How to uninstall the Play Radio Easily browser hijacker
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What is Play Radio Easily?
Play Radio Easily supposedly provides access to various online radio streaming websites, however, after installation, it assigns certain browser settings to search.playradiotab.com. Therefore, Play Radio Easily is classified as a browser hijacker, a potentially unwanted application (PUA) that promotes the address of a fake search engine.
PUAs often collects various system information relating to users' browsing habits. Note that Play Radio Easily is also distributed with another PUA called Hide My Searches.
After installation, Play Radio Easily assigns the address of the default search engine, homepage, and new tab to search.playradiotab.com. Therefore, browsers that are hijacked by Play Radio Easily load this address when users open a new window, tab or enter search queries into the URL bar.
Note that search.playradiotab.com provides results generated by Yahoo (it simply redirects users to search.yahoo.com) and is, therefore, classified as a fake search engine and does not generate any unique results. Generally, browser hijackers do not allow users to remove the addresses of fake search engine from the aforementioned settings as long as they are installed.
To stop search.playradiotab.com from being opened, it is necessary to uninstall Play Radio Easily. This applies to most browser hijackers. Furthermore, PUAs usually collect browsing data and sometimes sensitive, personal details as well. Typically, they record details such as IP addresses, geolocations, addresses of visited pages, entered search queries, and so on.
People responsible for these apps tend to misuse the details to generate revenue and/or sell it to third parties (potentially, cyber criminals).
Having a browser hijacker installed on the browser and/or operating system puts users at risk becoming victims of identity theft, experiencing problems relating to privacy, browsing safety, and so on. These are the main reasons why Play Radio Easily, Hide My Searches and other browser hijackers should never be downloaded or installed.
| Name | Play Radio Easily |
| Threat Type | Browser Hijacker, Redirect, Search Hijacker, Toolbar, Unwanted New Tab. |
| Detection Names | Avast (Win32:Adware-gen [Adw]), AVG (Win32:Adware-gen [Adw]), ESET-NOD32 (A Variant Of Win32/WinWrapper.V Potentially Unwanted), Microsoft (PUA:Win32/OpenDownloadManager), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal) |
| Browser Extension(s) | Play Radio Easily |
| Supposed Functionality | This app supposedly provides access to online radio streaming pages. |
| Promoted URL | search.playradioeasilytab.com |
| Serving IP Address (search.playradioeasilytab.com) | 3.219.120.252 |
| Affected Browser Settings | Homepage, new tab URL, default search engine. |
| Symptoms | Manipulated internet browser settings (homepage, default internet search engine, new tab settings). Users are forced to visit the hijacker's website and search the internet using their search engines. |
| Additional Information | Play Radio Easily is distributed with another browser hijacker called Hide My Searches. |
| Distribution methods | Deceptive pop-up ads, free software installers (bundling), fake Flash Player installers. |
| Damage | Internet browser tracking (potential privacy issues), display of unwanted ads, redirects to dubious websites. |
| Malware Removal (Windows) | To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. |
Examples of other apps that are categorized as browser hijackers include View Online Recipes, Your Templates Online Now and Watch TV Online.
Typically, the developers advertise them as legitimate, useful applications that supposedly deliver various features. In fact, most PUAs are designed only to help developers to generate revenue by gathering browsing data and promoting fake search engines. If a browser hijacker is installed on the browser and/or operating system, remove it immediately.
How did Play Radio Easily install on my computer?
In most cases, people download and/or install PUAs by clicking deceptive advertisements that execute certain scripts or when developers distribute them by including them into various download/installation setups. This distribution method is called "bundling" and is used to trick people into downloading or installing PUAs with regular software.
Developers include PUAs into various set-ups and present them as additional offers. In most cases, these are mentioned in "Custom", "Advanced" and other similar settings. When software is downloaded and/or installed without checking the settings, additional PUAs are also downloaded/installed.
How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications
Do not use third party software downloaders, installers, Peer-to-Peer networks such as torrents clients, eMule, unofficial pages or other similar channels to download or install software. Use only official websites and direct download links.
