Remove Ctearto.info Virus — How to Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Ctearto.info pop-up notifications can appear unexpectedly, covering the post of the site you visited or opening your web browser when you do not need it to be opened.

Clicking on the Ctearto.info promotion may lead to the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the guide of Ctearto.info popups removal in multiple ways, as well as inspecting your computer for additional malware presence.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review
It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!
Removing Ctearto.info 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.
Gridinsoft Anti-Malware 6-day trial available.
EULA | Privacy Policy | 10% Off Coupon
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to be the first to know about news and our exclusive materials on information security.

What are Ctearto.info pop-ups?

Ctearto.info popups are an effect of adware action. Adware is a type of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which creates a substantial amount of income for adware suppliers. These advertisements may contain sometimes shocking content, or have a link to harmful content/website, since adware maintainers have no reason to inspect the goodness of the content they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Ctearto.info push notification

Ctearto.info push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is a very good, affordable and also very efficient advertising method1. It permits the vendor to attach the buyers’ attention to their website, and the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they want to buy. When the person will get a pop-up alert that the TV set he wishes to purchase is provided at the online store he/she visited previously with a 15% discount, one will definitely use this possibility and get it. Considering the very small cost for the popups and their targeting, such a marketing method is a favorite thing amongst the advertising teams of big internet retailers.

Nonetheless, such a rewarding strategy could not be missed by malware creators. Ability to demonstrate the popup ads by force to the people of malware invasion is an ideal basis for evil-minded adjustments with the popup promotions. And Ctearto.info advertisements is among hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a info for the Ctearto.info
SiteCtearto.info
HostingAS14618 Amazon.com, Inc.
United States, Ashburn
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address52.45.217.243
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorDucubchooa, Ausoafab, Moltyeroki
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Ctearto.info virus?

There are a number of ways of becoming infected by the adware that create the Ctearto.info popups storm. A lion’s part of this malware instances is after the free software or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Freeware may additionally be downloaded from the main website, and the adware is presented as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A huge amount of people oftentimes work with the dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, a wide range of utilities that are free, or perhaps hacked programs. Every one of these kinds of software are unsafe, since it is extremely simple to include a Ctearto.info malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Ctearto.info popup malware can likewise be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the odd site. Such websites are usually loaded with intense and blinking ads, and their proprietors generally approve any kind of promos to be placed on their web page. For this reason, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider knows what will occur when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may likewise get something far more damaging, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners distribution 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 Ctearto.info pop-up virus may cause a variety of problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the only effect – pop-up notifications may show you the ads, where you are offered to get another strange application, or “a perfect anti-malware tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, can have spyware functions. And it is pretty hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs 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% unpleasant, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these advertisements, they can be clicked by whoever who also makes use of your PC – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to deal with it without data loss. It is recommended to remove the viruses with antivirus applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Ctearto.info pop-up advertisements?

The guide of Ctearto.info adware elimination contains 2 parts. First, we need to remove the malware, and afterwards deal with the results of its activity. The removal procedure is very simple, since it can be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware tool that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, because of its substantial resources consumption, along with some failures that can be pivotal for some categories of individuals, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its usage is probably impossible. What’s more, a variety of trojan viruses are able to disable the embedded antivirus. It is better to use the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I’d suggest you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security device that will definitely exterminate the malware from your computer and make an invulnerable shield with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s manage Ctearto.info adware initially.

Removing Ctearto.info 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 Ctearto.info 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 ensure that your browser will be connected the appropriate DNS while connecting to the website you need. Make a text file titled “hosts” on your desktop, after that 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.

However, there is one issue that makes the things a lot more difficult to fix, specifically without the anti-malware software. Most of adware versions that are utilized to show you the Ctearto.info pop-up ads are changing the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to fix 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, however, large lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 secs, and after that it will be back to the normal, 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.

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 Ctearto.info Pop-ups?

Name: Ctearto.info

Description: Ctearto.info - 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 Ctearto.info push notifications?” or “why do Ctearto.info pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Ctearto.info 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

Sending
User Review
3.67 (6 votes)
Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

References

  1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and also the reasons why I suggest 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.

Leave a Reply

Sending