MakeSure Ads Removal Guide — How to Fix It?

Written by Wilbur Woodham

Undesirable MakeSure pop-up notices can show up out of the blue, covering the material of the website you checked or opening your web browser when you do not wish it to be opened. Clicking the MakeSure pop-up advertisement can lead to the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the tutorial of MakeSure popups removal in multiple ways, and also checking your PC for additional viruses presence.

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What are MakeSure pop-ups?

MakeSure popups are an outcome of adware action. Adware is a type of malware that suggests you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which generates a massive amount of revenue for adware representatives. These promotions may include explicit content, or have a link to malevolent content/website, considering that adware maintainers have no reason to inspect the goodness of the content they are going to show – their solitary target is money.

MakeSure push notification

MakeSure push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is a very good, low-cost and also really efficient marketing solution1 It allows the seller to link the buyers’ interest to their website, as well as the buyers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they want to purchase. When the consumer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to buy is available at the online store he/she saw earlier with a 15% price cut, one will definitely use this opportunity and purchase it. Considering the extremely small cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising method is a favorite thing among the marketing departments of large online sellers.

However, such a successful plan could not be missed by malware creators. Ability to demonstrate the popup advertisements by force to the victims of malware invasion is a great basis for malicious adjustments with the popup promotions. And Makesure.biz ads is just one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a summary for the MakeSure site
SiteMakesure.biz
HostingAS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.
United States, San Francisco
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address172.67.186.201
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorTandvaluable.biz, Keasignifican.biz, Luckymedia.cyou
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the MakeSure virus?

There are a plenty of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that cause the MakeSure popups storm. A lion’s part of this computer virus cases is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may likewise be downloaded from the main web page, and the adware is provided as a legitimate bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A plenty of users regularly utilize the dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, a wide range of apps that are free, and even hacked programs. All of these sorts of applications are unsafe, since it is extremely simple to build in a MakeSure 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.

MakeSure popup virus may additionally be concealed in the ad somewhere on the odd site. Such sites are usually packed with bright and blinking ads, and their proprietors generally accept any promotions to be published on their page. Thus, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider knows what will happen when you press this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may also receive something far more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious promotions.

People dislike popups

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

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

The guide of MakeSure adware clearing consists of 2 sections. First, we need to deal with the malware, and after that correct the consequences of its activity. The removal process is really simple, because it may be performed even with the use of Microsoft Defender – security program that is present on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, because of its huge resources consumption, along with some defects that can be crucial for some kinds of users, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its use is likely impossible. Furthermore, a wide range of trojan viruses are able to shut off the embedded antivirus. It is far better to use the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I would certainly recommend you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven antivirus tool that will undoubtedly exterminate the viruses from your computer and also create an invulnerable shield with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s take care of MakeSure adware initially.

Removing MakeSure 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 MakeSure 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 web browser will definitely connect the correct DNS while connecting to the web page you need. Create a text file named “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 problem that makes things a lot more difficult to fix, especially without the anti-malware program. The majority of adware variants that are used to show you the MakeSure 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 machine was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will crash soon. In some cases, you will see no crash, however, significant lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 seconds, and after that it will be back to the normal, till 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.

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 MakeSure Pop-ups?

Name: MakeSure

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