How To Remove Freemium ads From PC

Complete Guideline To Delete Freemium ads

Freemium ads usually appear on your desktop screen when your computer is infected with Freemium adware. It’s a potentially unwanted application (PUA) that has been specially created by cyber criminals for generating advertising revenues from rookie users. Once this precarious threat successfully infiltrates your work-station, it hijacks your web browser by modifying search engine, start page and new tab page without seeking for any permission. If you have been forced to surf through this alerted search tool, beware that you will have to receive manipulated search results and see intrusive pop-up ads during your searches. That’s the way its developers gather advertising income.

Know More About Freemium ads:

Freemium ads are in several formats such as coupons, banners, deals, offers, discounts, pop-ups etc. They are based on pay-per-click scheme and earn revenues for the creators when clicked. These advertisements often contain sponsored links and redirect people to affiliate domains that are trying to increase their popularity and gain more visits. You should keep in mind that these ads may also redirect you to highly dangerous web pages that are filled with malicious contents and cause more troubles to your work-station. And thus, avoid interacting with them no matter how attractive or useful they seem at the first glance.

Freemium ads are indeed very eye-catching since most of them are based on users’ browsing habits. This notorious adware tracks their web activities and collects information such as mostly visited sites, search terms, data that is entered while accessing favorite pages, geolocation, IP addresses etc. The gathered information is utilized for generating personalized advertisements in order to make users more eager to click on them. And hence, when you start your browsing on the web, you are flooded with related Freemium ads every time which interrupt your online sessions badly.

Freemium can also steal your personal data relating to credit card and bank details and expose them to cyber crooks for bad intentions. Hackers can misuse your sensitive information for fraudulent transactions or purchases that may result in huge financial loss. It keeps performing evil deeds in the background all the time which consume enormous amount of memory resources and drags down the overall PC performance severely. It causes the machine to respond in a very slow manner and take more than usual time to complete any task. And hence, a quick Freemium ads virus removal is highly recommended.

Summarize Information

Name: Freemium ads

Type: Adware, Potentially unwanted program

Short Description: Shows intrusive pop-ups ads, makes changes to default browser’s settings, Redirects users to affiliated domains, promotes sponsored products and make online revenues for the creators.

Symptoms: Tons of intrusive adverts, home page, search engine, new tab settings, identity theft. Users are enforced to visit hijacker’s website and search the Internet using their search engines, slowness of infected system’s performance.

Distribution methods: Free software installers (bundling), Deceptive emails, malicious pop-ups ads, fake flash player installers.

Damage: Web browsing tracking (potential privacy issues), exhibition of unwanted ads, redirects to shady websites.

Removal: To get rid of this infection and other malware threats, our security researchers recommend scanning your device with an effective anti-malware tool is recommended.

How Does This Adware Enter Your System?

Just like other adware infections, this particular one can also be downloaded from the internet since it is promoted as a useful tool. However, most often, such unwanted apps try enter the targeted devices via deceptive techniques with the help of freeware and shareware. The free programs are typically used for spreading PUPs in exchange for money. This generally occurs when people choose unreliable third-party sites to download software and then select ‘Quick’ or ‘Recommended’ mode sets to install the program. Moreover, you can also acquire adware if you click on suspicious ads or hyperlinks that you often see while web surfing.

Tips To Prevent Adware Infiltration:

The easiest way to avoid the penetration of these unwanted programs is to be very careful while downloading/installing freeware apps. When you download a PDF creator, download manager, video streaming software or similar apps, you must analyze its installation. For this, you have to opt for the Advanced or Custom installation options where you can deselect the checkmark which allow you to install PUP. Moreover, you should rely only on official sites, trustworthy channels, direct links etc. to download programs and stay away from unreliable sources, peer-to-peer sharing networks, third-party downloaders etc. But at the moment, you must remove Freemium ads virus from the machine as soon as possible.

Antimalware Details And User Guide

Click Here For Windows Click Here For Mac

Important Note: This malware asks you to enable the web browser notifications. So, before you go the manual removal process, execute these steps.

Google Chrome (PC)

• Go to right upper corner of the screen and click on three dots to open the Menu button
• Select “Settings”. Scroll the mouse downward to choose “Advanced” option
• Go to “Privacy and Security” section by scrolling downward and then select “Content settings” and then “Notification” option
• Find each suspicious URLs and click on three dots on the right side and choose “Block” or “Remove” option

Google Chrome (Android)

• Go to right upper corner of the screen and click on three dots to open the menu button and then click on “Settings”
• Scroll down further to click on “site settings” and then press on “notifications” option
• In the newly opened window, choose each suspicious URLs one by one
• In the permission section, select “notification” and “Off” the toggle button

Mozilla Firefox

• On the right corner of the screen, you will notice three dots which is the “Menu” button
• Select “Options” and choose “Privacy and Security” in the toolbar present in the left side of the screen
• Slowly scroll down and go to “Permission” section then choose “Settings” option next to “Notifications”
• In the newly opened window, select all the suspicious URLs. Click on the drop-down menu and select “Block”

