Downloadfree101 Ads Removal Guide — How to Fix It?

Downloadfree101 pop-up notices can show up out of the blue, covering the post of the site you visited or opening your web browser when you do not wish it to be opened.

Clicking on the Downloadfree101 advertisement may trigger the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the manual of Downloadfree101 popups removal in multiple manners, as well as examining your PC for additional viruses presence.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing Downloadfree101 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 Downloadfree101 pop-ups?

Downloadfree101 popups are a consequence of adware action. Adware is a sort of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click advertisements, which creates a massive amount of earnings for adware representatives. These ads may contain explicit material, or have a link to malevolent content/website, since adware maintainers have no purpose to inspect the goodness of the web content they are going to reveal – their solitary target is cash.

Downloadfree101 push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is an excellent, low-priced and also very effective advertising method¹. It allows the vendor to attach the buyers’ interest to their website, as well as the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to purchase. When the consumer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to buy is offered at the online shop he/she visited previously with a 15% price cut, one will surely use this possibility and get it. Considering the incredibly low price for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising and marketing instrument is a favourite thing amongst the advertising departments of huge online stores.

Nevertheless, such a rewarding system could not be missed by virus developers. Potential to show the popup ads forcibly to the targets of malware invasion is an excellent basis for evil-minded tricks with the popup ads. And Downloadfree101.com promotions is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short summary for the Downloadfree101

How have I got the Downloadfree101 virus?

There are a huge amount of methods of becoming infected by the adware that result in the Downloadfree101 popups storm. A lion’s part of this computer virus cases is after the free software or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Freeware may likewise be downloaded from the official site, and the adware is provided as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A number of people often work with the uncertain programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, a wide range of tools that are free of cost, or perhaps hacked programs. Every one of these sorts of software are risky, due to the fact that it is quite simple to integrate a Downloadfree101 malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

Downloadfree101 popup malware may also be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the strange web page. Such web pages are usually loaded with bright and blinking advertisements, and their owners often permit any promos to be posted on their page. Therefore, clicking such banners is a risky thing: only the advertisement provider realizes what will occur when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may additionally receive something far more risky, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners distribution is exactly after the malicious promotions.

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

Potentially unwanted applications, like Downloadfree101 popup virus may cause a lot of different troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the only problem – pop-ups can present you the banners, where you are offered to get one more strange program, or “a amazing security tool”. Scareware is often distributed with the last slogun. Potentially undesirable programs, in turn, can 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 advertisements are also used as a distribution method by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these promotions, they can be clicked by someone who also makes use of your PC – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things 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 anti-malware applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Downloadfree101 pop-up advertisements?

The guide of Downloadfree101 adware removal includes 2 parts. Initially, we need to get rid of the malware, and afterwards repair the consequences of its action. The removal procedure is quite simple, due to the fact that it may be performed even with making use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware software that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, because of its significant resources usage, as well as some problems that can be pivotal for some kinds of individuals, Defender is frequently disabled by the users, so its utilization is most likely impossible. Moreover, a wide range of trojan viruses are able to shut off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I’d recommend you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven antivirus tool that will surely erase the viruses from your personal computer and also create an invulnerable shield with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s take care of Downloadfree101 adware first.

Removing Downloadfree101 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 Downloadfree101 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 browsers are reset, you need to make sure that your browser will be connected the appropriate DNS while connecting to the site you need. Make a text file named “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, after that 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.

Nonetheless, there is one trouble that makes things a lot more difficult to fix, especially without the anti-malware program. Most of adware variations that are used to show you the Downloadfree101 pop-up ads are changing the deep browser settings, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to change your browser settings after your machine was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse soon. In certain 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, until 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 Downloadfree101 Pop-ups?

Name: Downloadfree101

Description: Downloadfree101 - 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 Downloadfree101.com push notifications?” or “why do Downloadfree101.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Downloadfree101 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 overview and also the reasons why I recommend it for malware removal.
3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.