Check all download and installation set-ups for "Custom", "Advanced", "Manual" and other similar settings, since they often mention offers to download and install additional, potentially unwanted software. Do not click intrusive ads, especially if they are shown on unofficial, dubious web pages.
These ads usually cause redirects to potentially malicious pages or download/installation unwanted apps.
Check for any unwanted, suspicious extensions, plug-ins or add-ons installed on the browser, or programs of this kind installed on the operating system, and remove them immediately. If your computer is already infected with Play Radio Easily, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate this browser hijacker.
Website promoting Play Radio Easily browser hijacker:
Play Radio Easily browser hijacker installer set-up:
Play Radio Easily asks permission to read and change data:
Instant automatic malware removal:
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Quick menu:
- What is Play Radio Easily?
- STEP 1. Uninstall Play Radio Easily application using Control Panel.
- STEP 2. Remove search.playradioeasilytab.com redirect from Internet Explorer.
- STEP 3. Remove Play Radio Easily browser hijacker from Google Chrome.
- STEP 4. Remove search.playradioeasilytab.com homepage and default search engine from Mozilla Firefox.
- STEP 5. Remove search.playradioeasilytab.com redirect from Safari.
- STEP 6. Remove rogue plug-ins from Microsoft Edge.
Play Radio Easily browser hijacker removal:
Windows 11 users:
Right-click on the Start icon, select Apps and Features. In the opened window search for the application you want to uninstall, after locating it, click on the three vertical dots and select Uninstall.
Windows 10 users:
Right-click in the lower left corner of the screen, in the Quick Access Menu select Control Panel. In the opened window choose Programs and Features.
Windows 7 users:
Click Start (Windows Logo at the bottom left corner of your desktop), choose Control Panel. Locate Programs and click Uninstall a program.
macOS (OSX) users:
Click Finder, in the opened screen select Applications. Drag the app from the Applications folder to the Trash (located in your Dock), then right click the Trash icon and select Empty Trash.
In the uninstall programs window: look for any recently installed suspicious applications (for example, "Play Radio Easily"), select these entries and click "Uninstall" or "Remove".
After uninstalling the potentially unwanted applications that cause browser redirects to the search.playradioeasilytab.com website, scan your computer for any remaining unwanted components. To scan your computer, use recommended malware removal software.
Play Radio Easily browser hijacker removal from Internet browsers:
Video showing how to remove browser redirects:
Remove malicious add-ons from Internet Explorer:
Click the "gear" icon 
(at the top right corner of Internet Explorer), select "Manage Add-ons". Look for any recently installed suspicious extensions, select these entries and click "Remove".
Change your homepage:
Click the "gear" icon (at the top right corner of Internet Explorer), select "Internet Options", in the opened window remove hxxp://search.playradioeasilytab.com and enter your preferred domain, which will open each time you launch Internet Explorer. You can also enter about: blank to open a blank page when you start Internet Explorer.
Change your default search engine:
Click the "gear" icon (at the top right corner of Internet Explorer), select "Manage Add-ons". In the opened window, select "Search Providers", set "Google", "Bing", or any other preferred search engine as your default and then remove "Play Radio Easily".
Optional method:
If you continue to have problems with removal of the search.playradioeasilytab.com redirect, reset your Internet Explorer settings to default.
Windows XP users: Click Start, click Run, in the opened window type inetcpl.cpl In the opened window click the Advanced tab, then click Reset.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 users: Click the Windows logo, in the start search box type inetcpl.cpl and click enter. In the opened window click the Advanced tab, then click Reset.
Windows 8 users: Open Internet Explorer and click the gear icon. Select Internet Options.
In the opened window, select the Advanced tab.
Click the Reset button.
Confirm that you wish to reset Internet Explorer settings to default by clicking the Reset button.
Remove malicious extensions from Google Chrome:
Click the Chrome menu icon 
(at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "More tools" and click "Extensions". Locate "Play Radio Easily" and other recently-installed suspicious browser add-ons (e.g., "Hide My Searches"), and remove them.
Change your homepage:
Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "Settings". In the "On startup" section, disable "Play Radio Easily" or "Hide My Searches", look for a browser hijacker URL (hxxp://search.playradioeasilytab.com or hxxps://hidemysearches.com) below the “Open a specific or set of pages” option. If present click on the three vertical dots icon and select “Remove”.
