How To Remove WinPcap Adware From PC

WinPcap: Step-by-step Delete Process

WinPcap is a legitimate app that can be utilized for assisting the network interface card to function in hybrid mode. Although, it’s a genuine application, the online community has been warned by cyber security experts that this app belongs to the adware and potentially unwanted program (PUP) categories. It is considered as a PUP because of the distribution methods its creators employ to spread it. A number of users have reported that this tool has got installed on their computers without seeking for their approval. After its successful penetration, victims may experience multiple intrusive activities, such as annoying pop-up ads, redirects, slowdowns, etc.

WinPcap Executes Several Changes:

The WinPcap adware has been involved in multiple discussions and its name has been mentioned in several security forums. It is called a virus by many people because of various reasons. As stated before, this PUP is very much related to several freeware and can get into devices without being acknowledged. It performs the system’s modifications and creates persistence. This adware inserts suspicious components to Chrome and Firefox and also generates intrusive advertisements. You are flooded with thousands of annoying pop-ups, pop-unders, banners, coupons, deals, offers, etc. which interrupt your web sessions badly.

Remember that the WinPcap ads are not managed by its creators, but generated and managed by commercial content creators who may seek to increase traffic to dubious websites. Moreover, it injects tracking cookies on the compromised browsers and constantly monitors victims’ online activities. It gathers personally non-identifiable information e.g., email address, browsing history, IP address, search queries, etc. These details are later on sold to advertisers and are very useful for the creation of personalized advertisements. This is the reason why most of the ads delivered by this adware are attractive and can easily gain anyone’s attraction.

In some cases, PUPs like WinPcap adware can also steal personal data like credit card or logins, and banking details and expose it to cyber criminals for bad intentions. Using your sensitive info, scammers can make unauthorized purchases, fraudulent transactions and cause you to suffer a huge financial loss. This perilous adware keeps contributing evil deeds in the background all the time which consume enormous amount of memory resources and slow down the overall PC performance drastically. And therefore, an instant WinPcap removal is strongly required.

Software Bundling Causes WinPcap Intrusion:

This deceptive program can be downloaded from its official site. Nonetheless, most often it is spread bundled with other free applications. At most of the times, it is distributed together with WireShark and similar tools. This generally occurs when users download the freeware from free file-hosting site and then install it using the Quick or Recommended mode set. These options don’t reveal the components added to the software package and hence, they easily manage to find their place into the PC along with the carrier application.

To avoid potentially unwanted threats intrusions, you should always select the Advanced or Custom installation. Also, read the End User License Agreement and other terms cautiously. Moreover, don’t neglect extra offers that are marked by default. You have to de-select all ticks which say- you agree to install add-ons, extensions, or toolbars before clicking “Next.” Lastly, if you are dealing with frequent browser redirects, scan your device with updated anti-malware tool. In case your device is already contaminated with this adware, you must remove WinPcap from the machine as early 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 WinPcap:

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