How To Remove ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP Ads

ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP is found to be a new discovery by security practitioners who intend to trick users into purchasing an antivirus license or renew its subscriptions. Basically, it runs a fake scanner and show scanning results that shows the system is infected by some terrible infection. And in order to eradicate those, it recommends to buy the security apps. Although, the promoted application through such channels are legitimate ones, still you should not require those as shown alerts are false. let’s learn more about ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP through this article.

Threat Summary

Name: ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP
Type: Browser hijacker, adware, pop up virus
Symptoms: Altered values for homepage, new tab, search engine, proxy, and even more
Distribution: Malicious links or ads, suspicious websites, freeware or shareware installer packages, and many more.
Removal: In case you identify your system is infected by ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP, then you should run a thorough scan using a powerful security scanner and delete all identified malicious traits completely.

Descriptive Information About ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP

According to what the researchers have to say, the term ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP is called to be a newly discovered malicious website and is similar to LuckyPuppy.xyz, that uses fake antivirus scans to trick users into buying a security app license or renew its subscriptions. This kind of websites are mainly loaded with some deceptive measures or techniques that scare users by showing fake security risks on their device, and convince them to take some actions against those. However, all such made proclaims are false and meant only to deceive users along with their values that helps the criminals to earn illicit profit.

When the sites like ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP loads on browser, it displays fake alerts on screen stating their their system got infected by some malware or viruses and their installed antivirus (McAfee, Avira, Norton) is expired and unable to remove those detection. Further, the site recommend users to renew or buy the antivirus subscription as soon as possible to remove all identified traits. As mentioned, these claims are completely wrong, even none of the online portals can scan a computer. So, it just meant to help criminals earning commissions by generating sales.

This kind of websites are often launched on browsers without user’s intention and such acts mostly caused by an adware or browser hijacker if installed on computer somehow. This kind of stuffs if installed, takes over all active browser variants to replace its default set values for homepage, new tab, search engine, proxy, DNS, and so on. These modifications force open unsafe pages on browsers without any prior intention, which later tricks the victims to do something wrong. Well, in case if you are facing off such hurdles too, you should clean responsible adware out of your machine soon.

Recommended Preventive Measures

Since the malware traits like adware or browser hijacker are mostly responsible to open pages like ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP on browsers, the users should be extremely cautious against those. The criminals use various deceptive marketing measures to promote malicious traits over web and distribute them in disguised form of freeware or shareware applications, malicious links or ads, spam email attachments, and more similar options too. This means, if you are surfing through the web, you should ignore these options as much as possible. While installing some helpful freebies, make sure to choose Advanced/Custom installation mode to identify and de-select unwanted items against being secretly installed. For removal of ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP from a compromised system, check the guidelines section below.

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 ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP:

Remove the related items of ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP 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 ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP 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 (ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP) 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 ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP 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 ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP 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 ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP 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 ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP 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 ProtectUtilitiesGrid.VIP (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.