Maincaptcha.top pop-up alerts can show up unexpectedly, covering the content of the website you visited or opening your web browser when you do not wish it to be opened.
Clicking the Maincaptcha.top ad can cause the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the guide of Maincaptcha.top popups clearing in multiple ways, and also checking your computer for extra viruses existence.
What are Maincaptcha.top pop-ups?
Maincaptcha.top popups are a result of adware presence. Adware is a kind of malware that demonstrates to you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which produces a major amount of earnings for adware representatives. These ads may contain sometimes shocking information, or have a web link to malicious content/website, because adware maintainers have no purpose to examine the goodness of the web content they are going to reveal – their solitary target is money.
Pop-up promotions itself is a very good, affordable and very efficient advertising tool1. It permits the vendor to link the customers’ attention to their website, as well as the buyers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they want to buy. When the person will receive a pop-up alert that the TV set he likes to purchase is available at the online store he/she checked out previously with a 15% discount, one will surely use this opportunity and buy it. Considering the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing instrument is a much-loved thing amidst the marketing departments of huge online retail stores.
However, such a rewarding plan could not be missed by malware developers. Option to demonstrate the popup ads forcibly to the victims of malware invasion is a perfect basis for malevolent tricks with the popup ads. And Maincaptcha.top advertisements is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.
Here is a short summary for the Maincaptcha.top
Site | Maincaptcha.top |
Hosting | AS209813 Fast Content Delivery LTD Russia, Saint Petersburg |
Infection Type | Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads |
IP Address | 5.8.67.176 |
Symptoms | Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner. |
Similar behavior | Bastionthree, Mscmart, Device |
Fix Tool | To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC |
How have I got the Maincaptcha.top virus?
There are a plenty of ways of becoming infected by the adware that trigger the Maincaptcha.top popups storm. A lion’s part of this virus cases is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Freeware can likewise be downloaded from the main web page, and the adware is offered as a legit bundled program.
There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of people oftentimes make use of the unreliable programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, different apps that are free, or even hacked programs. All of these types of applications are risky, because it is extremely simple to include a Maincaptcha.top 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.
Maincaptcha.top popup malware can also be concealed in the advertisement somewhere on the odd website. Such sites are in most cases full of colorful and blinking ads, and their proprietors often permit any type of promos to be published on their page. For this reason, clicking on such banners is a risky thing: only the ad contractor knows what will happen when you press this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can also get something much more damaging, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious ads.
Potentially unwanted applications, like Maincaptcha.top popup virus can cause a wide range of problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-ups may present you the banners, where you are offered to download one more unknown application, or “a amazing security tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the last motto. Potentially undesirable programs, in turn, can have spyware functions. And it is pretty hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also used as a distribution method by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these ads, they may be clicked by someone who also uses 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 programs as soon as possible.
How can I get rid of Maincaptcha.top pop-up advertisements?
The manual of Maincaptcha.top adware clearing consists of 2 parts. Initially, we need to get rid of the malware, and after that repair the consequences of its activity. The elimination procedure is pretty easy, due to the fact that it can be executed even with using Microsoft Defender – anti-malware program that is present on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, because of its substantial resources consumption, as well as some bugs that can be pivotal for some types of users, Defender is often disabled by the users, so its usage is probably impossible. Furthermore, a wide range of trojan viruses have the ability to shut off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.
I would certainly advise you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security tool that will definitely remove the viruses from your system and also create an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection function. But let’s deal with Maincaptcha.top adware first.
Removing Maincaptcha.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.
- 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.
- When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of Maincaptcha.top malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.
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 :
- Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :
- 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 :
- Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :
- In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :
After choosing this option, you will see the next message :
If you use Google Chrome
- Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button :
- In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :
- 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
- 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 :
- 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 browser will definitely connect the appropriate DNS while connecting to the website you need. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your computer’s desktop, then open it and fill it with the following text3:
#
# 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 issue that makes things a lot harder to repair, particularly without the anti-malware program. A lot of adware variants that are utilized to show you the Maincaptcha.top pop-up advertisements are changing the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your computer was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will crash soon. In certain cases, you will see no crash, but significant lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 secs, and afterwards it will be back to the normal, up until you try 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.
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.
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 Maincaptcha.top Pop-ups?
Name: Maincaptcha.top
Description: Maincaptcha.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 Maincaptcha.top push notifications?” or “why do Maincaptcha.top pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Maincaptcha.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
User Review
( votes)References
- More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
- GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and also the reasons why I recommend it for malware removal.
- Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.