What is Ecosia?

At first glance, Ecosia looks like a regular search page (Google, Bing, or Yahoo), which has a lot of one-touch buttons for quick access to popular sites or social networks. Ecosia is a browser hijacker, which comes as an extension to Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. The hijacker promises to increase the efficiency of the search, but this is not true. Ecosia replaces your search results and may redirect you to ad sites. After penetration, Ecosia changes the settings of your browser, replaces your homepage and search engine. Among other things, it can collect your private data and send it to third parties for analysis. Usually, Ecosia comes bundled with freeware without user consent. Ecosia slows down browsing and reduces the performance of your PC. We recommend you to remove Ecosia.

How Ecosia gets on your PC?

Similar programs belong to potentially unwanted programs. These programs come on a computer without user consent, so you may have overlooked the penetration of this program. PUP is installed on PC bundled with freeware program such as archivers, download managers, players and so on. The user must be considerate during the installation process to prevent the penetration of unwanted programs. To do this, you need to read the user agreement. Do not agree to install unknown or suspicious programs. Not need to trust programs from unknown publishers. Always follow the installation process and do not rush to click “Next”. If your computer is already infected, you can use our instructions listed below to get rid of Ecosia.

How to remove Ecosia from your computer?

The easiest and most modern way of removing pop-ups, trojans, ransomware, or other viruses is to use automatic removal tools. See our Anti-malware tools below for further instructions.

Recommended Anti-malware tools:

Also, you can try to remove Ecosia manually. For uninstalling Ecosia remove it from Control Panel, then delete all files and registry keys.

Step 1: Remove Ecosia from Applications

Windows 10:

1. Click on the Start button (or press the Windows key) to open the Start menu, click on the Settings at the top.
2. Click on App & features on the left menu.
3. On the right side, locate Ecosia and click it, then click on the Uninstall button.
4. Click on Uninstall to confirm.

Learn more about uninstallation of programs in Windows 10

Mac OSX:

1. Open Finder
2. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications
3. If you see Uninstall Ecosia or Ecosia Uninstaller (or other suspicious apps that you’ve never installed), double-click it and follow instructions
4. Drag unwanted application Ecosia from the Applications folder to the Trash (located on the right side of the Dock)

Learn more about uninstallation of programs in Mac OSX

Windows XP:

1. Click Start.
2. Control Panel.
3. Then click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Ecosia.
5. Click Uninstall.

Learn more about uninstallation of programs in Windows XP.

Windows 7/Windows Vista:

1. Click Start.
2. Then Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Ecosia and click Uninstall.

Learn more about uninstallation of programs in Windows 7.

Windows 8/Windows 8.1:

1. Open the Menu.
2. Click Search.
3. After that click Apps.
4. Then Control Panel.
5. Then as in Windows 7, click Uninstall a Program under Programs.
6. Find Ecosia, select it and click Uninstall.

Learn more about uninstallation of programs in Windows 8 (8.1).

Note: If you can’t find required program, sort programs by date in Control panel and search for last installed programs.

After that remove Ecosia from your browser.

Step 2: Remove Ecosia from browsers

Google Chrome:

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Push Alt + F.
3. Click Tools.
4. Choose Extensions.
5. Find Ecosia.
6. Click the trash can icon to remove it.

Learn more about removing extensions from Chrome.

Safari:

1. Open Safari
2. Click Safari menu.
3. Choose Extensions.
4. Find Ecosia or other suspicious extensions.
5. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Learn more about removing extensions from Safari.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Open Firefox.
2. Push Shift + Ctrl + A.
3. Choose Ecosia.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.

Learn more about removing extensions from Firefox.

Internet Explorer:

1. Open IE.
2. Push Alt + T.
3. Click Manage Add-ons.
4. Select Toolbars and Extensions.
5. Click Disable Ecosia.
6. Click More information link in the left-bottom corner.
7. Click Remove button.
8. If this button is grayed out – perform alternative steps.

Learn more about removing extensions from IE.

Step 3: Resetting your browser search and homepage settings

Reset browser setting in Google Chrome:

1. Click the Chrome menu (3 bar button) in the top right corner.
2. Choose Settings.
3. Click Show advanced settings.
4. Go to Reset browser settings section.
5. Click Reset browser settings.
6. In the dialog that appears, click Reset.

Learn more about resetting browser settings in Google Chrome.

Reset browser setting in Safari:

1. Open Safari.
2. Click on the Safari menu.
3. Choose Reset Safari….
4. Click Reset button.

Learn more about resetting browser settings in Safari.

Reset browser setting in Mozilla Firefox:

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.
2. Go to Help.
3. Go to Troubleshooting information.
4. Click Reset Firefox… button.

Learn more about resetting browser settings in Mozilla Firefox.

Reset browser setting in Internet Explorer:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on the cogwheel in the right upper corner.
3. Click Internet options.
4. Go to Advanced tab.
5. Click Reset button.
6. Put a tick near Delete personal settings checkbox.
7. Click Reset button.

Learn more about resetting browser settings in Internet Explorer.

If you faced the problem when the app on Google Chrome can’t be removed because it Managed by your organization, please read our article.