Sam Boyd
Updated on: January 3, 2024
Short on time? Here’s how to remove Search Marquis in 2024:
- 1. Scan Your Mac — Use a premium Mac antivirus like Intego to run a full system scan on your computer.
- 2. Clean Your Device — After the scan is complete, let the antivirus remove all instances of adware, spyware, and other malware that may have been installed while your browser was hijacked by Search Marquis.
- 3. Remove the Search Marquis Extension — Go into your browser settings, click on extensions, and remove Search Marquis. You may also have to reset some settings and change your homepage — read my full guide to see how.
- 4. Stay Protected — Invest in a high-quality internet security suite to avoid further viruses and infections. Intego is the best choice for Mac — it has a highly effective Mac-specific anti-malware engine, plus other useful features like a system optimizer and parental controls. All Intego plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free.
Search Marquis is a browser hijacker that commonly affects Safari and Chrome users on Mac computers. Any time you open a new window, Search Marquis navigates to a handful of websites that generate ad revenue for hackers. Search Marquis is also known as Search Baron, which is an older version of the same browser hijacker.
There are several signs that indicate you have Search Marquis on your computer. Most users notice they’ve been hacked by Search Marquis because the homepage in their browser has been replaced with Bing.com, and their browser won’t let them change their homepage back. In addition to redirecting your searches and inserting suggested searches into the Bing search bar, Search Marquis also collects user data, sharing all of your browsing and search information with hackers.
Search Marquis runs as a browser extension, but it’s usually installed in your browser by malware running on your desktop. What this means is that you will need to run an antivirus scan to remove the Search Marquis files from your desktop and also manually remove any trace of Search Marquis from your browser in order to completely remove this browser hijacker from your system.
I recommend most users download Intego, which consistently scores the highest ratings in our malware detection tests for Macs. However, McAfee and Norton also make excellent antivirus programs for Mac users. All of these programs are offered with money-back guarantees, so there’s no risk involved in giving them a shot! With a good-quality antivirus installed, you can remove Search Marquis from your system in less than an hour — here’s how!
Risk-Free For 30 Days — Try Intego Now
Step 1. Run a Full System Scan With Your Antivirus
IMPORTANT: Do not connect your cell phone, tablet, or USB drive to a computer you suspect is infected. In doing so, you risk any infections replicating themselves onto those devices.
After downloading a secure antivirus suite, run a full disk scan on your PC. A full disk scan will detect, quarantine, and remove every virus it finds on your system, such as spyware, rootkits, and worms that can often run undetected — including any files associated with Search Marquis and Search Baron.
The full scan can take anywhere from 1–4 hours because your antivirus needs to analyze every single file and process on your computer. Once it’s done so, it will alert you that the scan is finished, and you can be confident that every piece of malware on your system has been identified and put into quarantine.
Remember: Run the full system scan until it’s finished. DO NOT cancel the scan when you see a virus appear on the infected file list. There’s no way of knowing how many other copies of a virus exist in your system.
Step 2. Delete Any Infected Files
Your antivirus will give you the option to delete compromised files after it has identified and quarantined all of your compromised files. Advanced users can go through the quarantined files and make sure there are no false positives before hitting the Delete button. But most users will just want to trust their antivirus software — if it’s been flagged as malware by a program like Intego, chances are you don’t want it on your device.
It’s a good idea to restart your computer and run a second full system scan once you’ve removed any compromised files from your system. Just like the first scan, it’s important to let this second scan complete. Once the scan is finished and you’ve reviewed and deleted compromised files in your quarantine folder, your disk will be 100% malware-free — but you’re not finished with Search Marquis yet!
Step 3. Remove Search Marquis From Your Browser
Now you have a few options for how to remove what’s left of Search Marquis from your browser. It’s pretty simple:
For Safari Users:
- Open Safari.
- Click Preferences from the drop-down Safari menu in the top left corner of your browser window.
- Once you’ve opened the Preferences window, select the Extensions tab.
- Deactivate every extension that you’re not 100% sure is safe by clicking on the check mark on the left side of the screen (uncheck the box). Make sure you remove any Adobe Flash extensions because these are frequent vectors for malware.
- Click Uninstall for every single extension that you’ve deactivated (you can’t uninstall extensions that haven’t been deactivated!).
- Back in the Preferences menu, select the General tab.
- In the Homepage field, enter your preferred homepage.
For Chrome Users:
- Open Chrome.
- Click the Extensions button to the right of the search bar (it looks like a puzzle piece).
- Select Manage Extensions.
- Remove every extension that you aren’t 100% comfortable with (especially Adobe Flash extensions, which are frequently hacked).
- Click the 3 dots “︙” symbol in the top right corner of the screen, and click Settings.
- Select Search Engine and set Google (or another legitimate search engine) as your search engine.
- Check under the On Startup heading, and make sure that you don’t have Search Marquis or Bing.com selected. I recommend choosing Open the New Tab page as your startup window.
