How to remove Captcha-mode.top pop-ups? — Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Captcha-mode.top pop-up notices can show up out of the blue, covering the content of the page you visited or opening your web browser when you do not desire it to be opened.

Clicking the Captcha-mode.top promotion may result in the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the tutorial of Captcha-mode.top popups clearing in a couple of manners, and also examining your system for other malware presence.

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What are Captcha-mode.top pop-ups?

Captcha-mode.top popups are an outcome of adware activity. Adware is a type of malware that suggests you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which creates a large amount of income for adware suppliers. These promotions may have explicit content, or have a web link to malicious content/website, considering that adware maintainers have no reason to check the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their solitary target is cash.

Captcha-mode.top push notification

Captcha-mode.top push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is an excellent, low-priced and extremely productive marketing tool1. It permits the seller to attach the customers’ interest to their website, as well as the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they want to purchase. When the customer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to purchase is offered at the online store he/she saw previously with a 15% price cut, one will undoubtedly use this chance and buy it. Considering the extremely low price for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising and marketing instrument is a much-loved thing amidst the advertising teams of huge online retailers.

Nevertheless, such a rewarding plan could not be missed by malware creators. Potential to show the popup ads forcibly to the people of malware attack is an excellent basis for malevolent manipulations with the popup promotions. And Captcha-mode.top promotions is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a info for the Captcha-mode.top site
Site Captcha-mode.top
Hosting AS24940 Hetzner Online GmbH
Germany, Oberdorla
Infection Type Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address 162.55.59.222
Symptoms Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior Storemostlatesttheproduct, Freepotato, News
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Captcha-mode.top virus?

There are a number of methods of becoming contaminated by the adware that cause the Captcha-mode.top popups storm. A lion’s part of this computer virus cases is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware can also be downloaded from the main website, and the adware is offered as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A number of users regularly use the dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, various utilities that are free of cost, or perhaps hacked programs. All of these sorts of programs are risky, because it is very simple to include a Captcha-mode.top malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Captcha-mode.top popup virus can additionally be hidden in the ad somewhere on the unusual site. Such web pages are in most cases packed with bright and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors generally approve any kind of promotions to be published on their web page. Hence, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement contractor realizes what will happen when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you may likewise get something far more threatening, 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 applications, like Captcha-mode.top popup virus may initiate a variety of problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-up notifications may display you the advertisements, where you are offered to download another dubious application, or “a perfect security tool”. Scareware is often spread under the last slogun. Potentially unwanted applications, in turn, may have spyware functions. And it is very hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related promotions are also chosen as a distribution method by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these ads, they can be clicked by someone who also makes use of your personal computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without information loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with anti-malware programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Captcha-mode.top pop-up advertisements?

The guide of Captcha-mode.top adware clearing includes 2 parts. First, we need to eliminate the malware, and then fix the consequences of its action. The removal process is really simple, since it can be done even with making use of Microsoft Defender – security software that is present on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, due to its substantial resources utilization, as well as some bugs that can be crucial for some types of users, Defender is oftentimes turned off by the users, so its utilization is probably impossible. What’s more, a variety of trojan viruses have the ability to disable the embedded antivirus. It is better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I would certainly advise you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware tool that will surely exterminate the malware from your personal computer and create an impenetrable shield with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s deal with Captcha-mode.top adware initially.

Removing Captcha-mode.top 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 Captcha-mode.top 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 browsers are reset, you need to make sure that your web browser will be connected the accurate DNS while connecting to the website you want. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your desktop, then open it and fill it with the following lines3:

# 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.

Nevertheless, there is one problem that makes things a lot more difficult to repair, specifically without the anti-malware program. The majority of adware variations that are used to show you the Captcha-mode.top pop-up advertisements are adjusting the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to fix your browser settings after your computer was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse soon. Sometimes, you will see no crash, but large lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and after that it will be back to the normal, 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 Captcha-mode.top Pop-ups?

Name: Captcha-mode.top

Description: Captcha-mode.top - 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 Captcha-mode.top push notifications?” or “why do Captcha-mode.top pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Captcha-mode.top 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 advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview 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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