Remove Browsers-protected Virus — How to Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Browsers-protected pop-up alerts may appear unexpectedly, covering the content of the website you explored or opening your web browser when you don’t desire it to be opened.

Clicking on the Browsers-protected ad may result in the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the guideline of Browsers-protected popups removal in a couple of manners, as well as examining your personal computer for extra malware presence.

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What are Browsers-protected pop-ups?

Browsers-protected popups are an effect of adware action. Adware is a kind of malware that demonstrates to you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which generates a major volume of earnings for adware distributors. These promotions might have explicit composition, or have a web link to malevolent content/website, because adware maintainers have no purpose to check the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their solitary target is money.

Browsers-protected push notification

Browsers-protected push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is a very good, low-priced and also extremely successful advertising instrument1. It permits the seller to attach the buyers’ attention to their site, and the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they wish to buy. When the customer will receive a pop-up alert that the TV set he wishes to buy is provided at the online store he/she visited previously with a 15% price cut, one will certainly use this opportunity and get it. Considering the extremely low price for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising instrument is a favourite thing amongst the marketing departments of huge internet retailers.

However, such a rewarding plan could not be missed by malware creators. Potential to show the popup ads forcibly to the targets of malware invasion is a perfect basis for malicious adjustments with the popup ads. And Browsers-protected.com advertisements is just one of hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a short info for the Browsers-protected
Site Browsers-protected.com
Hosting AS59253 Leaseweb Asia Pacific pte. ltd.
Singapore, Singapore
Infection Type Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address 23.106.248.15
Symptoms Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior Windforge, Xdclick, Tationseleauks
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Browsers-protected virus?

There are a plenty of methods of becoming contaminated by the adware that result in the Browsers-protected popups tornado. A lion’s part of this computer virus instances is after the free software or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Freeware can also be downloaded from the main site, and the adware is delivered as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of individuals regularly make use of the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, various tools that are free, or perhaps hacked programs. All of these sorts of programs are unsafe, since it is quite easy to build in a Browsers-protected malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Browsers-protected popup malware may also be concealed in the promotion somewhere on the unusual web page. Such websites are generally filled with bright and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors usually approve any promotions to be posted on their web page. Therefore, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider realizes what will occur when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can also receive something a lot more damaging, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious ads.

People dislike popups

The statistic shows that people dislike popup advertising more than other types of promotions

Potentially unwanted programs, like Browsers-protected pop-up virus may cause a variety of different troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-ups can present you the promotions, where you are offered to get one more strange application, or “a amazing anti-malware tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable programs, in turn, can have spyware functionality. And it is quite hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a good one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and fake antiviruses, popup-related banners are also chosen as a distribution way by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such viruses is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you several hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not interacting with these ads, they may be clicked by someone who also uses your PC – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without data and money loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with antivirus programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Browsers-protected pop-up advertisements?

The guide of Browsers-protected adware removal includes 2 parts. Initially, we need to get rid of the malware, and after that repair the results of its activity. The removal process is really easy, due to the fact that it may be performed even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus tool that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, because of its substantial resources usage, along with some failures that may be pivotal for some kinds of individuals, Defender is oftentimes disabled by the users, so its utilization is most likely impossible. Moreover, a variety of trojan viruses have the ability to shut off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to use the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I would certainly recommend you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven antivirus device that will definitely erase the malware from your system and also make an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s take care of Browsers-protected adware first.

Removing Browsers-protected popup virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

  • Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. After the installation, you will be offered to perform the Standard Scan. Approve this action.
  • 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 scan results

  • When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of Browsers-protected malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware - After Cleaning

Now, when the computer is clean of viruses, we can proceed to the browser reset. You can do this step manually, as well as with the use of GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original :
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. 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. In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :
  3. Finally, you will see the window, where you can see all the settings which will be reset to default :
Opera can be reset in the next way
  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 will be reset, are shown :

When the web browsers are reset, you need to ensure that your browser will connect the accurate DNS while connecting to the site you need. Make a text file titled “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, then open it and fill it with the following text3:

# 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 should be kept on an individual 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) may be inserted 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.

Nonetheless, there is one problem that makes things a lot harder to fix, specifically without the anti-malware program. Most of adware versions that are used to show you the Browsers-protected pop-up ads are changing the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your PC was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will crash quickly. In some cases, you will see no crash, but huge lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 seconds, and after that it will be back to the typical, up until you attempt to open settings again.

Reset your browser settings with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

To reset your browser with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, open the Tools tab, and click the “Reset browser settings” button.

Tools tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

You can see the list of the options for each browser. By default, they are set up in the manner which fits the majority of users. Press the “Reset” button (lower right corner). In a minute your browser will be as good as new.

Reset Browser Settings tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

The browser reset is recommended to perform through the antivirus tool by GridinSoft, because last is also able to reset the HOSTS file without any additional commands.

How to Remove Browsers-protected Pop-ups?

Name: Browsers-protected

Description: Browsers-protected - a lot of users became a target for the pop-up advertisements. I have a lot of friends who literally bombed me with the questions like “how to remove Browsers-protected.com push notifications?” or “why do Browsers-protected.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Browsers-protected pop-ups, which may corrupt your browser’s correct performance, and create a lot of troubles while you are working.

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Adware

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References

  1. More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and also the reasons why I recommend it for malware elimination.
  3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.

About the author

Wilbur Woodham

I was a technical writer from early in my career, and consider IT Security one of my foundational skills. I’m sharing my experience here, and I hope you find it useful.

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