Finally, you’re going to want to clear your cached files. If you downloaded Intego, this is super easy: just click on Intego’s Washing Machine feature, select all of the file types, and let it run and remove all of the junk files and potentially harmful cached files from your system.
Removing cached files is pretty simple on Safari and Chrome, too. In Safari, you simply select Clear Cache from the “Develop” drop-down menu in your menu bar.
In Chrome, you can click Settings and click on Clear Browsing Data under the “Privacy and Security” heading.
Step 4. Keep Your Device From Getting Re-Infected With Malware
New malware is released every day, with increasingly inventive methods of infecting unsuspecting users. You also need to keep yourself safe from data breaches, identity theft, and more.
How can you keep your devices and data safe? There are several things you can do:
- Keep Your Software, OS, and Drivers Up-To-Date. Hackers often exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software and drivers, but antivirus programs like Intego can scan for and update any outdated software, patching those vulnerabilities. It’s also a good idea to regularly check your Mac’s System Preferences menu for any outstanding macOS updates.
- Don’t Download Suspicious Files. Whether it’s from an email or a suspicious website, don’t download files unless you’re 100% sure you recognize where they’re coming from. Even if you do recognize where they’re coming from, you should only download files if you have a good antivirus program running in the background.
- Secure Your Wireless Network and IoT Devices. Ensure your wireless network and IoT devices are password-protected. If they’re not, use a good password manager like 1Password to generate and store super-strong passwords for them. Also, ensure your antivirus has a decent firewall. All of our recommendations below include a pretty good firewall.
- Install a Secure Antivirus Program. Only a few antiviruses provide all of the security protections you need to stay safe online, and I can honestly say Intego is the best choice for Mac. It uses advanced machine learning tools and a massive malware database to keep malware off your device. Below are some more top picks.
3 Best Antivirus Programs for Removing Search Marquis
Quick summary of the best antiviruses for removing Search Marquis:
- 🥇1. Intego — Best antivirus for Mac in 2024.
- 🥈2. McAfee — Great scanning capabilities and excellent web protection.
- 🥉3. Norton — Fast malware scans and great web security
🥇 1. Intego — Best Antivirus for Mac in 2024
Approved by our experts
Intego is my favorite antivirus for Mac in 2024. It comes with perfect malware detection rates, a wide range of security features, a well-designed user interface, and good customer support.
The malware scanner worked really well in my tests. It scanned my entire Mac in an hour and removed every malware sample I’d hidden on my device. What’s more, the scanner is very lightweight, so there was no system slowdown during the full system scan, meaning I could browse the web, stream movies, and play games without interruptions.
Intego’s real-time protection is also impressive, consistently monitoring your Mac for harmful files or software. I tested it with numerous malware samples and ransomware simulations, and it consistently stopped every threat. I also like the real-time protection’s wide range of customization options, allowing tech-savvy users to fine-tune security levels to their specific needs.
I also like Intego’s built-in safe browsing feature — it’s a good way to ensure you’re protected from sites that contain the Search Marquis browser hijacker. The safe browsing feature checks to see if your browser’s anti-phishing settings are enabled and alerts you if they’re switched off (some viruses will attempt to disable your anti-phishing protections to make it easier to target your system).
Intego for Mac also includes:
- System optimizer.
- Secure backup tool.
- Parental controls.
- VPN (separate purchase).
- And more…
The system optimizer tool is pretty good — you can scan your Mac for specific junk files, such as caches, downloads, log files, or trash, and quickly remove them. It also shows you everything it plans to delete, so you can make sure nothing is accidentally removed. In my tests, I was able to save 4 GB of space on my MacBook Pro, which is excellent. You can also scan for duplicate files, which is a handy way of keeping your machine organized.
Intego’s secure backup tool is better than Apple’s built-in backup feature. For example, you can schedule multiple backups or backup specific files and folders. Honestly, it’s a really effective way to protect your personal data from malware — including the Search Marquis browser hijacker.
Intego offers several pricing plans starting from $1.67 / month, but my favorite plan is Mac Premium Bundle X9. It costs $34.99 / year and includes every Intego feature. If you just want to scan your computer after removing Search Marquis, you can also pick Mac Internet Security X9 for $19.99 / year. All Intego plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read the full Intego for Mac Review
🥈2. McAfee — Excellent Malware Detection Rates & Web Protection
McAfee provides an excellent malware scanner, along with really good web protection, a ton of additional features, great customer support, and more. Its scanner found and removed all of my malware samples during testing, and its anti-phishing tool (WebAdvisor) blocked more dangerous websites than the built-in protections on Chrome and Safari.
McAfee’s security features include:
- Secure firewall.
- VPN.
- Password manager.
- Performance optimization tool.
