Remove Nicewinner.net Virus — How to Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Nicewinner.net pop-up alerts can show up out of the blue, covering the post of the page you visited or opening your browser when you don’t want it to be opened.

Clicking on the Nicewinner.net advertisement may lead to the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the tutorial of Nicewinner.net popups removal in multiple ways, as well as inspecting your PC for additional malware existence.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review
It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!
Removing Nicewinner.net 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.
Gridinsoft Anti-Malware 6-day trial available.
EULA | Privacy Policy | 10% Off Coupon
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to be the first to know about news and our exclusive materials on information security.

What are Nicewinner.net pop-ups?

Nicewinner.net popups are a result of adware activity. Adware is a sort of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which generates a significant volume of income for adware representatives. These promotions might contain sometimes shocking composition, or have a web link to harmful content/website, since adware maintainers have no reason to examine the goodness of the web content they are going to show – their solitary target is cash.

Nicewinner.net push notification

Nicewinner.net push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is an excellent, low-priced and really productive advertising solution1. It allows the vendor to attach the customers’ attention to their site, and the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to buy. When the person will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he likes to purchase is available at the online store he/she saw previously with a 15% discount, one will certainly use this opportunity and get it. Considering the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising and marketing tool is a favorite thing amongst the advertising departments of large internet retail stores.

However, such a successful plan could not be missed by malware creators. Potential to demonstrate the popup ads forcibly to the people of malware invasion is a great basis for evil-minded adjustments with the popup advertisements. And Nicewinner.net promotions is among hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short summary for the Nicewinner.net
Site Nicewinner.net
Hosting AS202053 UpCloud Ltd
Germany, Frankfurt am Main
Infection Type Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address 94.237.84.54
Symptoms Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior Velsvides, Performprecisecompletelytheproduct, My
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Nicewinner.net virus?

There are a huge amount of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that lead to the Nicewinner.net popups tornado. A lion’s part of this malware incidents is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware can also be downloaded from the official website, and the adware is supplied as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A number of people frequently utilize the unreliable programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, different apps that are free, or even hacked programs. All of these types of software are risky, because it is very simple to build in a Nicewinner.net malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

Nicewinner.net popup malware can likewise be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the unusual web page. Such websites are usually packed with bright and blinking ads, and their proprietors typically approve any promotions to be posted on their page. Therefore, clicking such banners is a risky thing: only the advertisement provider realizes what will occur when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you may also get something far more risky, like ransomware or coin miner; the substantial share of coin miners distribution is exactly after the malicious promotions.

People dislike popups

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

Potentially undesirable applications, like Nicewinner.net pop-up virus may initiate a variety of different troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the only effect – pop-ups may show you the promotions, where you are offered to get another dubious program, or “a effective anti-malware tool”. Scareware is usually distributed under the last slogun. Potentially unwanted programs, in turn, can have spyware functionality. And it is quite hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a normal one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related promotions are also chosen as a spreading way by different trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these advertisements, they may be clicked by whoever who also makes use of your computer – 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 get rid of the viruses with antivirus programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Nicewinner.net pop-up advertisements?

The manual of Nicewinner.net adware removal includes 2 parts. Initially, we need to deal with the malware, and after that take care of the results of its action. The removal process is quite easy, due to the fact that it may be executed even with using Microsoft Defender – anti-malware program that is present on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, as a result of its large resources usage, along with some defects that may be serious for some kinds of individuals, Defender is oftentimes disabled by the users, so its utilization is most likely impossible. In addition, different trojan viruses have the ability to turn off the embedded antivirus. It is far better to make use of the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I’d recommend you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven antivirus device that will definitely eliminate the malware from your personal computer and create an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s manage Nicewinner.net adware initially.

Removing Nicewinner.net 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 Nicewinner.net 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 browser will definitely connect the appropriate DNS while connecting to the web page you need. Create a text file named “hosts” on your desktop, after that 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 trouble that makes the things much more difficult to fix, particularly without the anti-malware program. A lot of adware variants that are utilized to show you the Nicewinner.net pop-up advertisements are altering the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your PC was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly crash soon. Sometimes, you will see no crash, however, significant lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and then it will be back to the typical, until you attempt to open settings one more time.

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 Nicewinner.net Pop-ups?

Name: Nicewinner.net

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

Sending
User Review
3 (4 votes)
Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

References

  1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review 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.

Leave a Reply

Sending