Screenauto2 Ads Removal Guide — How to Fix It?

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Screenauto2 pop-up alerts may appear unexpectedly, covering the subject of the page you checked or opening your web browser when you do not need it to be opened.

Clicking on the Screenauto2 promotion can lead to the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the manual of Screenauto2 popups removal in multiple methods, and also examining your system for extra malware existence.

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What are Screenauto2 pop-ups?

Screenauto2 popups are a result of adware activity. Adware is a sort of malware that demonstrates to you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click promotions, which produces a significant volume of revenue for adware distributors. These advertisements might contain sometimes shocking material, or have a web link to harmful content/website, due to the fact that adware maintainers have no purpose to examine the goodness of the material they are going to reveal – their solitary target is money.

Screenauto2 push notification

Screenauto2 push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is an excellent, low-cost and also really efficient advertising instrument1. It allows the seller to attach the customers’ attention to their website, as well as the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to purchase. When the consumer will get a pop-up alert that the TV set he wishes to purchase is available at the online shop he/she checked out previously with a 15% price cut, one will undoubtedly use this possibility and purchase it. Considering the exceptionally low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a marketing method is a much-loved thing among the marketing departments of huge online sellers.

Nevertheless, such a profitable system could not be missed by virus developers. Option to demonstrate the popup ads forcibly to the victims of malware attack is a perfect basis for malevolent tricks with the popup promotions. And Screenauto2.xyz advertisements is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a short summary for the Screenauto2 site
SiteScreenauto2.xyz
HostingAS15317 Serverel Inc.
United States, Contra Costa Centre
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address173.214.240.15
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorTisinihave, Ouradver, Faithlocation2
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Screenauto2 virus?

There are a lot of methods of becoming infected by the adware that lead to the Screenauto2 popups storm. A lion’s part of this malware instances is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware can additionally be downloaded from the main website, and the adware is presented as a legitimate bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A plenty of people regularly use the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, various utilities that are free, or perhaps hacked programs. All of these kinds of software are dangerous, since it is very easy to integrate a Screenauto2 malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Screenauto2 popup malware may additionally be concealed in the promotion somewhere on the unusual website. Such web pages are usually full of colorful and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors often permit any type of promos to be published on their web page. Therefore, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the ad provider realizes what will happen when you press this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you may likewise get something much more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the substantial share of coin miners distribution is exactly after the malicious advertisements.

People dislike popups

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

Potentially unwanted applications, like Screenauto2 pop-up virus may cause a lot of problems on your computer. Distracting is not the only effect – pop-up notifications can show you the promotions, where you are offered to download one more dubious program, or “a effective security tool”. Scareware is usually distributed under the last slogun. Potentially undesirable programs, in turn, may have spyware functions. And it is quite hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a normal one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the potentially unwanted programs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related promotions are also chosen as a distribution method by various trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you several hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these advertisements, they can be clicked by whoever who also makes use of your personal computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to deal with it without data and money loss. It is recommended to eliminate the viruses with antivirus programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Screenauto2 pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Screenauto2 adware clearing consists of 2 parts. Initially, we need to eliminate the malware, and then repair the effects of its action. The removal procedure is quite simple, due to the fact that it may be done even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus tool that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, due to its substantial resources utilization, as well as some failures that can be serious for some categories of users, Defender is oftentimes turned off by the users, so its usage is most likely impossible. What’s more, various trojan viruses are capable to disable the embedded antivirus. It is far better to make use of the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I would certainly suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware tool that will certainly remove the viruses from your personal computer and make an invulnerable shield with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s manage Screenauto2 adware first.

Removing Screenauto2 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 Screenauto2 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 web browsers are reset, you need to make sure that your browser will definitely connect the proper DNS while connecting to the website you want. Make 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 problem that makes things a lot harder to fix, especially without the anti-malware program. Most of adware variants that are used to show you the Screenauto2 pop-up ads are modifying the deep browser configurations, 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 collapse soon. In certain cases, you will see no crash, however, huge lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 secs, and then it will be back to the normal, till you attempt 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 Screenauto2 Pop-ups?

Name: Screenauto2

Description: Screenauto2 - 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 Screenauto2.xyz push notifications?” or “why do Screenauto2.xyz pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Screenauto2 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 overview and the reasons why I advise 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.

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