Remove Ad.doubleclick.net Virus — How to Remove?

The website Ad.doubleclick.net may unexpectedly appear, redirecting you or opening your web browser when you don’t want it to. This site, in any form, is associated with adware activity.

Interacting with the Ad.doubleclick.net promotion can lead to the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. This article provides a guide on how to remove Ad.doubleclick.net popups using various methods and how to check your PC for any additional malware.

What is a Ad.doubleclick.net website?

The presence of the Ad.doubleclick.net website indicates the presence of adware. Adware is a form of malware that displays pay-per-view or pay-per-click advertisements, generating revenue for its creators. These ads may contain explicit content or lead to harmful websites, as adware creators prioritize financial gain over verifying the legitimacy of the content they promote.

Ad.doubleclick.net push notification

The ad.doubleclick.net page and pop-up notification

The Ad.doubleclick.net website simply hosts malicious advertisements. Engaging with these ads in any way poses risks and can lead to various unpleasant consequences. Besides potentially installing malware, it actively redirects you to another advertising page filled with endless banners and devoid of valuable content. Interacting with or even viewing such pages becomes highly unpleasant. The perpetrators behind these ads earn a small reward for each person who visits the page. While it may appear insignificant, the exposure of thousands of people to them transforms it into a lucrative venture.

Here is a summary for the Ad.doubleclick.net
Site Ad.doubleclick.net
Hosting AS15169 Google LLC
Germany, Frankfurt am Main
Infection Type Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address 142.250.185.134
Symptoms Constant redirections to the website, or its opening in a random situation.
Similar behavior Tamus, Testserverlp, Avics
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Ad.doubleclick.net virus?

There are a plenty of ways of becoming contaminated by the adware that result in seeing the Ad.doubleclick.net website. The majority of these malware cases target freeware or cracked programs distributed through peering networks. Users can also download freeware directly from the official website, which supplies the adware as a legally bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. Plenty of individuals regularly work with dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, different utilities that are free of cost, and even hacked programs. Every one of these types of programs is unsafe, due to the fact that it is extremely easy to include an Ad.doubleclick.net malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algorithm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Unwanted ads page

The typical view of a page like the ad.doubleclick.net

Potentially unwanted applications, like Ad.doubleclick.net virus may cause a lot of troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the single problem – the site may show you the promotions, where they offer you another dubious program to download, or “a amazing anti-malware tool”. Scareware often spreads by utilizing the mentioned tactic. PUPs, in turn, may have spyware functionality. And it is quite hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a good one, if you don’t know the exact names.

How can I get rid of Ad.doubleclick.net adware?

The manual of Ad.doubleclick.net adware removal contains 2 sections. First, we need to deal with the malware, and after that take care of the consequences of its action. The elimination procedure is very simple, since it can be performed even with making use of Microsoft Defender – security program that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, due to its significant resources consumption, along with some defects that can be critical for some types of individuals, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its usage is most likely impossible. What’s more, various trojan viruses have the ability to turn off the embedded antivirus. It is better to use the separated program that will not have such weakness.

    Gridinsoft Anti-Malware during the scan process
  • Standard scan checks the logical disk where the system files are stored, together with the files of programs you have already installed. The scan lasts up to 6 minutes.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware scaner find Ad.doubleclick.net
  • When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of Ad.doubleclick.net malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware - After Cleaning of Ad.doubleclick.net

Reset browser settings to default

Manual method of browser reset

To reset Edge, do the following steps :
  1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :
  2. Reseting the Edge browser
  3. After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu. Next, it will inform you about the settings that will restore to their original state:
For Mozilla Firefox, do the next actions :
  1. Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :
  2. The first step to revert Mozilla Firefox
  3. Than in the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :
  4. The second step of Firefox restoration
    After choosing this option, you will see the next message :
    The last step for Firefox
If you use Google Chrome
  1. Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button :
  2. Avoiding Ad.doubleclick.net
  3. In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :
  4. Finally, you will see the window where you can see all the settings which need to reset to default:
To reset Opera, you can follow these steps:
  1. Open Settings menu by pressing the gear icon in the toolbar (left side of the browser window), then click “Advanced” option, and choose “Browser” button in the drop-down list. Scroll down, to the bottom of the settings menu. Find there “Restore settings to their original defaults” option :

  2. After clicking the “Restore settings…” button, you will see the window, where all settings, which need to reset, are shown :
  3. Restore settings to avoid Ad.doubleclick.net

When you reset the web browsers, you need to ensure that your browser will be connected the appropriate DNS while connecting to the web page you want. Make a text file named “hosts” on your desktop, then open it and fill it with the following text2:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry must be on a separate line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) you can insert on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handle within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Find the hosts.txt file in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc directory. Rename this file to “hosts.old.txt” (to distinguish it from the new one), and then move the file you created on the desktop to this folder. Remove the hosts.old from this folder. Now you have your hosts file as good as new.

Nevertheless, one problem makes things a lot harder to fix, particularly without the anti-malware software. Moreover, numerous adware versions are employed to display the Ad.doubleclick.net page modifying the deep browser setups and restricting access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to fix your browser settings after adware infiltrates your computer, your browser will collapse quickly. Sometimes, you will see no crash—however, significant lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. The browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and afterward, it will return to normal until you try to open settings again.

References

  1. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.

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About the author

Wilbur Woodham

Technical writer covering malware detections, unwanted programs, and browser-based threats. Wilbur turns research notes into step-by-step guides that Windows users can follow safely.

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