How to Remove My Social Shortcut New Tab (Windows/Mac)

What Is My Social Shortcut?

My Social Shortsut page may become your browser’s New Tab page and resist your attempts to remove it from browser settings if you have MySocialShortcut browser hijacker installed. A browser hijacker is a piece of software (usually a browser extension, but it can be paired with a program/app) that can change homepage, New Tab page and similar settings of a browser to make people use specific search engines, boosting ad revenue for those. Browser hijackers are often bundled with free software on the Internet although they can also be downloaded by users themselves, after users get redirected to an “Add extension to leave” webpage, for example. You may follow this step-by-step guide to uninstall the browser hijacker and remove My Social Shortcut from your browsers.

How to Remove My Social Shortcut:

1. Remove My Social Shortcut Automatically
2. Remove My Social Shortcut From Programs and Features
3. Remove My Social Shortcut From Browsers
4. How to Protect Your PC From My Social Shortcut and Other Browser Hijackers

Remove My Social Shortcut Automatically

The easiest method to uninstall My Social Shortcut is to run an anti-malware program capable of detecting browser hijackers in general and My Social Shortcut in particular. SpyHunter is a powerful anti-malware solution that protects you against malware, spyware, ransomware and other types of Internet threats. SpyHunter is available for Windows and macOS devices.

Download SpyHunter

Other software that may be able to get rid of My Social Shortcut:

Norton (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) The link may not work correctly if your country is currently under sanctions.

Malwarebytes (Windows)

You can also try to remove My Social Shortcut by hand using the following instructions.

Remove My Social Shortcut From Programs and Features:

Go to Programs and Features, uninstall MySocialShortcut if you can find it there. If it isn’t there, uninstall all programs by Mindspark Interactive Network, suspicious programs, programs you don’t remember installing, or programs you installed just before My Social Shortcut appeared on your browser. When you are not sure if a program is safe, look for the answer on the Internet.

Windows XP:

1. Click Start.
2. In the Start menu select Settings => Control Panel.
3. Find and click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Look for MySocialShortcut in the list. If you find the app, highlight it.
5. Click Remove.

Windows Vista:

1. Click Start.
2. In the Start menu select Control Panel.
3. Find and click Uninstall a program.
4. Look for MySocialShortcut in the list. If you find the app, highlight it.
5. Click Uninstall.

Windows 7:

1. Click Start.
2. In the Start menu select Control Panel.
3. Find and select Programs and Features or Uninstall a program.
4. Look for MySocialShortcut in the list. If you find the app, highlight it.
5. Click Uninstall.

Windows 8 / Windows 8.1:

1. Press and hold Windows key and hit X key.
2. Select Programs and Features from the menu.
3. Look for MySocialShortcut in the list. If you find the app, highlight it.
4. Click Uninstall.

Windows 10:

1. Press and hold Windows key and hit X key.
2. Select Programs and Features from the menu.
3. Look for MySocialShortcut in the list. If you find the app, highlight it.
4. Click Uninstall.

Mac OS:

1. On the top menu select Go => Applications.
2. Drag an unwanted application to the Trash bin.
3. Right-click on the Trash and select Empty Trash.

Remove My Social Shortcut From Browsers:

To get rid of My Social Shortcut, either reset browser settings or remove MySocialShortcut (ID: fdkhngaioieemngifhcjghfankkmbpca on Chrome) and any other suspicious extensions from browsers and set new tab page and default search provider.

Reset Google Chrome Settings:

Note: This will disable your extensions and themes, clear cookies and site data, as well as change content settings, start page, new tab page and search engine to default.

1. Open a new tab.
2. Copy and paste into the address bar: chrome://settings/resetProfileSettings
3. Press Enter.
4. In the dialog box click Reset.

Alternative Way to Get Rid of My Social Shortcut in Google Chrome:

1. Click on three dots menu button at the top right corner of the window.
2. Select More tools ⇒ Extensions.
3. Click REMOVE to uninstall an extension.
4. Click Remove in the dialog box.
5. Right-click the address bar and select Edit search engines….
6. Click on three dots button next to the search provider you want and select Make default.
7. Click on three dots button next to hijacker search engine and select Remove from list.
8. Click on back arrow at the top of the page (near Manage search engines).
9. Under On startup section select Open the New Tab page.
10. Scroll to the top. Under Appearance section enable Show Home button setting.
11. Clear the textfield of the existing address. Put the one you want or select New Tab page.
12. Close Settings tab.