Change your default search engine:
To change your default search engine in Google Chrome: Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "Settings", in the "Search engine" section, click "Manage search engines...", in the opened list look for "hxxp://search.playradioeasilytab.com" and "hxxp://hidemysearches.com", when located click the three vertical dots near this URL and select "Remove from list".
Optional method:
If you continue to have problems with removal of the search.playradioeasilytab.com redirect, reset your Google Chrome browser settings. Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome) and select Settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen. Click the Advanced… link.
After scrolling to the bottom of the screen, click the Reset (Restore settings to their original defaults) button.
In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Google Chrome settings to default by clicking the Reset button.
Remove malicious plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox:
Click the Firefox menu 
(at the top right corner of the main window), select "Add-ons". Click on "Extensions" and remove "Play Radio Easily", as well as all other recently installed browser plug-ins (e.g., "Hide My Searches").
Change your homepage:
To reset your homepage, click the Firefox menu (at the top right corner of the main window), then select "Options", in the opened window disable "Play Radio Easily" or "Hide My Searches", remove hxxp://search.playradioeasilytab.com or hxxp://hidemysearches.com and enter your preferred domain, which will open each time you start Mozilla Firefox.
Change your default search engine:
In the URL address bar, type about:config and press Enter.
Click "I'll be careful, I promise!".
In the search filter at the top, type: "extensionControlled"
Set both results to "false" by either double-clicking each entry or clicking the 
button.
Optional method:
Computer users who have problems with search.playradioeasilytab.com redirect removal can reset their Mozilla Firefox settings.
Open Mozilla Firefox, at the top right corner of the main window, click the Firefox menu, in the opened menu, click Help.
Select Troubleshooting Information.
In the opened window, click the Refresh Firefox button.
In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Mozilla Firefox settings to default by clicking the Refresh Firefox button.
Remove malicious extensions from Safari:
Make sure your Safari browser is active and click Safari menu, then select Preferences...
In the preferences window select the Extensions tab. Look for any recently installed suspicious extensions and uninstall them.
In the preferences window select General tab and make sure that your homepage is set to a preferred URL, if its altered by a browser hijacker - change it.
In the preferences window select Search tab and make sure that your preferred Internet search engine is selected.
Optional method:
Make sure your Safari browser is active and click on Safari menu. From the drop down menu select Clear History and Website Data...
In the opened window select all history and click the Clear History button.
Remove malicious extensions from Microsoft Edge:
Click the Edge menu icon 
(at the top right corner of Microsoft Edge), select "Extensions". Locate any recently-installed suspicious browser add-ons, and remove them.
Change your homepage and new tab settings:
Click the Edge menu icon (at the top right corner of Microsoft Edge), select "Settings". In the "On startup" section look for the name of the browser hijacker and click "Disable".
Change your default Internet search engine:
To change your default search engine in Microsoft Edge: Click the Edge menu icon (at the top right corner of Microsoft Edge), select "Privacy and services", scroll to bottom of the page and select "Address bar". In the "Search engines used in address bar" section look for the name of the unwanted Internet search engine, when located click the "Disable" button near it. Alternatively you can click on "Manage search engines", in the opened menu look for unwanted Internet search engine. Click on the puzzle icon 
near it and select "Disable".
Optional method:
If you continue to have problems with removal of the search.playradioeasilytab.com redirect, reset your Microsoft Edge browser settings. Click the Edge menu icon (at the top right corner of Microsoft Edge) and select Settings.
In the opened settings menu select Reset settings.
Select Restore settings to their default values. In the opened window, confirm that you wish to reset Microsoft Edge settings to default by clicking the Reset button.
- If this did not help, follow these alternative instructions explaining how to reset the Microsoft Edge browser.
Summary:
A browser hijacker is a type of adware infection that modifies Internet browser settings by assigning the homepage and default Internet search engine settings to some other (unwanted) website URL. Commonly, this type of adware infiltrates operating systems through free software downloads. If your download is managed by a download client, ensure that you decline offers to install advertised toolbars or applications that seek to change your homepage and default Internet search engine settings.
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