How to Remove Adware Manually

If your computer is suddenly flooded with pop-ups or your browser repeatedly redirects you to other websites, your computer may be infected with adware. Windows and Mac computers are both vulnerable to malware that hijacks browsers and invades screens with ads. If your computer is compromised without software protection, you may lose all system data. Fortunately, as many malicious coders as there are, there are also many Internet security experts, who offer many ways to remove adware if you “caught” a strange phenomenon.

Table of Contents

Remove adware on Windows

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Boot the machine in Safe Mode with Networking Support. After removing all removable media devices (such as CDs and USBs) from your computer, reboot your computer into Safe Mode.

On Windows 8 and 10:
- Press ⊞ Win + X , select “Shut down or Sign Out” and select “Restart”.
- When the computer boots to the login screen, hold down the ⇧ Shift key and click the power icon. The computer will restart again.
- When the machine reboots, click “Troubleshoot,” select “Advanced Options,” click “Startup Settings,” then “Restart.”
- When the boot options screen appears, press the key shown next to “Safe Mode with Networking” (it could be F5 or 5 , depending on your computer).
On Windows 7 and earlier: Click the Start menu, then click the arrow next to “Shut Down.” Select Restart. After the computer turns off and on again, you start pressing F8 repeatedly to run the boot menu. Use the arrow keys to navigate to “Safe Mode With Networking” and then press ↵ Enter .

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Start your browser and check for fake extensions. ^{[1] X Research Sources} Adware often comes in the form of extensions.

On Chrome: Click the Chrome menu (three horizontal lines in the upper-right corner of the browser) and select “Settings”. Click “Extensions,” then look for an extension you don’t recognize. If something goes wrong, click the trash can icon next to the extension.
On Internet Explorer: Click “Tops”, select “Manage add-ons”. Click on “All add-ons” to see the list of installed add-ons. Select the extension that you find strange and click “Disable”. Once done, click “Close”.
On Firefox: Test the extension by clicking the Open menu (three horizontal lines) in the upper-right corner of the screen and choosing “Add-ons.” Now, click on “Extensions” and find the extension that you find strange. Click on the extension to be disabled and select “Disable.”

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Check your browser’s start page, search engine, and other default settings. Sometimes adware will hijack the browser’s default website and search engine.

On Chrome: Click “Settings” in the Chrome menu, then choose “Set Pages” or “Settings page” (just below “On Startup”). If you see anything that’s not a blank page or a specific page that you’ve configured to show on browser startup, immediately select that page and press the X to delete it.
- You need to make sure that Chrome’s buttons are not obfuscated. On the Settings menu, find the Appearance section. Select “Show Home Button”. Then, click “Change” and select “Use the New Tab Page”. Click “Ok” to save the changes.
- Check your search engine settings in the Settings menu by clicking “Manage Search Engines” under the “Search” heading. Select the search engine you use and click “Make default”. Make sure the URL on the right side of the screen matches the search engine name! If you see the title Yahoo.com on the left, but the URL on the right side of the page is a different link than search.yahoo.com, use the X on the screen to remove that search engine.
On Internet Explorer: Click “Tops,” click “Manage Add-ons.” Select “Search Providers” from the list, then select the search engine you know and use (Google, Bing, etc.). If there is a search engine that you do not recognize, click and select “Remove”.
- Return to the Tops menu, select “Internet Options,” then look at the “Home Page” section. The URL in this frame should be the browser’s default homepage. If not, delete it and select “Use new tab”.
- Find the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop (or anywhere you would normally double-click the icon to launch the browser). Right click on the icon and select “Properties”. Navigate to the “Shortcut” tab and look at the label of the “Target” field. If you see any text after iexplore.exe , delete it (but leave the iexplore.exe part alone). Click “OK.”
On Firefox: In the Open menu, select “Options”, then “Restore to Default”. Click OK to continue.
- To check your search engine’s settings, click the Open menu and select “Options.” On the left sidebar, click “Search” and set the default search engine to something popular like Google or Bing. If under “One-click search engines” shows any strange search engines, click it and click “Remove.”

