Remove Protected-connect.com Pop-up Ads — How to Fix Gude

Unwanted Protected-connect.com pop-up notifications may appear out of the blue, covering the material of the page you checked or opening your browser when you do not wish it to be opened. Clicking the Protected-connect.com pop-up advertisement may result in the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the guide of Protected-connect.com popups clearing in various ways, and also checking your system for additional malware existence.

It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!

Removing Protected-connect.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 Protected-connect.com pop-ups?

Protected-connect.com popups are a consequence of adware activity. Adware is a kind of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click advertisements, which generates a substantial volume of income for adware suppliers. These ads might include sometimes shocking composition, or have a web link to malevolent content/website, due to the fact that adware maintainers have no reason to examine the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their single target is money.

Protected-connect.com push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is a good, affordable and extremely productive marketing instrument¹ It enables the vendor to attach the buyers’ attention to their website, as well as the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they wish to buy. When the person will receive a pop-up alert that the TV set he wishes to buy is available at the online shop he/she checked out previously with a 15% price cut, one will surely use this chance and get it. Taking into consideration the exceptionally small cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing instrument is a favorite thing amidst the marketing departments of large online retailers.

However, such a profitable strategy could not be missed by virus developers. Option to show the popup ads by force to the targets of malware attack is an ideal basis for malicious adjustments with the popup ads. And Protected-connect.com promotions is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a short details for the Protected-connect.com

How have I got the Protected-connect.com virus?

There are a plenty of methods of getting contaminated by the adware that create the Protected-connect.com popups storm. A lion’s part of this virus cases is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware can also be downloaded from the main web page, and the adware is presented as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A huge amount of individuals oftentimes use the uncertain programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, different utilities that are free, or perhaps hacked programs. All of these kinds of programs are unsafe, because it is extremely easy to integrate a Protected-connect.com malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

Protected-connect.com popup malware can likewise be hidden in the advertisement somewhere on the odd web page. Such web pages are in most cases loaded with colorful and blinking ads, and their proprietors typically approve any promos to be posted on their web page. Thus, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the ad provider realizes what will happen when you press this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can likewise receive something far more hazardous, 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

How can I get rid of Protected-connect.com pop-up advertisements?

The manual of Protected-connect.com adware removal consists of 2 sections. Initially, we need to remove the malware, and after that repair the results of its action. The removal procedure is pretty easy, due to the fact that it may be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-malware tool that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, as a result of its significant resources consumption, as well as some failures that may be pivotal for some categories of users, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its usage is most likely impossible. In addition, a wide range of trojan viruses can shut off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to make use of the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I would certainly advise you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware² – a well-proven antivirus tool that will undoubtedly erase the viruses from your system and also create an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s handle Protected-connect.com adware first.

Removing Protected-connect.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 Protected-connect.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 make sure that your browser will connect the proper DNS while connecting to the web page you want. Create a text file named “hosts” on your pc’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.

Nevertheless, there is one problem that makes things a lot more difficult to restore, particularly without the anti-malware software. A lot of adware variations that are used to show you the Protected-connect.com pop-up ads are modifying the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to change your browser settings after your system was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly crash quickly. Sometimes, you will see no crash, but huge lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 secs, and then it will be back to the normal, 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 Protected-connect.com Pop-ups?

Name: Protected-connect.com

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