- And more…
McAfee’s performance optimization tool is pretty good. It can remove web trackers from your device, speed up your internet, and clear junk files from your computer. It isn’t quite as customizable as Intego’s performance optimization tool, and it only saved me 2 GB of junk files compared to Intego’s 4 GB of junk files — but it still works really well.
The VPN is pretty good but has some flaws. It’s pretty fast, has a tight no-logs policy, and offers a reasonably large server network (locations in 80+ countries), but it didn’t reliably access Hulu or Disney+ and it lacks extra features like split-tunneling.
McAfee has a wide range of plans starting from $39.99 / year, but their names and features depend on your location. That said, all of the plans are covered by a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee, which gives you enough time to test all of McAfee’s features and see if it’s right for you.
🥉3. Norton — Fast Malware Scanner + Good Web Security Extensions
Norton comes with really good web security tools that can prevent you from downloading Search Marquis. It also includes excellent malware detection rates, a wide range of additional features, and impressive customer support.
Norton uses file-caching technology, so its malware scans are very fast. When I scanned my MacBook, the full scan finished in 40 minutes and found every malware sample (including samples of the Search Marquis virus). This is very similar to the results I had with Intego.
Norton’s security features include:
- Anti-phishing protection.
- VPN.
- Password manager.
- Secure Browser.
- Parental controls.
- Dark web monitoring.
- And more…
Norton’s anti-phishing tools are pretty good, too. There’s a secure browser (called Secure Browser, if you can believe it) and an extension (Safe Web). Both tools were, like McAfee, able to block more dangerous websites during my tests than the built-in protections on Chrome and Safari.
Norton’s plans start from $54.99 / year*. Norton 360 Standard is a good option for Mac users. It costs $39.99 / year*, offers coverage for 3 devices, and comes with Norton’s malware scanner, web protection, VPN, and more.
If you want to extend your coverage to 5 devices, you can upgrade to Norton 360 Deluxe for $49.99 / year*, which also adds 50 GB of cloud storage and Norton’s parental controls. Whichever plan you choose, you get a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get rid of Search Marquis on Chrome and Safari?
You can get rid of Search Marquis pretty quickly! You can look at my full guide for step-by-step instructions, but these are the basic steps that you’ll need to follow to clean off your device:
- Download a good antivirus program for Mac (Intego is the best).
- Run a malware scan to remove all traces of Search Marquis from your disk.
- Remove all malware extensions from your browser.
- Clear your browser’s cache and restore its original settings.
- Keep your antivirus installed so you don’t get reinfected.
While some suggest manual removal of Search Marquis, I think it’s too risky. Given the malware’s evolving nature, there’s no guarantee that any of these guides will work.
What kind of virus is Search Marquis?
Search Marquis is a browser hijacker that specifically targets Mac users. It’s able to redirect your search queries, infiltrate your search bar with suggestions, steal your browsing data, and continuously set Bing.com as your homepage.
Browser hijackers are becoming increasingly common in 2024, and the only way to keep your devices free from data-stealing malware like this is to download and install trustworthy antivirus software — Intego is my favorite Mac-specific antivirus program, but McAfee also provides good internet security for Mac users. Both Intego and McAfee can effectively remove Search Marquis (and every other type of Mac-specific malware) from your device in just a few minutes.
Will antivirus get rid of Search Marquis?
Yes, a high-quality antivirus can remove every trace of Search Marquis from your computer — but you’ll have to do a little bit of work in your browser’s settings to make sure you remove any browser extensions related to Search Marquis. You’ll also need to reset your browser settings.
For full instructions on how to get rid of Search Marquis and Search Baron in 2024, read my full article above. However, the most important step is to clean your Mac and protect it from further infection by downloading a good antivirus program — Intego is my favorite Mac-specific internet security program, but McAfee and Norton are also very good options.
How does Search Marquis get on Mac devices?
Search Marquis (like most malware) gets on Mac devices by a few routes:
- Bundled with pirated media on torrent sites.
- Bundled with free software.
- Drive-by downloading using browser exploits.
The easiest way to prevent your device from getting infected with malware is to simply download a trustworthy antivirus program. Premium internet security suites like Intego and McAfee can block malware from infecting your device, and they even include web filters to block access to unsafe sites. If you’re infected with Search Marquis, follow my guide above to get all traces of Search Marquis off of your Mac and browser in just a few minutes.
Why is my Mac using Search Marquis?
It’s probable that a hijacker has infiltrated your device if your Mac’s homepage has switched to Search Marquis or you’re receiving Search Marquis-related pop-ups. This usually happens after browsing dodgy websites or downloading files from sources that are untrustworthy.
Thankfully, removing Search Marquis is quite easy (you can follow our step-by-step guide on removing Search Marquis here). Our guide will take you through downloading an antivirus program like Intego and running a full system scan to remove any malware. You’ll also learn how to check for and remove any suspicious Safari and Chrome extensions, which may include the extension causing your browser to redirect to Search Marquis.