Internet Explorer

• In the Internet Explorer window, select the Gear button present on the right corner
• Choose “Internet Options”
• Select “Privacy” tab and then “Settings” under the “Pop-up Blocker” section
• Select all the suspicious URLs one by one and click on the “Remove” option

Microsoft Edge

• Open the Microsoft Edge and click on the three dots on the right corner of the screen to open the menu
• Scroll down and select “Settings”
• Scroll down further to choose “view advanced settings”
• In the “Website Permission” option, click on “Manage” option
• Click on switch under every suspicious URL

Safari (Mac):

• On the upper right side corner, click on “Safari” and then select “Preferences”
• Go to “website” tab and then choose “Notification” section on the left pane
• Search for the suspicious URLs and choose “Deny” option for each one of them

Manual Steps to Remove Freemium ads:

Remove the related items of Freemium ads using Control-Panel

Windows 7 Users

Click “Start” (the windows logo at the bottom left corner of the desktop screen), select “Control Panel”. Locate the “Programs” and then followed by clicking on “Uninstall Program”

Windows XP Users

Click “Start” and then choose “Settings” and then click “Control Panel”. Search and click on “Add or Remove Program’ option

Windows 10 and 8 Users:

Go to the lower left corner of the screen and right-click. In the “Quick Access” menu, choose “Control Panel”. In the newly opened window, choose “Program and Features”

Mac OSX Users

Click on “Finder” option. Choose “Application” in the newly opened screen. In the “Application” folder, drag the app to “Trash”. Right click on the Trash icon and then click on “Empty Trash”.

In the uninstall programs window, search for the PUAs. Choose all the unwanted and suspicious entries and click on “Uninstall” or “Remove”.

After you uninstall all the potentially unwanted program causing Freemium ads issues, scan your computer with an anti-malware tool for any remaining PUPs and PUAs or possible malware infection. To scan the PC, use the recommended the anti-malware tool.

How to Remove Adware (Freemium ads) from Internet Browsers

Delete malicious add-ons and extensions from IE

Click on the gear icon at the top right corner of Internet Explorer. Select “Manage Add-ons”. Search for any recently installed plug-ins or add-ons and click on “Remove”.

Additional Option

If you still face issues related to Freemium ads removal, you can reset the Internet Explorer to its default setting.

Windows XP users: Press on “Start” and click “Run”. In the newly opened window, type “inetcpl.cpl” and click on the “Advanced” tab and then press on “Reset”.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 Users: Press the Windows logo, type inetcpl.cpl in the start search box and press enter.  In the newly opened window, click on the “Advanced Tab” followed by “Reset” button.

For Windows 8 Users: Open IE and click on the “gear” icon. Choose “Internet Options”

Select the “Advanced” tab in the newly opened window

Press on “Reset” option

You have to press on the “Reset” button again to confirm that you really want to reset the IE

Remove Doubtful and Harmful Extension from Google Chrome

Go to menu of Google Chrome by pressing on three vertical dots and select on “More tools” and then “Extensions”. You can search for all the recently installed add-ons and remove all of them.

Optional Method

If the problems related to Freemium ads still persists or you face any issue in removing, then it is advised that your reset the Google Chrome browse settings. Go to three dotted points at the top right corner and choose “Settings”. Scroll down bottom and click on “Advanced”.

At the bottom, notice the “Reset” option and click on it.

In the next opened window, confirm that you want to reset the Google Chrome settings by click on the “Reset” button.

Remove Freemium ads plugins (including all other doubtful plug-ins) from Firefox Mozilla

Open the Firefox menu and select “Add-ons”. Click “Extensions”.  Select all the recently installed browser plug-ins.

Optional Method

If you face problems in Freemium ads removal then you have the option to rese the settings of Mozilla Firefox.

Open the browser (Mozilla Firefox) and click on the “menu” and then click on “Help”.

Choose “Troubleshooting Information”

In the newly opened pop-up window, click “Refresh Firefox” button

The next step is to confirm that really want to reset the Mozilla Firefox settings to its default by clicking on “Refresh Firefox” button.

Remove Malicious Extension from Safari

Open the Safari and go to its “Menu” and select “Preferences”.

Click on the “Extension” and select all the recently installed “Extensions” and then click on “Uninstall”.

Optional Method

Open the “Safari” and go menu. In the drop-down menu, choose “Clear History and Website Data”.

In the newly opened window, select “All History” and then press on “Clear History” option.

Delete Freemium ads (malicious add-ons) from Microsoft Edge

Open Microsoft Edge and go to three horizontal dot icons at the top right corner of the browser. Select all the recently installed extensions and right click on the mouse to “uninstall”

Optional Method

Open the browser (Microsoft Edge) and select “Settings”

Next steps is to click on “Choose what to clear” button

Click on “show more” and then select everything and then press on “Clear” button.

Conclusion

In most cases, the PUPs and adware gets inside the marked PC through unsafe freeware downloads. It is advised that you should only choose developers website only while downloading any kind of free applications.  Choose custom or advanced installation process so that you can trace the additional PUPs listed for installation along with the main program.