Defenderlab.xyz Ads Removal Guide — How to Fix It?

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Defenderlab.xyz pop-up notifications can appear out of the blue, covering the subject of the page you explored or opening your web browser when you do not need it to be opened.

Clicking on the Defenderlab.xyz advertisement can lead to the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the manual of Defenderlab.xyz popups clearing in a couple of ways, and also inspecting your personal computer for extra viruses presence.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review
It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!
Removing Defenderlab.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.
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 Defenderlab.xyz pop-ups?

Defenderlab.xyz popups are an effect of adware activity. Adware is a type of malware that demonstrates to you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which creates a massive amount of revenue for adware distributors. These ads may have explicit content, or have a link to malevolent content/website, since adware maintainers have no reason to check the goodness of the content they are going to show – their single target is money.

Defenderlab.xyz push notification

Defenderlab.xyz push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is an excellent, low-priced and really efficient marketing instrument1. It allows the vendor to attach the customers’ interest to their website, and the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to buy. When the consumer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to buy is available at the online shop he/she visited previously with a 15% price cut, one will certainly use this opportunity and buy it. Taking into consideration the incredibly small cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising tool is a favourite thing amidst the marketing teams of big online stores.

Nonetheless, such a profitable strategy could not be missed by virus creators. Ability to demonstrate the popup advertisements by force to the targets of malware invasion is a great basis for evil-minded tricks with the popup ads. And Defenderlab.xyz advertisements is among hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short info for the Defenderlab.xyz site
SiteDefenderlab.xyz
HostingAS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.
United States, San Francisco
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address172.67.204.49
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorDestinyinredsocks, Gloveryforredwine, Letmessagenow
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Defenderlab.xyz virus?

There are a number of ways of getting infected by the adware that lead to the Defenderlab.xyz popups tornado. 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 site, and the adware is offered as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of people frequently work with the unreliable programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, a wide range of utilities that are free, and even hacked programs. All of these types of applications are risky, because it is extremely simple to include a Defenderlab.xyz malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Defenderlab.xyz popup virus may also be concealed in the ad somewhere on the strange site. Such sites are usually packed with bright and blinking ads, and their proprietors typically permit any promos to be placed on their page. Thus, clicking such banners is a risky thing: only the advertisement provider realizes what will occur when you press this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may additionally get something much more hazardous, like ransomware or coin miner; the large 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 programs, like Defenderlab.xyz popup virus may provoke a lot of problems on your computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-up notifications can show you the banners, where you are offered to download one more unknown application, or “a perfect security tool”. Scareware is often spread with the use of the last slogun. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, may have spyware functions. And it is very hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a good one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and fake antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also exploited as a distribution way by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such viruses is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these banners, they can be clicked by whoever who also uses 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 information loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with antivirus programs as soon as possible.

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

The guide of Defenderlab.xyz adware elimination consists of 2 parts. First, we need to deal with the malware, and afterwards correct the results of its activity. The removal process is really simple, because it may be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware program that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, as a result of its substantial resources utilization, as well as some problems that can be critical for some categories of users, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its usage is likely impossible. Additionally, a wide range of trojan viruses are able to shut off the embedded antivirus. It is far better to make use of the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I would certainly suggest you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security tool that will certainly erase the viruses from your computer and also create an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s handle Defenderlab.xyz adware initially.

Removing Defenderlab.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.
  • 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 Defenderlab.xyz 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 browser will connect the accurate DNS while connecting to the site 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 issue that makes the things a lot more difficult to repair, especially without the anti-malware program. The majority of adware variations that are used to show you the Defenderlab.xyz pop-up ads are altering the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your computer was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse quickly. In some cases, you will see no crash, however, huge lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 seconds, and afterwards it will be back to the normal, until you attempt 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.

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 Defenderlab.xyz Pop-ups?

Name: Defenderlab.xyz

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

Sending
User Review
4 (5 votes)
Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

References

  1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview and the reasons why I advise 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