Remove Smartcaptchasolve.top Virus — How to Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Smartcaptchasolve.top pop-up alerts can appear unexpectedly, covering the post of the website you visited or opening your browser when you don’t need it to be opened.

Clicking on the Smartcaptchasolve.top advertisement can trigger the injection of other malware or unwanted programs. In this article, you will see the manual of Smartcaptchasolve.top popups clearing in a couple of methods, and also inspecting your system for extra viruses existence.

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What are Smartcaptchasolve.top pop-ups?

Smartcaptchasolve.top popups are a result of adware action. Adware is a kind of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which creates a major amount of income for adware distributors. These promotions may consist of explicit material, or have a link to harmful content/website, because adware maintainers have no reason to inspect the goodness of the content they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Smartcaptchasolve.top push notification

Smartcaptchasolve.top push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is an excellent, low-cost and also really efficient marketing instrument1. It enables the vendor to attach the customers’ interest to their site, as well as the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they wish to buy. When the consumer will get a pop-up notification that the TV set he desires to buy is offered at the online store he/she saw previously with a 15% discount, one will surely use this opportunity and purchase it. Taking into consideration the incredibly low price for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing tool is a favourite thing among the advertising departments of huge online sellers.

However, such a profitable plan could not be missed by virus creators. Ability to demonstrate the popup advertisements forcibly to the targets of malware attack is an excellent basis for malevolent tricks with the popup promotions. And Smartcaptchasolve.top ads is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a short info for the Smartcaptchasolve.top site
SiteSmartcaptchasolve.top
HostingAS209813 Fast Content Delivery LTD
Netherlands, Haarlem
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address5.8.34.35
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorPeepholetwin, Enactmedi, Hetaruvg
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Smartcaptchasolve.top virus?

There are a plenty of methods of getting infected by the adware that create the Smartcaptchasolve.top popups storm. A lion’s part of this malware incidents is after the free software or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Free software can likewise be downloaded from the main web page, and the adware is delivered as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A plenty of users frequently make use of the unreliable programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, different tools that are free of cost, or even hacked programs. All of these types of applications are unsafe, since it is extremely simple to build in a Smartcaptchasolve.top 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.

Smartcaptchasolve.top popup malware may likewise be hidden in the ad somewhere on the strange site. Such websites are in most cases filled with bright and blinking advertisements, and their proprietors typically accept any type of promotions to be published on their page. Thus, clicking such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement provider realizes what will happen when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you may additionally receive something much more dangerous, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners circulation 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 programs, like Smartcaptchasolve.top pop-up virus may initiate a lot of problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-ups may display you the advertisements, where you are offered to download another dubious program, or “a perfect anti-malware tool”. Scareware is often spread with the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, may have spyware functions. And it is pretty 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 ads are also used as a distribution way by different trojan viruses, for example – 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 clicking these banners, they can be clicked by someone who also uses your PC – 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 eliminate the viruses with antivirus applications as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Smartcaptchasolve.top pop-up advertisements?

The tutorial of Smartcaptchasolve.top adware clearing contains 2 parts. Initially, we need to exterminate the malware, and after that fix the consequences of its activity. The removal procedure is pretty simple, since it may be done even with using Microsoft Defender – anti-virus program that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, due to its substantial resources consumption, as well as some errors that can be crucial for some categories of users, Defender is often disabled by the users, so its use is likely impossible. Furthermore, different trojan viruses can disable the embedded antivirus. It is better to use the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I’d suggest you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven security device that will definitely eliminate the malware from your PC and also make an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection function. But let’s handle Smartcaptchasolve.top adware first.

Removing Smartcaptchasolve.top 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 Smartcaptchasolve.top 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 web browser will be connected the correct DNS while connecting to the web page you want. Make a text file named “hosts” on your desktop, then 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 the things a lot harder to restore, specifically without the anti-malware software. Most of adware variants that are used to show you the Smartcaptchasolve.top pop-up promotions are altering the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to fix your browser settings after your machine was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly collapse quickly. In certain cases, you will see no crash, but large lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 seconds, and afterwards it will be back to the normal, until you try 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 Smartcaptchasolve.top Pop-ups?

Name: Smartcaptchasolve.top

Description: Smartcaptchasolve.top - 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 Smartcaptchasolve.top push notifications?” or “why do Smartcaptchasolve.top pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Smartcaptchasolve.top 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 advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware review and the reasons why I advise 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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