How to remove Downloadit-on pop-ups? — Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Downloadit-on pop-up notices can show up out of the blue, covering the content of the site you went to or opening your web browser when you do not want it to be opened.

Clicking on the Downloadit-on advertisement can cause the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the guideline of Downloadit-on popups removal in a couple of methods, as well as examining your computer for extra malware presence.

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What are Downloadit-on pop-ups?

Downloadit-on popups are a result of adware presence. Adware is a type of malware that suggests you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click advertisements, which produces a significant volume of earnings for adware distributors. These ads might include explicit information, or have a link to malicious content/website, considering that adware maintainers have no reason to examine the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their solitary target is money.

Downloadit-on push notification

Downloadit-on push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is a good, low-cost and also extremely productive marketing method1. It makes it possible for the seller to attach the customers’ interest to their website, and the buyers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they want to purchase. When the person will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to buy is provided at the online store he/she checked out previously with a 15% discount, one will certainly use this chance and buy it. Taking into consideration the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing tool is a favorite thing amongst the advertising teams of large online retailers.

Nonetheless, such a successful scheme could not be missed by virus creators. Option to show the popup ads by force to the people of malware attack is an excellent basis for malevolent adjustments with the popup promotions. And Downloadit-on.com advertisements is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short info for the Downloadit-on site
SiteDownloadit-on.com
HostingAS14061 DigitalOcean, LLC
Netherlands, Amsterdam
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address206.189.240.188
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorXml, Worldwide, Myhypeposts
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Downloadit-on virus?

There are a lot of methods of getting infected by the adware that cause the Downloadit-on popups storm. A lion’s part of this malware cases is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Free software can also be downloaded from the official site, and the adware is provided as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A plenty of users frequently make use of the unreliable programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, a wide range of utilities that are free of cost, or perhaps hacked programs. All of these sorts of programs are dangerous, since it is very simple to build in a Downloadit-on 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.

Downloadit-on popup virus may likewise be hidden in the promotion somewhere on the unusual site. Such websites are typically filled with bright and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors often accept any type of promotions to be placed on their web page. Therefore, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the ad provider knows what will happen when you press this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can additionally get something a lot more unsafe, like ransomware or coin miner; the big 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 undesirable programs, like Downloadit-on popup virus may provoke a variety of different problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-ups can present you the advertisements, where you are offered to download one more unknown application, or “a perfect anti-malware tool”. Scareware is often spread under the last slogun. Potentially unwanted applications, in turn, may 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 PUPs and pseudo antiviruses, popup-related banners are also chosen as a spreading way by different trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you several hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not interacting with these banners, they may 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 solve it without data and money loss. It is recommended to remove the viruses with antivirus applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Downloadit-on pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Downloadit-on adware removal consists of 2 parts. First, we need to exterminate the malware, and after that take care of the results of its action. The elimination procedure is quite easy, since it can be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus program that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, due to its substantial resources utilization, along with some problems that may be serious for some kinds of users, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its use is likely impossible. Furthermore, various trojan viruses can switch off the embedded antivirus. It is better to make use of the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I’d recommend you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware tool that will surely eliminate the malware from your computer and make an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection function. But let’s deal with Downloadit-on adware first.

Removing Downloadit-on 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 Downloadit-on 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 make sure that your web browser will definitely connect the right DNS while connecting to the site you need. Create a text file named “hosts” on your computer’s desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following content3:

# 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.

Nonetheless, there is one problem that makes the things a lot more difficult to fix, especially without the anti-malware software. The majority of adware variants that are utilized to show you the Downloadit-on pop-up advertisements are adjusting the deep browser settings, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to fix your browser settings after your system was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly crash quickly. In certain cases, you will see no crash, however, large lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 secs, and then 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 Downloadit-on Pop-ups?

Name: Downloadit-on

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

  1. More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview 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.

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