Pop-Up Ads – How To Remove Pop-Up Virus, Adware & Browser Redirects

What are this security popups all about?

These security popups are nothing but a scam done by visiting an infected website or through a widespread malicious program called Adware. This would make you believe that all your credentials are at risk and if an action is not taken immediately, all your details will be taken away from the computer. Technically, these adware’s use complicated coding to by-pass the usual firewall of the computer they are designed to insert such fake pop-ups on the victim's computer which helps the hackers to make some money by fooling people. Adware is not a virus, but on the other hand, it is a widespread malicious program that generates many such pop-ups and the most shocking fact about an adware program is that it would weaken the firewall of your computer internally and would make way for other malicious programs.

An Adware is particularly designed to make money. Once an Adware program has infected a computer, it would inject small codes to the pages which you visit very often like your banking account or any social media. This code will create numerous advertisement banners that will show you fake security warnings, i.e., Microsoft Corporation Has Blocked Your PC, Windows not protected, Expiry alert, Windows virus warning, etc.

When your computer is infected with adware, all your web browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and MS Edge may redirect you to fake security warnings or sponsored advertisement banners. Although an adware might not damage any files or Windows system, it will certainly annoy you with the regular notification or ad banner. Even though Adware would not harm any file but always remember it is a malicious program and the longer a malicious program stays on a computer, the more are the chances of getting infected with other malware's which include spyware, ransomware, and other malicious programs.

Also Read: MBR-ONI – Bootkit Ransomware Used To Attack Japanese Organizations

How does an Adware spread?

1. Initially, adware installs into a computer via browser hijackers.
2. When computers are impacted by a browser hijacker it will make way for other malwares and one of the widespread malware these days is Adware.
3. Malware authors have developed such tools which can diagnose IP address and distinguish computers based on their security levels and infect them accordingly. In this case, the computers running on the legacy products or outdated security end up being the favorite targets of hackers.
4. It can contaminate the PC through restricted websites or infected websites. In this case having a good security will help the user to block such websites.
5. Adware can get into a computer through portable devices like USB stick, portable hard drives or through any other transferable media.
6. Hackers can also infect a computer using freeware programs, and this has become the easiest and quickest way of infecting a computer without user’s consent.

Common symptoms of adware include:

1. The web browser would show signs of instability and frequent crashes.
2. The default configuration of the web browser is modified, i.e., the default home page and the default search engine is changed.
3. A victim might see new extensions and add-on toolbar in the top panel of your web browser.
4. Whenever victim tries to open anything, he is being redirected to some random website which may either display advertisement banners or would give fake security warnings.
5. Poor program execution, moderate reaction time as the ads would fly out of the blue.
6. Even if the web browsers are not active, the infected computer will display ads which would result in system crashes from time to time or PC would boot up for unknown reasons.
7. Security program and the inbuilt firewall is crippled.
8. New icons are added to desktop pretending to be some kind of security.

Also Read: What is Kovter – How To Remove Trojan Kovter Malware

Steps to be followed to disable the popup temporarily:

Now, we will disable the popup temporarily so that we can use our computer to fix the issue permanently.

1. Hold down Ctrl+Alt+Del keys simultaneously on the keyboard, and this would bring up few options.
2. Select task manager.
3. Here, make sure you are in the applications tab.
4. Now, right click on the running browser (the browser which has the warning) and then in the drop-down you need to select end task.
5. Now, close the task manager.

Doing this would disable the popup temporarily, remember not to open the browser again before you complete all the removal steps.

Steps to be followed in all version of windows to uninstall such suspicious programs:

1. Press the windows key on the keyboard or windows button on the screen, then type “control panel” and press enter or run it using the mouse.
2. Now, press “uninstall a program” below the icon named programs
3. You will now see the list of programs running or installed on your computer, scroll through the list and look for programs which you do not recognize and get rid of them, while uninstalling them it could give you a warning saying, by doing this, changes would be made in the system files, ignore this warning as we need to get rid of this program.

