Remove Smart.cleanuppc.xyz Virus — How to Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Smart.cleanuppc.xyz pop-up notifications can appear out of the blue, covering the content of the website you went to or opening your browser when you don’t wish it to be opened.

Clicking the Smart.cleanuppc.xyz promotion can result in the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the guideline of Smart.cleanuppc.xyz popups clearing in several manners, as well as inspecting your PC for other viruses existence.

GridinSoft Anti-Malware Review
It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!
Removing Smart.cleanuppc.xyz 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 Smart.cleanuppc.xyz pop-ups?

Smart.cleanuppc.xyz popups are a consequence of adware presence. Adware is a type of malware that presents you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which produces a significant volume of earnings for adware representatives. These ads may contain sometimes shocking information, or have a web link to harmful content/website, because adware maintainers have no reason to examine the goodness of the web content they are going to show – their single target is money.

Smart.cleanuppc.xyz push notification

Smart.cleanuppc.xyz push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is an excellent, low-priced and also very productive marketing instrument1. It enables the seller to link the customers’ interest to their website, and the buyers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they want to purchase. When the consumer will receive a pop-up notification that the TV set he wishes to buy is available at the online store he/she checked out earlier with a 15% discount, one will definitely use this possibility and buy it. Considering the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a marketing method is a favourite thing among the marketing departments of big online sellers.

Nevertheless, such a rewarding strategy could not be missed by malware creators. Option to demonstrate the popup ads by force to the victims of malware invasion is an ideal basis for malicious tricks with the popup promotions. And Smart.cleanuppc.xyz ads is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short details for the Smart.cleanuppc.xyz
SiteSmart.cleanuppc.xyz
HostingAS22612 Namecheap, Inc.
United States, Phoenix
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address198.54.116.66
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorBoot, Load, Heders
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Smart.cleanuppc.xyz virus?

There are a huge amount of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that cause the Smart.cleanuppc.xyz popups tornado. A lion’s part of this computer virus incidents is after the free software or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may additionally be downloaded from the official web page, and the adware is supplied as a legit bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A huge amount of users frequently use the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, different utilities that are free of cost, or even hacked programs. Every one of these kinds of software are dangerous, because it is quite simple to integrate a Smart.cleanuppc.xyz malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

Smart.cleanuppc.xyz popup malware may additionally be hidden in the ad somewhere on the unusual website. Such websites are usually loaded with colorful and blinking ads, and their owners often accept any type of promos to be placed on their web page. For this reason, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the ad contractor realizes what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can additionally receive something much more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the large share of coin miners circulation 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 programs, like Smart.cleanuppc.xyz pop-up virus may cause a lot of troubles on your PC. Distracting is not the single effect – pop-ups may present you the ads, where you are offered to download another strange application, or “a effective anti-malware tool”. Scareware is often distributed with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, can have spyware functionality. And it is very hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and pseudo antiviruses, popup-related ads are also used as a spreading method by various trojan viruses, for instance – coin miners. The consequences of actions of such malware is 100% unpleasant, and can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And even if you are not interacting with these ads, they can be clicked by someone who also uses your personal computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the things may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without information loss. It is recommended to eliminate the viruses with anti-malware applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Smart.cleanuppc.xyz pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Smart.cleanuppc.xyz adware clearing consists of 2 parts. First, we need to eliminate the malware, and after that take care of the effects of its activity. The elimination procedure is pretty simple, since it can be performed even with the use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus program that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. However, due to its huge resources utilization, as well as some problems that may be crucial for some categories of users, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its use is most likely impossible. What’s more, a wide range of trojan viruses are capable to switch off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to make use of the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I’d suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven antivirus tool that will undoubtedly wipe out the viruses from your PC and make an impenetrable shield with a Proactive protection function. However, let’s manage Smart.cleanuppc.xyz adware initially.

Removing Smart.cleanuppc.xyz 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 Smart.cleanuppc.xyz 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 ensure that your web browser will definitely be connected the correct DNS while connecting to the website you need. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, then open it and fill it with the following content3:

# 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 issue that makes the things much more difficult to repair, especially without the anti-malware program. A lot of adware versions that are utilized to show you the Smart.cleanuppc.xyz pop-up promotions are changing the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to fix your browser settings after your system was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse soon. In some cases, you will see no crash, but large lag spike after pushing 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 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.

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 Smart.cleanuppc.xyz Pop-ups?

Name: Smart.cleanuppc.xyz

Description: Smart.cleanuppc.xyz - 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 Smart.cleanuppc.xyz push notifications?” or “why do Smart.cleanuppc.xyz pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Smart.cleanuppc.xyz 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
3.6 (5 votes)
Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

References

  1. More about pop-up ads on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and the reasons why I recommend 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