Note: If you cannot access the Extensions page, click on the top left corner of Chrome window and open Task Manager. End processes for any unfamiliar extensions that are running. Then go to the Extensions page and delete these extensions.
Alternatively, go to %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions (just copy that path and paste into the address bar of Windows Explorer/File Explorer). Delete all folders within (that will remove all your installed extensions) or search the Internet for the folders’ names to figure out which extension compares to which folder and delete suspicious ones.

Reset Mozilla Firefox Settings:

Note: Your extensions and themes, among other things, will get deleted.

1. Click on menu button .
2. Click on help button and select Troubleshooting Information.
3. Click Refresh Firefox… in the top-right corner.
4. In the dialog box click Refresh Firefox.

Alternative Way to Get Rid of My Social Shortcut in Mozilla Firefox:

1. Click on menu button and select Add-ons.
2. Go to Extensions tab.
3. To uninstall an add-on, click on Remove button next to it.

Note: If the extension is impossible to delete, click on => => Restart with Add-ons Disabled…. In dialog boxes click Restart => Start in Safe Mode. Repeat steps 1-3. Restart Firefox in normal mode after you are finished.

4. Click on the search icon in the search bar and click Change Search Settings.
5. Select search engine you want from the drop-down menu.
6. Highlight the hijacker search engine in the table below and click Remove.
7. Go to General tab.
8. Under Startup section click Restore to Default button.

Reset Internet Explorer Settings:

Note: This will remove most of your saved browser data, including extensions, passwords and the majority of browser settings.

1. Click Tools button in the top-right corner.
2. Select Internet options.
3. Go to Advanced tab.
4. Click Reset… button.
5. Put checkmark in Delete personal settings checkbox.
6. Click Reset.

Alternative Way to Get Rid of My Social Shortcut in Internet Explorer:

1. Click Tools button in the top-right corner.
2. Select Manage add-ons.
3. In the drop-down menu under Show: select All add-ons.
4. To delete an add-on, double-click it; in the new window click Remove.
5. Go to Search Providers tab.
6. Right-click the search engine you want and click Set as default.
7. Right-click the hijacker search engine and click Remove.
8. Click Close.
9. Click Tools button .
10. Select Internet options.
11. Under Home page section click Use new tab or enter the URL you want.
12. Click OK.

Remove My Social Shortcut from Safari:

1. On the top menu select Safari => Preferences.
2. Select Extensions tab.
3. Select an extension you want to delete and click Uninstall button next to it.
4. Go to General tab.
5. Select what you want Safari to open on start-up, new windows, new tabs and homepage.
6. Go to Search tab.
7. Select the search engine you want.

Reset Opera Settings:

Note: This will delete all saved data including bookmarks and passwords and return the browser to freshly installed state.

1. Exit Opera browser.
2. Open File Explorer.
3. Go to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera, where username is the name of your Windows account.
4. Find and delete Operapref.ini file.

Alternative Way to Get Rid of My Social Shortcut in Opera:

1. Press Ctrl +Shift + E keys to open extensions manager.
2. To remove an add-on, click on the x button next to it.
3. Click OK when asked to confirm.
4. Click on the top-left corner, select Settings.
5. In the Search section select one of the search engines from the list.
6. In the On startup section select Open the start page.
7. Click OK.

How to Protect Your PC From My Social Shortcut and Other Browser Hijackers:

• Get a powerful anti-malware software, capable of detecting and eliminating PUPs. Having several on-demand scanners would be a good idea too.
• Keep Windows firewall enabled or get a third-party one.
• Keep your OS, browsers and security utilities updated. Malware creators find new browser and OS vulnerabilities to exploit all the time. Software writers, in turn, release patches and updates to get rid of the known vulnerabilities and lesser the chance of malware penetration. Antivirus program’s signature databases get updated every day and even more often to include new virus signatures.
• Download and use uBlock Origin, Adblock, Adblock Plus or one of the similar trustworthy extensions for blocking third-party advertisements on web-sites.
• Don’t just click on any link you see while browsing the web. That applies particularly to links in comments, on forums, or in instant messengers. Pretty often these are spam links. Sometimes they are used for increasing the traffic to websites, but often enough they will land you on pages that will try to execute a malicious code and infect your computer..
• Don’t download software from unverified web-sites. You can easily download a trojan (malware that pretends to be a useful application); or some unwanted programs could get installed along with the app.
• When installing freeware or shareware, be sensible and don’t rush through the process. Choose Custom or Advanced installation mode, look for checkboxes that ask for your permission to install third-party apps and uncheck them, read End User License Agreement to make sure nothing else is going to get installed. You can make exceptions for the apps you know and trust, of course. If declining from installing unwanted programs is not possible, we advise you to cancel the installation completely.