Pcprotect.name Ads Removal Guide — How to Fix It?

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Pcprotect.name pop-up alerts can show up unexpectedly, covering the content of the site you went to or opening your web browser when you don’t need it to be opened.

Clicking on the Pcprotect.name ad may result in the injection of various malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the tutorial of Pcprotect.name popups removal in multiple manners, and also checking your personal computer for other malware presence.

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What are Pcprotect.name pop-ups?

Pcprotect.name popups are a consequence of adware action. Adware is a kind of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which generates a large amount of revenue for adware representatives. These ads might contain sometimes shocking material, 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 show – their single target is money.

Pcprotect.name push notification

Pcprotect.name push notification.

Pop-up marketing itself is a very good, cheap and also extremely effective marketing tool1. It allows the seller to attach the buyers’ attention to their website, and the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they want to buy. When the customer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he wishes to purchase is provided at the online shop he/she checked out earlier with a 15% discount, one will definitely use this opportunity and purchase it. Considering the exceptionally low price for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing tool is a favorite thing amidst the advertising departments of big internet retail stores.

Nevertheless, such a successful strategy could not be missed by malware creators. Option to demonstrate the popup ads by force to the targets of malware attack is an ideal basis for evil-minded manipulations with the popup advertisements. And Pcprotect.name advertisements is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a summary for the Pcprotect.name
SitePcprotect.name
HostingAS20473 The Constant Company, LLC
Germany, Frankfurt am Main
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address192.248.187.102
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorPrincipledecli, News, Aditmedia
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Pcprotect.name virus?

There are a huge amount of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that cause the Pcprotect.name popups tornado. A lion’s part of this malware instances is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Freeware can also be downloaded from the official web page, and the adware is provided as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A plenty of people often make use of the uncertain programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, various utilities that are free of cost, or perhaps hacked programs. Every one of these sorts of software are risky, since it is extremely simple to include a Pcprotect.name 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.

Pcprotect.name popup malware can additionally be concealed in the ad somewhere on the strange website. Such sites are usually packed with colorful and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors generally permit any type of promos to be placed on their page. Therefore, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement contractor realizes what will happen when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can likewise get something far more damaging, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners distribution is exactly after the malicious ads.

People dislike popups

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

Potentially unwanted applications, like Pcprotect.name popup virus may initiate a wide range of troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-ups can show you the advertisements, where you are offered to download another dubious program, or “a amazing security tool”. Scareware is often distributed with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, can have spyware functionality. And it is pretty hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a normal one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and fake antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also exploited as a distribution way by various trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such viruses is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you several hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not tapping these advertisements, they can be clicked by whoever who also makes use of your computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things can become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without data loss. It is recommended to wipe out the viruses with anti-malware applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Pcprotect.name pop-up advertisements?

The guide of Pcprotect.name adware elimination contains 2 parts. Initially, we need to exterminate the malware, and then repair the effects of its action. The elimination process is really easy, since it may be executed even with using Microsoft Defender – anti-virus program that is present on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, as a result of its significant resources usage, as well as some failures that can be pivotal for some types of users, Defender is often disabled by the users, so its utilization is probably impossible. In addition, different trojan viruses are capable to switch off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I’d advise you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware device that will surely remove the malware from your personal computer and also create an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection feature. But let’s handle Pcprotect.name adware first.

Removing Pcprotect.name 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 Pcprotect.name 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 web browser will be connected the accurate DNS while connecting to the web page you want. Create a text file named “hosts” on your computer’s 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.

However, there is one trouble that makes the things much harder to fix, specifically without the anti-malware software. Most of adware versions that are used to show you the Pcprotect.name pop-up promotions are altering the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to fix your browser settings after your computer was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly 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 secs, and after that it will be back to the typical, up until you try to open settings once more.

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 Pcprotect.name Pop-ups?

Name: Pcprotect.name

Description: Pcprotect.name - 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 Pcprotect.name push notifications?” or “why do Pcprotect.name pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Pcprotect.name 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 suggest it for malware elimination.
  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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