SearchExtender sounds like it might be some kind of electronic Viagra for Internet Explorer.  But it’s not.  It is a search hijacker and Trojan horse that installs itself as a browser helper object in order to avoid detection.

If you have been to searchextender.com and set it as your home page, all of your searches will now be redirected through that websites.  SearchExtender will also attempt to download other applications of spyware, adware, and other undesirable programs.  Shopping Wizard and Home Search Assistant are two of the most common programs it installs onto infected host computers.

Although SearchExtender will create uninstall information for itself and these other two programs, uninstalls generally do not work.  If you try and get rid of these programs by way of the “Add/Remove Programs” option in Control Panel, you will instead have Internet Explorer direct itself to this URL: looking-for.cc/uninstall.

Very little is known about the trace files associated with SearchExtender, which makes manual removal very difficult.  Since the program downloads other programs, its presence may indicate a whole host of infections.  A free scan with SpyZooka will let you know what other malicious applications are hiding out on your computer.