How to remove Downloadsfreefile pop-ups? — Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Downloadsfreefile pop-up alerts can show up out of the blue, covering the post of the website you visited or opening your web browser when you don’t want it to be opened.

Clicking the Downloadsfreefile promotion can cause the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the tutorial of Downloadsfreefile popups clearing in several ways, and also checking your PC for other malware presence.

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What are Downloadsfreefile pop-ups?

Downloadsfreefile popups are a consequence of adware activity. Adware is a sort of malware that suggests you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which generates a massive amount of earnings for adware representatives. These promotions may contain sometimes shocking material, or have a link to harmful content/website, because adware maintainers have no reason to check the goodness of the content they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Downloadsfreefile push notification

Downloadsfreefile push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is a good, low-priced and extremely effective marketing instrument1. It allows the vendor to attach the buyers’ interest to their website, as well as the buyers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they want to buy. When the person will get a pop-up notification that the TV set he desires to buy is available at the online store he/she saw previously with a 15% discount, one will definitely use this possibility and purchase it. Considering the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising method is a favourite thing amidst the advertising departments of huge online stores.

Nonetheless, such a rewarding plan could not be missed by malware creators. Option to show the popup advertisements by force to the targets of malware invasion is an excellent basis for evil-minded adjustments with the popup ads. And Downloadsfreefile.com advertisements is just one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short summary for the Downloadsfreefile site
SiteDownloadsfreefile.com
HostingAS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.
United States, San Francisco
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address172.67.220.68
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorTheglossonline, Checkingversionwn2, Special
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Downloadsfreefile virus?

There are a plenty of methods of getting infected by the adware that trigger the Downloadsfreefile 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 can likewise 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 individuals often use the dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, a wide range of apps that are free of cost, or even hacked programs. All of these kinds of programs are risky, since it is quite simple to include a Downloadsfreefile malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Downloadsfreefile popup malware can also be concealed in the advertisement somewhere on the strange website. Such web pages are usually packed with intense and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors often accept any promotions to be placed on their page. Therefore, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider realizes what will occur when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can additionally get something much more dangerous, 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 undesirable applications, like Downloadsfreefile pop-up virus may initiate a lot of different troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-up notifications may display you the ads, where you are offered to get another strange application, or “a effective security tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the use of the last motto. Potentially unwanted programs, in turn, can have spyware functionality. And it is pretty hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a good one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related promotions are also used as a distribution method by different trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these ads, they may be clicked by whoever who also makes use of your personal computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation can 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 antivirus applications as soon as possible.

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

The manual of Downloadsfreefile adware elimination consists of 2 sections. Initially, we need to get rid of the malware, and then take care of the effects of its action. The removal process is quite easy, due to the fact that it can be performed even with making use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware program that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, because of its large resources usage, along with some problems that can be critical for some groups of individuals, Defender is frequently disabled by the users, so its utilization is most likely impossible. In addition, a wide range of trojan viruses have the ability to switch off the embedded antivirus. It is far better to make use of the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I’d suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven antivirus device that will undoubtedly wipe out the viruses from your personal computer and create an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s take care of Downloadsfreefile adware initially.

Removing Downloadsfreefile 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 Downloadsfreefile 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 browser will definitely connect the proper DNS while connecting to the website you want. Make a text file titled “hosts” on your desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following text3:

# 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 trouble that makes things a lot harder to fix, specifically without the anti-malware program. A lot of adware versions that are utilized to show you the Downloadsfreefile pop-up promotions are altering the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your machine was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will crash quickly. In some cases, you will see no crash, but significant lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 secs, and after that it will be back to the typical, 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 Downloadsfreefile Pop-ups?

Name: Downloadsfreefile

Description: Downloadsfreefile - 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 Downloadsfreefile.com push notifications?” or “why do Downloadsfreefile.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Downloadsfreefile 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 review and the reasons why I advise it for malware removal.
  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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