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See which programs are set to start automatically. Press ⊞ Win + S to run the search field. Type msconfig in the data field to open the System Configuration panel. When the option appears in the list of results, click on the file. If the system asks for confirmation, click “Yes” or “OK.”

Click the Startup tab to see a list of programs that are set to start with the computer (Windows 8 and 10 users can be redirected back to Task Manager, but the rest of the process is similar).
Browse the list and see if there’s anything unusual that looks like adware. A good practice is to use some non-infected computer and search online for the name of the software you are suspicious of (some may look legitimate but are not, and vice versa). The name of the publishing company will be next to the name of the software. A list of companies can help you figure out which startups are legitimate. To disable strange software, uncheck the box in front of it (on Windows 8 or 10, click the program, then select “Disable”).

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Save the settings and restart the computer. If you’re using Windows 7 or earlier, click “Apply,” then click “OK.” If you are using Windows 8 or later, just click the X to close the Task Manager window.

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Check which programs can be uninstalled. ^{[2] X Research Source} If your computer is still infested with pop-ups and ads upon reboot, you need to see if there is any software that can be removed with a separate uninstallation process. Open the search bar, type Programs , and click “Programs and Features” when it appears.

In the list of installed software, look for a program you don’t recognize. You can sort the list in order of installation date by clicking the date at the top of the list.
To uninstall a piece of software, click on the program and then select “Uninstall”. Restart the computer after the software is removed.

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Download MalwareFox Anti-Malware. ^{[3] X Research Source} If you cannot find and remove the adware after performing the above manual steps, this is the most powerful way. MalwareFox is a proven solution, which you can download by going to the website and clicking “Free Download”. Select “Download Free Version” to start downloading the free version and choose a save location on your computer when prompted.

If you cannot load any programs, use another computer to download MalwareFox Anti-Malware and save the program to a USB or CD/DVD. Then connect the disk/flash drive to the infected computer. Once the flash disk/drive has been inserted into the computer, press ⊞ Win + E to launch File Explorer and double-click the drive/USB on the left side of the screen.

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Start anti-malware software and scan your computer. Double-click the downloaded file to launch the software and then click the “Scan” button. When the scan finds adware, the interface will change to red and you can choose to remove it by clicking “Next”. If you can’t rule out the adware (which is rare but can happen), write the name of the adware program on a piece of paper and continue.

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See removal instructions from Symantec. In Safe Mode or on another computer, access Symantec’s alphabetical list of Malware. ^{[4] X Research Resources} This is a regularly updated page that contains links to instructions for removing nearly every type of adware in existence. Select the first letter of the name of the adware you are infected with and scroll down to find it. Then, click on the adware name that you want to remove.

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Click “Removal” for instructions. The first set of instructions for users of Symantec security software. If you are not using their software then scroll down to the second step and follow the exclusion instructions. Adware is not the same, there are some adware programs that are more difficult to eliminate. After you complete the instructions on the page corresponding to the adware to be excluded, restart the computer.

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Run the System Restore process. If you’ve reached this step and still haven’t removed the adware, running the System Restore process should get your computer working properly again.

Remove adware on Mac

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Block browser pop-ups. This essential step will help keep the rest of the method in check.

On Safari: In the “Safari” menu, select “Preferences”. Click “Security” and select “Block pop-up windows”. Uncheck “Allow WebGL” and “Allow Plugins” (Allow Plugins).
On Chrome: In the Chrome menu (three horizontal lines), click “Settings”, scroll to the bottom and click “Show advanced settings”. Select “Privacy” > “Content Settings” > “Do not allow any site to show pop-ups”.

