Remove G0wow Pop-up Virus — How to Remove?

Written by Wilbur Woodham
G0wow pop-up alerts may appear out of the blue, covering the content of the website you visited or opening your browser when you do not need it to be opened.

Clicking the G0wow ad can result in the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the tutorial of G0wow popups clearing in a couple of ways, and also checking your system for additional viruses presence.

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What are G0wow pop-ups?

G0wow popups are an effect of adware presence. Adware is a type of malware that suggests you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which produces a significant amount of earnings for adware representatives. These advertisements might contain explicit composition, or have a link to malevolent content/website, because adware maintainers have no reason to examine the goodness of the material they are going to show – their single target is cash.

G0wow push notification

G0wow push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is a very good, cheap and also extremely effective marketing method1. It permits the seller to attach the buyers’ attention to their website, and the buyers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to buy. When the customer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to purchase is offered at the online shop he/she checked out earlier with a 15% price cut, one will undoubtedly use this possibility and get it. Considering the extremely low cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising method is a favourite thing amongst the advertising teams of huge internet stores.

However, such a profitable scheme could not be missed by malware creators. Ability to demonstrate the popup advertisements by force to the victims of malware invasion is an excellent basis for malicious tricks with the popup promotions. And G0wow.com promotions is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a summary for the G0wow site
SiteG0wow.com
HostingAS24940 Hetzner Online GmbH
Germany, Frankfurt am Main
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address157.90.33.73
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorZabanit, Usounoul, Tingexceleler
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the G0wow virus?

There are a number of methods of becoming infected by the adware that lead to the G0wow popups tornado. A lion’s part of this virus incidents is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware can likewise be downloaded from the official web page, and the adware is presented as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A number of users often use the unreliable programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, a wide range of tools that are free, or even hacked programs. All of these types of software are dangerous, because it is extremely simple to include a G0wow malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

G0wow popup virus can likewise be hidden in the promotion somewhere on the unusual site. Such websites are typically packed with intense and blinking ads, and their proprietors typically accept any type of promotions to be published on their web page. Therefore, clicking on such banners is a risky thing: only the advertisement contractor realizes what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you can additionally receive something much more damaging, like ransomware or coin miner; the substantial 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 unwanted applications, like G0wow popup virus can cause a variety of problems on your computer. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-up notifications can show you the banners, where you are offered to get one more unknown application, or “a perfect anti-malware tool”. Scareware is often spread with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, can have spyware functions. And it is quite 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 advertisements are also exploited as a distribution method by various trojan viruses, for example – 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 interacting with these banners, they can be clicked by someone who also uses your computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to deal with it without data and money loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with anti-malware applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of G0wow pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of G0wow adware removal consists of 2 parts. Initially, we need to eliminate the malware, and then repair the effects of its activity. The elimination procedure is very easy, since it can be executed even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware software that is present on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, because of its significant resources utilization, as well as some problems that may be crucial for some types of individuals, Defender is oftentimes turned off by the users, so its utilization is most likely impossible. What’s more, a variety of trojan viruses are able to switch off the embedded antivirus. It is far better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I would certainly advise you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security device that will undoubtedly erase the malware from your personal computer and also make an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s take care of G0wow adware initially.

Removing G0wow 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 G0wow 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 accurate DNS while connecting to the web page you need. Make a text file titled “hosts” on your computer’s 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 utilized to show you the G0wow pop-up ads are adjusting the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to change your browser settings after your computer was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse quickly. In certain cases, you will see no crash, but huge lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 secs, and then it will be back to the typical, till you attempt to open settings once 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 G0wow Pop-ups?

Name: G0wow

Description: G0wow - 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 G0wow.com push notifications?” or “why do G0wow.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with G0wow 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 advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview and also the reasons why I recommend 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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