If conduit has conquered your browser and now become a bottleneck, give this blog a read and know the remedy to your pain.

What is Conduit?

Conduit is a browser hijacker installed on your browser without your knowledge. It usually comes with the third-party applications you install over the web. Even if you delete the application, Conduit never leaves its place till you perform manual removal.

Conduit is not a virus but it consists various malicious traits that affect your browser experience, usually by slowing down your browser and changing the search engine. Such programs are known as “Potentially Unwanted Program” or PUP.


How to Remove Conduit Search?

Let’s get back to the topic. So here are the steps that you need to follow in order to get rid of Conduit search.

Step1: Remove unwanted and malicious programs

  1. First, open the “uninstall” menu
  2. Using the Start button, open the Control Panel
  3. From the “Control Panel” go to “Uninstall a program” under the “programs” menu
  4. Remove all the recently installed or unused programs from the “programs and features” menu.
  5. You can find all the recently installed programs in the “Installed on” option.

Step2: Uninstall Search Protect by Conduit:

  1. Open the Run dialogue box using “Windows+R”
  2. Now, type the “appwiz.cpl” and hit the Enter button
  3. From the currently installed programs, you can find the programs you want to delete
  4. In the list of currently installed programs, tap on Search Protect and click Remove or Uninstall
  5. Follow on-screen instructions
  6. Once the removal is complete, restart your computing device.

Step 3: Remove Conduit folders, files, and image files:

  1. First, openC:\Program Files (x86) or C:\Program Files
  2. Open the Run dialogue box
  3. Type Control Folders and thenhit Enter
  4. From the Folder Options>>View>>Show Hidden files, folders, or drivers
  5. Unselecttheoption Hide protected operating system files
  6. Click Apply and then Ok
  7. Again Press the Windows+R to open the Run dialogue box
  8. Type any of the following locations given below, press Enter
  • %AppData%\Conduit
  • %AppData%\searchprotect
  • %AppData%\Conduit\ChromeExtData
  • %AppData%\Conduit\ChromeExtData\kdfbddbdpnahdahmamlolacimfdbeckk
  • %AppData%\Conduit\ChromeExtData\kdfbddbdpnahdahmamlolacimfdbeckk\Repository
  • %AppData%\CRE
  • %Temp%\CT3281675
  • %Temp%\CT3281675\plugins
  • %ProgramFiles%\Conduit
  • %ProgramFiles%\Conduit\CT3281675
  • %ProgramFiles%\Conduit\CT3281675\plugins

Step 4: Backup Windows Registry:

  • Press Windows+R open the Run menu
  • Now type Regedit and press Enter
  • In the User Account Control menu, click Continue
  • Now, from the File menu, click Export
  • From the File Name box, rename the file with a new name
  • Choose the location where you want to save the Registration Entries (.reg) file.
  • Click Save

 Step 5: Delete the Conduit related registry files:

  1. Open the Run dialog box with Widows+R command
  2. Type Regedit and then hit Enter
  3. Click Continue on the User Account Control window
  4. Navigate to the below-given locations and remove the Conduit related entries. Delete every entry by right-clicking on it.
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Conduit
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Conduit
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Conduit
    HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1895488484-4184314878-4136777622-1000\Software\Conduit
  5. Click Find from Edit menu
  6. Now from the Find menu, next to Find What and type Conduit
  7. In the Look at the menu, choose Keys, values, and Data
  8. Tap Find Next
  9. You will see the results on the right-hand side of your screen
  10.  Now from the Edit String window, delete the value or data under the Value data section
  11. Click Ok
  12. Press the key “F3” to search for more entries
  13. From the File menuclick Exit.

Step 6: Reset the Browser Settings:

For Internet Explorer:

  1. First, close all the running apps and programs
  2. Open Internet Explorer and open Tools menu
  3. Under the “Tools” option select Internet options
  4. Now open the Advanced tab
  5. Click Reset in the option of the Reset Internet Explorer Settings
  6. Now, in the Are you sure you want to reset all Internet Explorer settings?, click Reset.
  7. Once the settings are restored to the original form, click “Close” and then OK.
  8. Restart your device to apply the changes.

Important Note: If there are add-ons that are creating an issue in the functioning of Internet Explorer, you need to close the add-ons and then try to use the browser again.

For Google Chrome:

  1. Click in the menu icon from the address bar
  2. Open Settings using the drop-down menu
  3. Now from the Settings page, open Advanced link
  4. Click Reset from the bottom of the page

For Mozilla Firefox:

  1. Go to the “help” menu
  2. Click “troubleshooting information”
  3. Select “Refresh Firefox”
  4. Tap on “Confirm”
  5. Click “Finish”

Once you are done doing all the steps, you need to reboot your device to clear up the internal memory and you will see the Conduit is no more present on your browser. In addition, while installing a third-party application, do not forget to check the security status.