Remove Linkforcaptcha.top Virus — How to Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Linkforcaptcha.top pop-up notices can show up out of the blue, covering the subject of the site you visited or opening your browser when you do not wish it to be opened.

Clicking on the Linkforcaptcha.top ad may lead to the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the guide of Linkforcaptcha.top popups removal in multiple manners, and also checking your system for other malware existence.

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What are Linkforcaptcha.top pop-ups?

Linkforcaptcha.top popups are an outcome of adware action. Adware is a kind of malware that demonstrates to you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which creates a large amount of income for adware representatives. These promotions may have sometimes shocking content, or have a web link to malevolent content/website, since adware maintainers have no purpose to examine the goodness of the web content they are going to reveal – their solitary target is cash.

Linkforcaptcha.top push notification

Linkforcaptcha.top push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is a good, low-priced and also extremely effective marketing tool1. 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 wish to purchase. When the customer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to purchase is available at the online store he/she checked out earlier with a 15% discount, one will definitely use this possibility and get it. Considering the extremely low cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising method is a favorite thing among the advertising departments of large online retail stores.

However, such a successful system could not be missed by malware creators. Potential to show the popup advertisements forcibly to the victims of malware attack is an excellent basis for malevolent manipulations with the popup advertisements. And Linkforcaptcha.top ads is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a summary for the Linkforcaptcha.top
SiteLinkforcaptcha.top
HostingAS35277 LLHOST INC. SRL
Netherlands, Haarlem
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address45.155.120.160
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorGafet, Gotyousearch, Reliablepcsearch
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Linkforcaptcha.top virus?

There are a lot of ways of getting infected by the adware that create the Linkforcaptcha.top popups tornado. A lion’s part of this virus cases is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may also be downloaded from the official site, and the adware is presented as a legitimate bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A number of people frequently work with the uncertain programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, various utilities that are free, or perhaps hacked programs. Every one of these sorts of applications are dangerous, due to the fact that it is very easy to include a Linkforcaptcha.top malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Linkforcaptcha.top popup malware can additionally be concealed in the ad somewhere on the odd web page. Such sites are typically packed with bright and blinking advertisements, and their owners often approve any kind of promotions to be posted on their page. For this reason, clicking on such banners is a risky thing: only the advertisement provider realizes what will happen when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you may likewise get something much more damaging, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners circulation 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 Linkforcaptcha.top popup virus may initiate a lot of different problems on your computer. Distracting is not the only effect – pop-ups can present you the promotions, where you are offered to download another strange application, or “a perfect anti-malware tool”. Scareware is often spread under the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, may have spyware functions. 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 ads are also chosen as a spreading way by various trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not interacting with these promotions, they may be clicked by whoever who also uses your personal computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things can become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without data loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with anti-malware applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Linkforcaptcha.top pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Linkforcaptcha.top adware clearing contains 2 sections. Initially, we need to eliminate the malware, and then take care of the consequences of its action. The elimination procedure is really easy, due to the fact that it can be performed even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware program that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. However, due to its substantial resources utilization, along with some defects that may be serious for some kinds of users, Defender is frequently turned off by the users, so its use is most likely impossible. Additionally, a wide range of trojan viruses can turn off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to make use of the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I’d recommend you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security tool that will certainly erase the viruses from your computer and also make an impenetrable shield with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s manage Linkforcaptcha.top adware first.

Removing Linkforcaptcha.top 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 Linkforcaptcha.top 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 browsers are reset, you need to ensure that your web browser will be connected the right DNS while connecting to the website you want. Make a text file named “hosts” on your computer’s 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.

However, there is one problem that makes the things much harder to repair, specifically without the anti-malware software. The majority of adware versions that are used to show you the Linkforcaptcha.top pop-up promotions are changing the deep browser settings, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your system was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will crash quickly. Sometimes, you will see no crash, however, large lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 seconds, and then it will be back to the normal, until 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 Linkforcaptcha.top Pop-ups?

Name: Linkforcaptcha.top

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