Captchadecode.com Ads (Captcha Decode Virus Removal)

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Captchadecode.com pop-up notices can show up out of the blue, covering the post of the site you explored or opening your browser when you do not want it to be opened.

Clicking on the Captcha Decode advertisement may trigger the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the manual of Captchadecode.com popups removal in various ways, as well as examining your personal computer for extra malware presence.

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What are Captcha Decode virus?

Captchadecode.com popups are an effect of adware action. Adware is malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, generating major revenue for adware suppliers. These advertisements may include explicit composition or link to harmful content/website because adware maintainers have no purpose to inspect the goodness of the web content they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Captchadecode.com push notification

Captchadecode.com push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is an excellent, low-priced and also very efficient advertising tool1. It permits the seller to attach the buyers’ attention to their site and the buyers to receive dynamic updates on the goods they intend to purchase. When the person receives a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to purchase is offered at the online store they visited earlier with a 15% price cut, one will surely use this possibility and buy it. Considering the minimal cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing method is a favorite thing amongst the marketing departments of large internet sellers.

Nonetheless, such a profitable system could not be missed by malware developers. The potential to demonstrate the popup ads by force to the people of malware invasion is a perfect basis for malicious manipulations with the popup advertisements. And Captcha Decode ads are among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a short details for the Captchadecode.com site
Site Captchadecode.com
Hosting AS209813 Fast Content Delivery LTD
Netherlands, Haarlem
Infection Type Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address 5.8.34.41
Symptoms Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior Wowhugoo, News, Maxy
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Captcha Decode virus?

There are a lot of methods of becoming infected by the adware that create the Captchadecode.com popups tornado. A lion’s part of this virus cases is after the freeware or cracked programs spread on the peering networks. Freeware may additionally be downloaded from the official site, and the adware is provided as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. Plenty of users often utilize the uncertain programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, a wide range of apps that are free of cost, or perhaps hacked programs. Every one of these programs is dangerous because it is quite simple to build in a Captcha Decode malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script or as a part of the self-made algorithm within the Windows optimization tool.

Captchadecode.com popup virus may also be concealed in the promotion somewhere on the odd web page. Such sites are usually packed with intense and blinking advertisements, and their owners generally accept any promos to be placed on their page. Therefore, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider knows what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can likewise receive something a lot more risky, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious advertisements.

People dislike popups

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

Potentially unwanted applications, like Captchadecode.com popup virus may cause a variety of problems on your PC. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-ups can show you the banners, where you are offered to get one more unknown program or “an amazing anti-malware tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the last motto. Potentially undesirable programs, in turn, can have spyware functions. And it is pretty hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a normal one if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and fake antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also chosen as a distribution method by different trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of the activity of such viruses are 100% unwanted and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these banners, they can be clicked by whoever also uses your computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to deal with it without data and money loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with antivirus applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Captchadecode.com pop-up advertisements?

The manual of Captcha Decode adware clearing consists of 2 sections. First, we need to eliminate the malware, and after that correct the effects of its action. The removal task is very easy, because it may be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – security software that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, due to its significant resources usage, along with some failures that can be crucial for some groups of users, Defender is oftentimes turned off by the users, so its usage is probably impossible. What’s more, various trojan viruses can disable the embedded antivirus. It is far better to use a separate program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I’d suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security device that will undoubtedly remove the malware from your PC and also make an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection feature. But let’s take care of Captcha Decode adware initially.

Removing Captchadecode.com 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 Captchadecode.com 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 web browser will connect the accurate DNS while connecting to the website you want. Create a text file named “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 hostnames. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column, followed by the corresponding hostname.
# The IP address and the hostname 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 issue that makes the things much harder to restore, specifically without the anti-malware program. Many adware variants that are utilized to show you the Captchadecode.com pop-up advertisements are altering the deep browser configurations, disabling access to the settings tab. So, if you try to fix your browser settings after your machine was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse quickly. Sometimes, you will see no crash but a large lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. The browser will stop responding for ~ 30 secs, and after that, it will be back to the typical, 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 a manner that 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 can also reset the HOSTS file without any additional commands.

How to Remove Captchadecode.com Pop-ups?

Name: Captchadecode.com

Description: Captchadecode.com - 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 Captchadecode.com push notifications?” or “why do Captchadecode.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Captchadecode.com 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 the reasons why I recommend it for malware removal.
  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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