How To Remove PotPlayer Adware

Complete Guideline To Delete PotPlayer

PotPlayer is presented as a multimedia player that can be used for Windows Vista, XP, 7 and 8 operating systems. However, in reality it’s an intrusive adware which upon getting into your device, conducts a series of malicious activities in the background and wreaks havoc onto the machine. It floods your desktop screen with endless annoying ads and pop-ups throughout the day and makes it very difficult for you to browse the net proficiently like before. This potentially unwanted application displays eye-catching offers, banners, deals, discounts, promo codes etc. and tries to make you click on them in order to earn revenues via pay-per-click scheme.

Depth Analysis of PotPlayer:

PotPlayer also has data tracking abilities and uses it for monitoring people’s Online actions. It gathers vital information regarding their interests, needs and other preferences by the help of which, advertisers generate and display attractive advertisements. Ads delivered by this PUP include sponsored links and once you click on them, you are redirected to sites where tons of products and services are promoted. However, it’s not necessary that all these sites are harmless and safe to visit. You might be also rerouted to domains that are fully occupied with vicious objects and end up with getting other harmful threats in the work-station. And hence, avoid interacting with these adverts no matter how eye-catching or useful they look.

PotPlayer can also steal your personal data relating to banking and other financial details and expose them to cyber actors for bad intentions. Using your sensitive data, hackers can generate illicit profits and cause you to suffer a big financial loss. It eats up huge amount of memory resources and slows down the overall computer performance drastically. Due to this, machine begins responding slower than ever before and takes more than usual time to complete any task. This nasty adware displays fake update notifications stating that your Adobe Flash Player needs to be updated quickly and then tries to deceive you into installing rogue software. And therefore, you must get rid of PotPlayer from the computer without wasting any time.

Distribution Techniques of PotPlayer:

Such types of potentially undesired apps should not be downloaded intentionally. Even if they don’t pose harm to your vital files and similar data like ransomware do, they can conduct malicious activities and bring multiple pernicious issues in the work-station. Here are the most popular tactics used for the delivery of adware or PUPs:

• Software bundles- This method takes a very vital role in the distribution of adware, hijacker and other potentially undesired programs. To protect your device from PotPlayer or other similar threats, you have to opt for Custom or Advanced installation method each time you install a third-party program on your device.
• Official sites- You can easily install such adware with its official websites. As we have already mentioned, most of such apps are not so destructive, so they are promoted with the help of their sites.
• Misleading pop-up ads- Each of pop-up ads that appear on your system screen should be treated with intense attentiveness, especially the ones that offer to fix a PC for free. If you don’t want to bring such adware infections unintentionally on your computer, you should stay away from adverts claiming that you can scan your machine with a free system scammer or that you should install an update on your device. Typically, such ads are used for distributing questionable programs.

Other Malevolent Acts of PotPlayer:

PotPlayer makes spiteful entries in boot section and changes its default settings in order to get automatically activated with each Window reboot. It messes with important system files which assure efficient computer functioning and prevents many installed apps as well as drivers from working normally. This nasty adware  can be also responsible for the intrusion of many other hazardous threats such as Trojans, rootkits, worms, spyware and even deadly ransomware in your PC as well since it is able to deactivate all the running security measures and open backdoors for more them. And hence, looking at all these hazards, you are strongly recommended to delete PotPlayer from the work-station immediately.

Quick Glance

Name: PotPlayer

Type: Adware, Potentially unwanted program

Functionality: Aims to redirect users to affiliated websites, promote sponsored products, services and programs and make Online revenues for the developers, Also steal users’ personal and confidential information and share them with hackers for evil purposes.

Symptoms: Endless annoying ads and pop-ups, identity theft, new tab settings. 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: Internet browsing tracking (potential privacy issues), displaying of unwanted ads, redirects to shady websites.

Removal: To get rid of this infection and other malware threats, our security researchers recommend scanning your computer with a powerful anti-malware tool.

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 PotPlayer:

Remove the related items of PotPlayer 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 PotPlayer 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 (PotPlayer) 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 PotPlayer 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 PotPlayer 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 PotPlayer 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 PotPlayer 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 PotPlayer (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.