Remove Cleantraf.xyz Pop-up Virus — How to Remove?

Cleantraf.xyz pop-up alerts can appear unexpectedly, covering the content of the website you checked or opening your browser when you do not need it to be opened.

Clicking on the Cleantraf.xyz promotion can trigger the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the manual of Cleantraf.xyz popups removal in multiple methods, and also checking your computer for other malware existence.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing Cleantraf.xyz manually may take hours and may damage your PC in the process. I recommend you to download GridinSoft Anti-Malware for threats removal. Allows to complete scan and cure your PC during the trial period.

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What are Cleantraf.xyz pop-ups?

Cleantraf.xyz popups are an effect of adware activity. Adware is a type of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click advertisements, which produces a large amount of profit for adware suppliers. These ads might have explicit content, or have a web link to malevolent content/website, due to the fact that adware maintainers have no reason to inspect the goodness of the content they are going to show – their single target is money.

Cleantraf.xyz push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is a good, low-priced and really effective advertising tool¹. It enables the seller to link the customers’ attention to their site, and the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they want to purchase. When the consumer will receive a pop-up alert that the TV set he likes to purchase is offered at the online store he/she saw earlier with a 15% price cut, one will certainly use this chance and get it. Considering the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing tool is a favourite thing amongst the advertising teams of big online retail stores.

Nevertheless, such a rewarding strategy could not be missed by virus creators. Potential to demonstrate the popup ads by force to the people of malware attack is a great basis for malevolent tricks with the popup ads. And Cleantraf.xyz ads is just one of hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a summary for the Cleantraf.xyz site

How have I got the Cleantraf.xyz virus?

There are a huge amount of methods of becoming contaminated by the adware that trigger the Cleantraf.xyz popups storm. A lion’s part of this virus instances is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Free software may also be downloaded from the main website, and the adware is provided as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A number of people regularly utilize the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, various apps that are free of cost, and even hacked programs. Every one of these sorts of software are risky, since it is very easy to build in a Cleantraf.xyz malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

Cleantraf.xyz popup virus can also be concealed in the ad somewhere on the unusual web page. Such sites are in most cases full of intense and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors generally accept any kind of promos to be posted on their page. Thus, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider realizes what will happen when you press this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may likewise get something a lot more damaging, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious ads.

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

Potentially unwanted applications, like Cleantraf.xyz popup virus can provoke a wide range of problems on your PC. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-ups can show you the advertisements, where you are offered to get another unknown application, or “a amazing anti-malware tool”. Scareware is usually spread under the last slogun. Potentially unwanted applications, in turn, can have spyware functions. And it is very hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a normal one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and pseudo antiviruses, popup-related banners are also exploited as a distribution method by different trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these advertisements, they can be clicked by someone who also uses your 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 remove the viruses with anti-malware programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Cleantraf.xyz pop-up advertisements?

The manual of Cleantraf.xyz adware clearing contains 2 sections. First, we need to remove the malware, and after that fix the effects of its activity. The removal procedure is really simple, due to the fact that it may be executed even with using Microsoft Defender – anti-malware tool that is present on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, due to its significant resources utilization, as well as some failures that may be crucial for some types of users, Defender is often disabled by the users, so its utilization is likely impossible. Additionally, a variety of trojan viruses can disable the embedded antivirus. It is better to make use of the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I would certainly recommend you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven anti-malware tool that will definitely wipe out the viruses from your PC and also create an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s take care of Cleantraf.xyz adware initially.

Removing Cleantraf.xyz 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.

• 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.

• When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of Cleantraf.xyz malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.

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. 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. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :

After choosing this option, you will see the next message :

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 appropriate DNS while connecting to the site you want. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, then open it and fill it with the following lines³:

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.

However, there is one trouble that makes the things much harder to repair, specifically without the anti-malware software. A lot of adware versions that are used to show you the Cleantraf.xyz 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 PC was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly crash soon. In some cases, you will see no crash, but huge lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 secs, and afterwards it will be back to the typical, till you attempt to open settings once more.

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.

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.

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 Cleantraf.xyz Pop-ups?

Name: Cleantraf.xyz

Description: Cleantraf.xyz - 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 Cleantraf.xyz push notifications?” or “why do Cleantraf.xyz pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Cleantraf.xyz 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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1. More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and the reasons why I recommend it for malware elimination.
3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.