Remove Stream-core.xyz Pop-up Virus — How to Remove?

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Stream-core.xyz pop-up notifications can appear out of the blue, covering the subject of the website you visited or opening your web browser when you do not want it to be opened.

Clicking on the Stream-core.xyz promotion can cause the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this post, you will see the guideline of Stream-core.xyz popups removal in a couple of ways, and also checking your system for other malware existence.

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What are Stream-core.xyz pop-ups?

Stream-core.xyz popups are a result of adware activity. Adware is a kind of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click advertisements, which generates a large volume of income for adware representatives. These ads might include sometimes shocking information, or have a link to harmful content/website, since adware maintainers have no purpose to inspect the goodness of the material they are going to reveal – their solitary target is money.

Stream-core.xyz push notification

Stream-core.xyz push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is an excellent, low-priced and also really productive advertising tool1. It makes it possible for the seller to attach the customers’ attention to their site, and the buyers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they want to buy. When the consumer will receive a pop-up alert that the TV set he desires to purchase is provided at the online store he/she checked out earlier with a 15% price cut, one will surely use this possibility and get it. Taking into consideration the exceptionally small cost for the popups and their targeting, such an advertising method is a much-loved thing among the marketing teams of big internet retailers.

However, such a successful strategy could not be missed by virus creators. Potential to demonstrate the popup advertisements forcibly to the targets of malware invasion is an ideal basis for malevolent tricks with the popup promotions. And Stream-core.xyz advertisements is one of hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a short summary for the Stream-core.xyz
Site Stream-core.xyz
Hosting AS24940 Hetzner Online GmbH
Germany, Köln
Infection Type Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address 116.202.184.109
Symptoms Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior Dev, News, Mo01
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Stream-core.xyz virus?

There are a number of methods of becoming contaminated by the adware that lead to the Stream-core.xyz popups storm. A lion’s part of this malware incidents is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Free software may also be downloaded from the official website, and the adware is presented as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of users oftentimes make use of the unreliable programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, different utilities that are free of cost, and even hacked programs. Every one of these kinds of software are dangerous, due to the fact that it is very easy to integrate a Stream-core.xyz malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a component of the self-made algoritm inside of the Windows optimization tool.

Stream-core.xyz popup malware may additionally be concealed in the promotion somewhere on the unusual website. Such sites are usually full of intense and blinking advertisements, and their owners typically accept any type of promos to be placed on their page. Thus, clicking such banners is a risky thing: only the ad contractor knows what will occur when you click this advertisement. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can also receive something a lot more dangerous, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious promotions.

People dislike popups

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

Potentially undesirable programs, like Stream-core.xyz popup virus may provoke a lot of problems on your computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-ups may show you the banners, where you are offered to get one more strange application, or “a perfect security tool”. Scareware is often spread with the use of the last motto. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, can have spyware functions. And it is pretty hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related promotions are also used as a distribution method by different trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such viruses is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not interacting with these ads, they may be clicked by someone who also uses your computer – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to deal with it without data loss. It is recommended to eliminate the viruses with anti-malware programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Stream-core.xyz pop-up advertisements?

The guide of Stream-core.xyz adware removal consists of 2 parts. Initially, we need to remove the malware, and then fix the results of its action. The removal process is quite simple, due to the fact that it can be done even with making use of Microsoft Defender – anti-virus software that is available on all computers with Windows 8/10. Nevertheless, as a result of its huge resources utilization, as well as some errors that may be crucial for some categories of individuals, Defender is often turned off by the users, so its use is most likely impossible. Moreover, various trojan viruses have the ability to turn off the embedded antivirus. It is better to use the separated program that will not have such weakness.

I’d recommend you to utilize Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware device that will definitely wipe out the viruses from your PC and also create an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection function. But let’s handle Stream-core.xyz adware first.

Removing Stream-core.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 Stream-core.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 browsers are reset, you need to make sure that your browser will definitely be connected the right DNS while connecting to the site you need. Make 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.

Nonetheless, there is one problem that makes things a lot more difficult to restore, particularly without the anti-malware software. A lot of adware variants that are used to show you the Stream-core.xyz pop-up advertisements are adjusting the deep browser configurations, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your computer was infected by pop-up-related malware, your browser will 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 after that it will be back to the typical, till 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 Stream-core.xyz Pop-ups?

Name: Stream-core.xyz

Description: Stream-core.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 Stream-core.xyz push notifications?” or “why do Stream-core.xyz pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Stream-core.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

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References

  1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview 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.

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