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Check for extensions and rogue search engines in your browser’s settings. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

On Safari: In the Safari menu, choose “Preferences” > “Extensions.” If there is anything that you find strange, click “Uninstall.” Next, click on the “General” tab and check to make sure you recognize the default search engine. If not, set it to your preferred search engine. Safari has a number of default programs pre-installed in the software. However, Google is always the safest option.
On Chrome: In the Chrome menu, choose “Settings” > “Extensions.” Click the trash can icon next to the extension you suspect. Next, click on “Settings” in the left menu, scroll down to “Advanced Settings” and click the link.
- Scroll down to the “On Startup” section and check that the “Open the New Tab page” option is selected.
- Scroll down to the “Search” section and click “Manage Search Engines.” You need to make sure that any search engines in the top pane are familiar. Pay special attention to the URL on the right, as adware often pretends to be Google but will actually redirect you to another website. You can remove suspicious search engines by clicking the X next to the web page.

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Download the Apple Support article HT203987 as a PDF file. ^{[6] X Research Source} Since the next step requires closing your browser, you need to save the website to your computer. Go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987. After the web page is loaded, click “File” > “Print” > “Save as PDF”. Choose your Desktop as your save location so you can find it quickly.

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Use the “Go to Fpder” method to locate the adware. You’ll be using this a lot, so get used to it from now on.

Open the PDF file you just created and scroll down to the list of files that start with /System/Library/Frameworks/v.framework . Highlight the first line of the file list (as in the example) and click “Edit” > “Copy”.
Open Finder and click “View” > “As Cpumns”. Click “Go” and select “Go to Fpder”.
Click “Edit,” select “Paste” to paste the file you highlighted earlier into the frame. Press ⏎ Return to find the file. If the file is found, drag the file to the Trash. If not, copy the next line in the list of the PDF file and do the same.
Repeat the “Go to method” with each file in the list. Once done, empty the trash by clicking “Finder” and selecting “Empty Trash.” Restart the computer.

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Check to see if any adware you know is running. If the computer reopens and the adware program is still present, open Finder > “Applications” > “Utilities”. Click on “Activity Monitor”. On the CPU tab, click “Process Name” to sort the list alphabetically and find a process named “InstallMac” or “Genieo.”

If you see either of the above programs running in Activity Monitor, repeat the “Go to Fpder” procedure with the following line of text: /private/etc/launchd.conf . Once done, restart the computer again.
Return to the Apple PDF file, scroll down to the “Remove Genieo, InstallMac” section and repeat the process with each file listed under “Restart your Mac”. After working with each file and dropping all the necessary files in the trash, you restart the computer.
After the computer restarts, use the “Go to Fpder” method again with the file /Library/Frameworks/GenieoExtra.framework . Next, empty the recycle bin (in Finder).

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Restart the computer. Your computer is now adware-free. If your computer is still infected with adware after reopening, you need to install an adware removal tool.

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Download and install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac. ^{[7] X Research Source} Malwarebytes is the gold standard for at-home adware removal. Click “Download” and choose a location to save the file. Once the download is complete, double-click the file to run it.

If you are unable to load Anti-Malware for Mac due to adware, use another computer to download the installer and save it to a flash drive or CD/DVD.
The first time you run Anti-Malware for Mac, you’ll be asked if you want to open the program. Please click “Open.” If you see another message about privacy preferences, click Apple menu > “System Preferences” > “Security and Privacy”. On the General tab, click “Open Anyway”. The software will then launch.
The first time you run Anti-Malware, you will be asked to enter the username and password of the administrator account. After you finish typing, click “Install Helper”.

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Click “Scan.” Once the scan is complete, the found adware will show up in the list. Click on the name of the adware and select “Remove selected items” to remove it. Restart the computer. So the adware has been removed.

Advice

Never download software from a website you don’t trust.
Regularly update your anti-virus/malware program.
Protect your computer against all forms of malicious code by using anti-virus software.
Save Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on a USB stick or CD/DVD for emergency use.

Warning

If the above methods do not work, you should bring your computer to a service and repair center.
Adware is usually “detected” when computer users see pop-up messages like “Warning! Your computer is infected!” (Warning! Your computer has been infected). No reputable anti-malware program sends you warnings through your web browser. The warning will actually show up in a separate window with the name of the anti-malware program at the top, or in a notification window that pops up on the Windows taskbar.

Steps

Remove adware on Windows

Remove adware on Mac

Advice

Warning

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