 Restoring the browser’s shortcuts to get rid of any popup virus

Now, we have to go back to the home screen which is our desktop and right click on the web browser. Now you would see few option which is our properties window. Select the tab which says “Shortcut”, in there the very first editable space is “Target”. If you see something like “……exe http://site.address” then you need to erase the complete address that says “http….” And leave only the things mentioned below for the respective web browsers

1. Google chrome: chrome.exe
2. Opera: opera.exe
3. Firefox: firefox.exe
4. Internet Explorer: iexplore.exe

Once these steps are completed click on okay and do the same thing for all the browsers that redirect you to such annoying ads.

Also Read: .Cesar Ransomware Virus – How To Remove .Cesar File Extension

Reset Mozilla Firefox:

Till now we have changed the redirect website shortcut now we will reset every browser through its own settings.

1. Run Mozilla Firefox, have a look at the top right corner of the browser you will come across a button which has three horizontal strips. Once you click on it, you would see few options in the drop-down menu. Next, click the help button.
2. Now, in the help menu press the “troubleshooting information”. Hit the “Refresh Firefox” button.

Mozilla Firefox is all set to work with the default settings now. Close it and restart the computer once for the changes to take affect and then you can start using Firefox again.

Reset Google Chrome:

Now, if your primary browser is Google Chrome lets proceed towards resetting it, which would again do the same it would reset the default search engine and default home page getting rid of the browser hijacker.

1. Run Google Chrome, have a look at the top right corner in the browser you will come across a button which has three horizontal dots, which will give you a drop down, in that you have to hit “settings” or if you type “chrome://settings” in the address bar it would directly open the settings. You can follow any procedure whichever suits you the best.
2. Now, we are looking at the settings of google chrome, scroll down to the bottom of the page and hit “advanced settings”.
3. Now, you need to go down the page until you see “reset settings” section, soon after you click on reset chrome would go back to the real shape.

Reset Internet Explorer:

Like other browsers, we will also have to reset internet explorer though it is an inbuilt web browser doing so would get us back to the default settings, i.e., search engine, home page, new tab.

1. First, you have to open internet explorer, then look for gear like icon at the top right corner, once you click on that it will give you few options in which you need to select the option which says “internet options.”
2. In this window where it says “internet options,” go to the advanced tab, then click on “reset” button at the bottom right of this box and then when you see the next screen on that select the checkbox where it says “Delete personal settings” and then hit the reset button.

Also Read: Bad Rabbit Ransomware

 Install Ad Blocker to prevent the redirect to popup website

The importance of installing an ad blocker is that ads these days are designed not just to display ads at the same time they can also redirect the web browser to websites which could be infected with other malicious programs.

Enabling ad-blocker would not just block the redirect to such popup websites but at the same time, it would also prevent the redirect to such websites improve the browsing speed as it won’t allow any ads to be displayed in the browser.

1. Download Ad-Blocker or Ad-Blocker pro from the windows store.
2. Once you have completely downloaded the file. You just have to install and run it.
3. It would give you a prompt to enable it just click on yes or enable.
4. Now, ad blocker will activate on its own every time you run the browser and will block all the ads and save a lot of your time and internet data as you won’t be seeing any ads or any surveys from now on.

Steps to be followed to build a strong firewall:

1. Keep your Windows Updated: To avoid such infections, we recommend that you should always keep your system updated through automatic windows update. By doing this you can keep your device free from virus. According to the survey, outdated/older versions of Windows operating system are an easy target.T
2. Third-party installation: Try to avoid freeware download websites as they usually install bundled of software with any installer or stub file.
3. Regular Backup: Regular and periodical backup helps you to keep your data safe in case the system is infected by any kind of virus or any other infection. Thus always backup important files regularly on a cloud drive or an external hard drive.
4. Always have an Anti-Virus: Precaution is better than cure. We recommend that you install an antivirus like  McAfee or a good  Malware Removal Tool like Free Malware RemovalTool
5. Install a powerful ad- blocker for  Chrome, Mozilla, and IE.