How to remove Moatads pop-ups? — Fix Guide

Moatads pop-up adware notices can appear unexpectedly, covering the material of the site you explored or opening your web browser when you do not need it to be opened. Clicking on the Moatads.com pop-up promotion can cause the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the guide of Moatads.com popups clearing in several manners, and also examining your PC for extra viruses existence.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing Moatads.com manually may take hours and may damage your PC in the process. I recommend you to download GridinSoft Anti-Malware for threats removal. Allows to complete scan and cure your PC during the trial period.

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What are Moatads virus?

Moatads virus popups are a consequence of adware action. Adware is a type of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which produces a significant volume of revenue for adware suppliers. These advertisements may include sometimes shocking information, or have a link to malevolent content/website, due to the fact that adware maintainers have no purpose to examine the goodness of the material they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Moatads.com push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is an excellent, low-priced and really productive marketing method¹ It allows the vendor to attach the buyers’ interest to their website, and the customers to get dynamic updates on the goods they wish to purchase. When the consumer will receive a pop-up alert that the TV set he likes to purchase is available at the online shop he/she checked out earlier with a 15% price cut, one will undoubtedly use this possibility and get it. Taking into consideration the incredibly small cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing tool is a favorite thing amongst the advertising teams of large online sellers.

However, such a profitable plan could not be missed by malware creators. The potential to show the popup ads forcibly to the targets of a malware attack is an ideal basis for malicious manipulations with the popup advertisements. And Moatads promotions is just one of the hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a summary for the Moatads

How have I got the Moatads.com virus?

There are a number of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that create the Moatads.com 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 website, and the adware is provided as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. Plenty of individuals oftentimes use the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, a wide range of apps that are free, or even hacked programs. All of these types of software are risky, due to the fact that it is extremely simple to include a Moatads malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algorithm within the Windows optimization tool.

Moatads.com pop-up virus can also be concealed in the promotion somewhere on the strange site. Such web pages are typically full of bright and blinking ads, and their owners generally approve any type of promos to be published on their web page. Hence, clicking on such banners is a risky thing: only the ad contractor knows what will occur when you press this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you may also get something a lot more risky, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious ads.

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

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

The guide of Moatads adware removal includes 2 parts. First, we need to get rid of the malware, and afterward, take care of the consequences of its action. The elimination task is very easy, because it can be executed even with the use of Microsoft Defender – security tool that is present on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. However, due to its significant resource utilization, along with some errors that can be crucial for some categories of individuals, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its utilization is most likely impossible. Additionally, various trojan viruses are able to switch off the embedded antivirus. It is better to make use of the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I would certainly advise you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven antivirus device that will undoubtedly remove the viruses from your computer and create an invulnerable shield with a Proactive protection function. But let’s handle Moatads.com adware initially.

Removing Moatads.com 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 Moatads.com 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 :

1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :

2. 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. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :

After choosing this option, you will see the next message :

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 be connected the right DNS while connecting to the site you want. Make a text file named “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following content³:

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.

Nonetheless, there is one trouble that makes things much more difficult to repair, specifically without the anti-malware program. The majority of adware versions that are utilized to show you the Moatads.com pop-up advertisements are modifying the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to fix your browser settings after your computer was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse quickly. In some cases, 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 typical, up 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.

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 Moatads.com Pop-ups?

Name: Moatads.com

Description: Moatads.com - 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 Moatads.com push notifications?” or “why do Moatads.com pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Moatads.com 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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1. More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview and the reasons why I recommend it for malware elimination.
3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.