Remove MyDesktopDefender Pop-up Virus — How to Remove?

MyDesktopDefender pop-up notices may show up out of the blue, covering the content of the site you checked or opening your web browser when you do not wish it to be opened.

Clicking the MyDesktopDefender ad may cause the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the guide of MyDesktopDefender popups clearing in a couple of methods, and also inspecting your personal computer for extra viruses presence.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing MyDesktopDefender 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 MyDesktopDefender pop-ups?

MyDesktopDefender popups are a consequence of adware activity. Adware is a kind of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which produces a major volume of profit for adware suppliers. These ads might consist of sometimes shocking content, or have a link to malicious content/website, considering that adware maintainers have no reason to check the goodness of the material they are going to reveal – their single target is cash.

MyDesktopDefender push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is an excellent, cheap and extremely effective marketing instrument¹. It allows the seller to link the customers’ interest to their website, as well as the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they wish to buy. When the person will get a pop-up alert that the TV set he wishes to buy is offered at the online store he/she checked out previously with a 15% discount, one will surely use this possibility and buy it. Taking into consideration the incredibly small cost for the popups and their targeting, such a marketing tool is a much-loved thing amongst the marketing departments of large internet retail stores.

Nonetheless, such a rewarding plan could not be missed by virus creators. Potential to show the popup ads forcibly to the people of malware invasion is a perfect basis for evil-minded adjustments with the popup promotions. And Mydesktopdefender.com ads is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a info for the MyDesktopDefender

How have I got the MyDesktopDefender virus?

There are a lot of methods of getting infected by the adware that cause the MyDesktopDefender popups storm. A lion’s part of this computer virus cases is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Freeware can likewise be downloaded from the official web page, and the adware is delivered as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A huge amount of individuals oftentimes use the dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, a wide range of apps that are free of cost, and even hacked programs. Every one of these types of programs are risky, because it is very easy to include a MyDesktopDefender 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.

MyDesktopDefender popup virus may additionally be concealed in the promotion somewhere on the strange website. Such websites are typically full of bright and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors generally accept any type of promotions to be placed on their web page. Therefore, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider knows what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you can likewise get something a lot more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious promotions.

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

Potentially unwanted applications, like MyDesktopDefender popup virus can cause a wide range of different troubles on your computer. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-ups can present you the ads, where you are offered to get another unknown application, or “a amazing anti-malware tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the use of the last motto. Potentially unwanted applications, in turn, may have spyware functionality. And it is quite hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a normal one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and fake antiviruses, popup-related banners are also exploited as a spreading method by various trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these promotions, they can be clicked by whoever who also makes use of your PC – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without information loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with anti-malware programs as soon as possible.

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

The tutorial of MyDesktopDefender adware clearing includes 2 parts. Initially, we need to deal with the malware, and then take care of the consequences of its action. The removal process is quite easy, since it can be performed even with making use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus tool that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. However, because of its substantial resources consumption, as well as some failures that may be pivotal for some types of individuals, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its usage is likely impossible. Additionally, a wide range of trojan viruses can turn off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to use the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I’d advise you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven antivirus device that will surely remove the viruses from your PC and make an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s manage MyDesktopDefender adware initially.

Removing MyDesktopDefender 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 MyDesktopDefender 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 be connected the accurate DNS while connecting to the web page you need. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your computer’s desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following text³:

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 the things a lot more difficult to repair, particularly without the anti-malware software. A lot of adware versions that are utilized to show you the MyDesktopDefender pop-up advertisements are modifying the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your PC was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse soon. In certain cases, you will see no crash, but large lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and then it will be back to the normal, 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 MyDesktopDefender Pop-ups?

Name: MyDesktopDefender

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