How to remove Freepotato.fun pop-ups? — Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Freepotato.fun pop-up notifications can appear unexpectedly, covering the content of the page you explored or opening your web browser when you do not desire it to be opened.

Clicking the Freepotato.fun promotion may cause the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the guide of Freepotato.fun popups clearing in multiple ways, and also inspecting your personal computer for additional malware presence.

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What are Freepotato.fun pop-ups?

Freepotato.fun popups are an effect of adware action. Adware is a kind of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which creates a major amount of revenue for adware representatives. These advertisements might consist of sometimes shocking information, or have a web link to harmful 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 money.

Freepotato.fun push notification

Freepotato.fun push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is an excellent, affordable and also really productive advertising method1. It allows the vendor to link the buyers’ attention to their website, as well as the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they wish to buy. When the person will get a pop-up alert that the TV set he likes to buy is offered at the online shop he/she checked out earlier with a 15% price cut, one will definitely use this possibility and get it. Taking into consideration the incredibly small cost for the popups and their targeting, such a marketing tool is a much-loved thing among the marketing departments of large internet retailers.

However, such a successful strategy could not be missed by virus creators. Potential to show the popup advertisements by force to the victims of malware invasion is a perfect basis for malicious tricks with the popup ads. And Freepotato.fun ads is among hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a info for the Freepotato.fun
SiteFreepotato.fun
HostingAS39572 DataWeb Global Group B.V.
Netherlands, Amsterdam
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address185.177.94.27
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorNews, Mycleancomputer, Storeprecisesupertheproduct
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Freepotato.fun virus?

There are a huge amount of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that create the Freepotato.fun popups tornado. A lion’s part of this computer virus cases is after the free software or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Free software may likewise be downloaded from the main web page, and the adware is offered as a legitimate bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A huge amount of users frequently utilize the unreliable programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, different apps that are free of cost, or even hacked programs. All of these sorts of software are unsafe, because it is extremely easy to build in a Freepotato.fun 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.

Freepotato.fun popup malware can additionally be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the strange site. Such sites are usually full of intense and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors often accept any kind of promotions to be placed on their web page. Hence, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the ad provider realizes what will occur when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can additionally get something a lot more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners distribution is exactly after the malicious promotions.

People dislike popups

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

Potentially undesirable applications, like Freepotato.fun pop-up virus can cause a wide range of troubles on your personal computer. Distracting is not the only effect – pop-up notifications may show you the ads, where you are offered to download another dubious program, or “a amazing security 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 good one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and fake antiviruses, popup-related ads are also used as a spreading way by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such malware is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these banners, they can be clicked by someone who also uses your PC – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation can become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without information loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with antivirus applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Freepotato.fun pop-up advertisements?

The manual of Freepotato.fun adware removal consists of 2 parts. Initially, we need to exterminate the malware, and then correct the results of its activity. The removal process is quite easy, since it may be performed even with making use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus software that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, because of its huge resources utilization, as well as some defects that may be pivotal for some groups of individuals, Defender is frequently turned off by the users, so its use is most likely impossible. In addition, various trojan viruses are capable to turn off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to make use of the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I would certainly suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security device that will definitely exterminate the malware from your computer and also make an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s deal with Freepotato.fun adware first.

Removing Freepotato.fun 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 Freepotato.fun 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 web browser will definitely connect the appropriate DNS while connecting to the website 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 trouble that makes things much harder to fix, particularly without the anti-malware software. A lot of adware variations that are used to show you the Freepotato.fun pop-up ads are altering the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to fix your browser settings after your PC was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse quickly. In certain cases, you will see no crash, but significant lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and afterwards it will be back to the normal, until you attempt to open settings again.

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 Freepotato.fun Pop-ups?

Name: Freepotato.fun

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