Remove Def-device Pop-up Ads — How to Fix Gude

Def-device pop-up notifications may appear out of the blue, covering the post of the site you visited or opening your browser when you don’t need it to be opened.

Clicking the Def-device ad can trigger the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the manual of Def-device popups clearing in a couple of manners, and also examining your PC for other viruses existence.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing Def-device 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 Def-device pop-ups?

Def-device popups are a result of adware activity. Adware is a kind of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click advertisements, which generates a major amount of revenue for adware suppliers. These advertisements may have explicit composition, or have a link to malevolent content/website, because adware maintainers have no reason to examine the goodness of the material they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Def-device push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is a good, affordable and also extremely productive marketing solution¹. It allows the vendor to attach the customers’ interest to their website, and the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they want to buy. When the person will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he desires to buy is offered at the online shop he/she visited earlier with a 15% discount, one will certainly use this opportunity and get it. Considering the incredibly small cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing instrument is a favorite thing amidst the advertising departments of big online sellers.

Nevertheless, such a rewarding scheme could not be missed by virus creators. Potential to show the popup advertisements forcibly to the victims of malware attack is a great basis for evil-minded adjustments with the popup ads. And Def-device.com promotions is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a summary for the Def-device site

How have I got the Def-device virus?

There are a plenty of ways of getting infected by the adware that create the Def-device popups tornado. A lion’s part of this malware instances is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Free software can likewise be downloaded from the official website, and the adware is provided as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of people often utilize the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, various tools that are free of cost, or even hacked programs. Every one of these types of software are dangerous, due to the fact that it is quite easy to build in a Def-device 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.

Def-device popup virus may additionally be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the unusual web page. Such websites are typically full of intense and blinking ads, and their proprietors typically accept any kind of promos to be placed on their web page. Hence, clicking on such banners is a risky thing: only the ad contractor knows what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you can also receive something a lot more risky, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners distribution is exactly after the malicious advertisements.

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

Potentially unwanted applications, like Def-device pop-up virus may cause a wide range of different problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-up notifications may present you the promotions, where you are offered to download one more unknown program, or “a perfect anti-malware tool”. Scareware is usually distributed with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable programs, in turn, may have spyware functionality. And it is very hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and pseudo antiviruses, popup-related ads are also exploited as a spreading way by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these ads, they may be clicked by someone who also makes use of your personal computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without data and money loss. It is recommended to eliminate the viruses with anti-malware applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Def-device pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Def-device adware clearing contains 2 parts. First, we need to get rid of the malware, and then correct the results of its activity. The elimination task is very simple, because it may be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware tool that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. However, because of its significant resources consumption, along with some failures that can be critical for some groups of individuals, Defender is often disabled by the users, so its utilization is probably impossible. Additionally, different trojan viruses have the ability to switch off the embedded antivirus. It is better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I’d suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven anti-malware tool that will definitely exterminate the malware from your computer and also make an invulnerable shield with a Proactive protection function. But let’s take care of Def-device adware initially.

Removing Def-device 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 Def-device 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 make sure that your browser will connect the correct DNS while connecting to the website you need. Create a text file named “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 restore, especially without the anti-malware program. Most of adware variations that are utilized to show you the Def-device pop-up advertisements are altering the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to change your browser settings after your PC was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse soon. Sometimes, you will see no crash, but significant lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 secs, and then it will be back to the typical, up until you try to open settings one more time.

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 Def-device Pop-ups?

Name: Def-device

Description: Def-device - 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 Def-device.com push notifications?” or “why do Def-device.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Def-device 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 advertisements on Wikipedia.
2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and also the reasons why I advise it for malware removal.
3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.