible. Hijackers aren’t serious infections because they do not directly harm computers. Instead, they focus on exposing users to sponsored content. To achieve this, they make unwanted changes to a browser’s settings. In this particular case, bing.com gets set as your homepage and default search engine, which means you will constantly be redirected to bing.com. While the hijacker remains installed, it may be difficult to undo the setting changes. Furthermore, the browser hijackers may affect all popular browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
Because your default search engine has been set to bing.com, all your searches will go through that. bing.com is a legitimate and safe search engine so the search results aren’t the problem. The problem is that you did not choose bing.com as your search engine. Another problem is that before bing.com, you’re briefly redirected to a questionable website. This is how the hijacker is generating revenue. The visit to the site is so brief you might not even notice unless you’re paying close attention.
In many cases, browser hijackers set questionable search engines as default. Those search engines insert sponsored content into legitimate search results, disguising them as useful content. But since bing.com is legitimate, this does not apply in your case.
The bing.com browser hijacker is likely tracking your browsing and collecting certain data. To be more specific, the hijacker is probably collecting what you search for, what sites you visit, your IP address, what kind of content you interact with, etc. It’s not impossible that the information will be shared with unknown third parties for advertisement purposes. It’s not personal information but there’s no reason to allow any kind of data collection when you get nothing in return from this hijacker.
If you notice that a browser hijacker has been installed on your computer, use anti-virus software to get rid of it. You can also delete bing.com redirect manually, though that may take longer because you’d have to do everything yourself.
How do browser hijackers install?
If you’re currently dealing with a browser hijacker, you likely do not know how to correctly install free programs. Programs you download from third-party download sites often have added offers attached to them. This is known as software bundling, and whatever’s added to the program is authorized to install alongside without requiring explicit permission from users. It’s a rather sneaky installation method, which is why it’s quite frowned upon. And programs that use it are often detected as potential threats by anti-virus programs.
The way software bundling works is if there are offers added to a program, they’re permitted to install alongside automatically. Technically, the offers are optional but many users have trouble stopping their installations simply because the offers are hidden initially. Unless users are paying close attention when installing programs, they may not even notice that something is being installed alongside. So users who pay little attention during program installation often end up with all kinds of junk programs on their computers.
As we mentioned already, the extra offers are optional, and preventing their installations is not difficult. When installing freeware, make sure to choose Advanced (Custom) settings if given the option. The installation window will recommend you use Default settings but if you follow this advice, all extra offers will be permitted to install alongside automatically. Unlike Default, Advanced settings will make all added offers visible. You will also be given the option to deselect all offers. All you need to do is uncheck the boxes. Even if an offer seems useful at first sight, we don’t recommend allowing it to install. Software bundling is a very questionable installation method. You should not allow any program using it to essentially sneak into your computer. It’s much easier to uncheck a couple of boxes when installing programs than it is to have to get rid of them once they’re installed already.
In some cases, users install browser hijackers disguised as useful browser extensions. We always recommend that users research programs before installing them. A simple search with Google is often enough. Furthermore, it’s better to download programs from their legitimate websites instead of third-party sites. It’s less likely that extra offers will be attached to it this way.
bing.com redirect removal
If your computer has a browser hijacker installed, you will not be able to remove bing.com as your homepage/search engine unless you first get rid of the hijacker. Browser hijackers can be very persistent and troublesome to get rid of, which is why using anti-virus software would be easiest. Choose an anti-virus program that detects these kinds of infections, and allow it to remove bing.com browser hijacker from your computer. However, since browser hijackers aren’t malicious infections, you can delete bing.com hijacker manually as well. Once it’s gone from your computer, you can change your browser’s settings like normal.