Mountainbrowse.com

Mountainbrowse.com is a search tool with a very attractive interface. Every time you refresh this page, you are greeted with a different image representing the mountains. Although the background images do not make search services better or worse, it certainly is more appealing to use a website with attractive images rather than blank space or a ton of colorful tabs. Unfortunately, the pretty interface is the only reliable feature of this search tool. In fact, we classify it as a browser hijacker as it might corrupt the homepages on Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome browsers. If your browsers were corrupted without your permission, you need no convincing that removing Mountainbrowse.com is important. However, if you have chosen to replace your homepage with this hijacker, you might believe it to be harmless and even reliable. Well, if you think so, you should continue reading.

The first sign telling you that Mountainbrowse.com is unreliable might be its distribution. Of course, if it takes over your browsers illegally, you must know that it is dangerous. However, in many cases, users are provided with the opportunity to accept or reject this piece of software. Even if you are provided with the option, you have to think carefully about the source of this hijacker. Is it introduced to you bundled along with unfamiliar programs? Is the bundle showcased via a strange pop-up offer? Note that malware distributors often hide their threats behind harmless-looking offers, and so you have to be cautious. When it comes to third-party software bundled along with Mountainbrowse.com, you have to research it. If you do not, you might let malware run free. Even if you cannot find malware yourself, it does not mean that it is not there. Install a malware scanner to inspect your computer ASAP.

Have you tried surfing the web with the help of Mountainbrowse.com? As you must have found out, this search tool redirects you to the Yahoo Search engine, but your search requests are actually shown by Safe Finder. At the bottom of the search results page you might also notice the “powered by Bing” tag, which, of course, does not make any sense. This is what should help you figure out that the suspicious Mountainbrowse.com is not reliable and cannot be trusted. Unfortunately, most users trust Yahoo Search, which leads them to trusting the results shown with the help of this hijacker as well. Sponsored links could be shown along with regular results, and you might interact with them without even knowing it. What is so dangerous about clicking on sponsored links? Well, unreliable tracking cookies could be installed, and you might be routed to websites promoting misleading content, malicious installers, etc.

The good news is that Mountainbrowse.com does not collect personally-identifiable information. At least that is what is stated via the Privacy Policy associated with this hijacker. The bad news is that it can collect other kinds of information (e.g., browsing history, IP address, etc.) and share it with undisclosed parties. The document reveals that retailers, ad networks, service providers, and the so-called “interested parties” might get access to your non-personal information. Although the parties working with the hijacker might be harmless, we do not know that. Another thing that the Privacy Policy reveals is that third-party advertising content can be introduced to you via Mountainbrowse.com. Do you want to use a search tool that represents ads instead of search results? We are sure you do not, and that is the perfect reason to delete this suspicious browser hijacker right away.

We have come to a conclusion that you should delete Mountainbrowse.com because it is not useful or reliable. Instead, employ a functional and trustworthy search provider that could help you browse the web much more efficiently. If you do not want to be greeted by a search tool when you launch your browser, you can set up any page you like. The guide below shows how to eliminate the hijacker from all web browsers manually, and, if you need our help setting the desired homepage, you can post a comment below. If other threats are active as well, it is better to use automated malware detection and removal software instead. Protecting your PC against the infiltration of other dangerous threats is also important, and you should not skip this step.

Mountainbrowse.com Removal

Internet Explorer:

1. Launch RUN by tapping Win+R keys.
2. Enter regedit.exe into the dialog box to access Registry Editor.
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
4. Double-click the value named Start Page.
5. Replace the URL of the hijacker with the URL of the desired page. Click OK.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Launch Explorer by tapping Win+E keys together.
2. Enter %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ into the bar at the top.
3. Open the {Unique Mozilla user ID} folder and open the prefs.js file using Notepad.
4. Replace the string of the hijacker (user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "http://Mountainbrowse.com");) with the URL of the desired homepage.

Google Chrome:

1. Launch Explorer by tapping Win+E keys together.
2. Enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\ into the bar at the top.
3. Open the Default/{unique Chrome Profile} folder.
4. Replace the strong of the hijacker with the URL of the desired homepage in these files: Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data (to modify them, open them using Notepad).