Totaltopstories.com pop-ups that appear while surfing the Web are the outcome of a malicious software activity that resides inside your browser. Such pop-ups emerge in ample quantities, disrupting and bothering you.
Most of the pop-ups from Totaltopstories.com site are irrelevant, as it displays any promotional elements it gets a deal for. Given that many websites promoted in this manner are not benevolent, it is clear to expect them to feature dangerous material. Specifically, they can expose you to different forms of online deceptions.
What are Totaltopstories pop-up advertisements?
By certain properties, Totaltopstories.com pop-ups are to standard pop-ups you may come across on different sites. However, all the distinction – and detriment – arises from this exact website. Pages like Totaltopstories are commonly established with just one intention – to propose unsuspecting users to enable pop-ups and then start spamming them.
Brief description of the Totaltopstories.com pop-ups:
| Name | Totaltopstories.com |
| Hosting | AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc. United States, San Francisco |
| IP Address | 104.21.34.198 |
| Malware type | Adware1 |
| Effect | Unwanted pop-up advertisements |
| Hazard level | Medium |
| Malware source | Apps from third-party websites, ads on dubious websites |
| Similar behavior | Wedonhisdhiltew, Capitevs, Xuowltwo |
| Removal method | To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC |
Ads by the Totaltopstories.com site are not legitimate either. At best, those will be completely irrelevant promotions, that will still be annoying considering their frequency. Nevertheless, more frequent scenarios encompass advertisements of mysterious deals with 90% reduction, adult sites ads or phishing attempts. Here are some of the standard patterns for push ads spam:
- Visit this new, totally legitimate shopping site and claim your discount coupon.
- Your system is infected with 15 viruses. Contact our tech support or perform an immediate scan.
- Speed up your computer with an incredibly effective system cleaner.
- Discover 5, 10, 20, or even 50 women near you who are eager to chat.
- Sign in on this new crypto exchange website and receive a substantial crypto bonus.
- You’ve received a new message on Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp. Beware of phishing links.
- Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option:
- After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original:
- Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information”:
- In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option:
- Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button:
- In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults”:
- Finally, you will see the window, where you can see all the settings which will be reset to default:
- 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:
- After clicking the “Restore settings…” button, you will see the window, where all settings, which will be reset, are shown:
- More about this malware type on GridinSoft Encyclopedia.
- Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.
Due to the unlawful advertising model of Totaltopstories.com, no authentic companies will really use their promotional offerings. Meanwhile, the complete spectrum of subjects I’ve named above is managed by the same scammy actors as those who stand behind Totaltopstories. Sometimes, upon interaction with the pop-up notification, you might be redirected to another page that suggests activating pop-up advertisements. The activity of several sources of pop-ups can transform your web browser into an outlet of a pop-up surge.
Totaltopstories push notification.
Where did Totaltopstories pop-ups come from?
The main and most widespread method to access the pop-up spamming site is to browse content on warez sites, pages containing pirated content, and equivalent platforms. The people responsible for such dubious venues aim to offset expenses via redirects, often as a promotion tactic. This type of redirection is commonly known as an “anti-bot verification”.
A further plausible origin of pop-up advertisements is adware, currently active inside of your system. It alters browser settings in a way so it begins displaying Totaltopstories pop-ups without your knowledge. However, this situation is relatively uncommon, as such malware employs its own, more efficient method to showcasing advertisements.
Are Totaltopstories pop-up advertisements dangerous?
Yes, they are. At the surface, they can look non-threatening – just a colourful pop-up that appears from time to time. However, the contents of this window differ drastically from what you used to see in push notifications. Totaltopstories.com website is ruled by crooks, who intendedly spread hundreds and thousands of malicious ads in pop-ups. They also never follow any manners of advertising and can launch sporadic pop-up advertisements into a hurricane of ads. For weak computers, that may be enough to cause performance issues. But that is not all troubles these pop-up ads carry.
As any other thing that touches illegal advertising, Totaltopstories pop-up advertisements don’t have legit deals to offer. Even when hackers make the ads similar to ones from Amazon, Walmart or Ebay, the web page these ads will throw you to are completely different. And these pages can offer you to turn on other pop-ups, install a “useful” program, or pay for a thing at a big discount and never receive it. Let’s leave aside the cases when push notifications promote phishing pages or straightforward malware. There’s no way these pages will bring you any good, thus interacting with them is a very bad idea. For the same reason, Totaltopstories push notifications are not recommended to click on either, and the best solution is to disable them as soon as possible.
How to remove Totaltopstories pop-ups?
Fortunately, Totaltopstories pop-ups removal is pretty easy. They reside in the browser and can’t hide themselves in the system. Nevertheless, as I told before, some pop-up ads can deliver malicious software to your system. It is hard to describe all of the cases, and manual attempts to remove malware is inconvenient. Therefore, after removing the source of the pop-ups the best option is to use anti-malware software. I would especially recommend that if you have never allowed pop-up ads, and they still appeared. That can point at malware activity. GridinSoft Anti-Malware will be the best both system recovery and malware removal purposes, thanks to its abilities of system recovery and advanced detection system.
Remove Totaltopstories.com with Gridinsoft Anti-Malware
We have also been using this software on our systems ever since, and it has always been successful in detecting viruses. It has blocked the most common malicious pop-ups as shown from our tests with the software, and we assure you that it can remove Totaltopstories.com as well as other malware hiding on your computer.
To use Gridinsoft for remove malicious threats, follow the steps below:
1. Begin by downloading Gridinsoft Anti-Malware, accessible via the blue button below or directly from the official website gridinsoft.com.
2.Once the Gridinsoft setup file (setup-gridinsoft-fix.exe) is downloaded, execute it by clicking on the file.
3.Follow the installation setup wizard's instructions diligently.
4. Access the "Scan Tab" on the application's start screen and launch a comprehensive "Full Scan" to examine your entire computer. This inclusive scan encompasses the memory, startup items, the registry, services, drivers, and all files, ensuring that it detects malware hidden in all possible locations.
Be patient, as the scan duration depends on the number of files and your computer's hardware capabilities. Use this time to relax or attend to other tasks.
5. Upon completion, Anti-Malware will present a detailed report containing all the detected malicious items and threats on your PC.
6. Select all the identified items from the report and confidently click the "Clean Now" button. This action will safely remove the malicious files from your computer, transferring them to the secure quarantine zone of the anti-malware program to prevent any further harmful actions.
8. If prompted, restart your computer to finalize the full system scan procedure. This step is crucial to ensure thorough removal of any remaining threats. After the restart, Gridinsoft Anti-Malware will open and display a message confirming the completion of the scan.
Remember Gridinsoft offers a 6-day free trial. This means you can take advantage of the trial period at no cost to experience the full benefits of the software and prevent any future malware infections on your system. Embrace this opportunity to fortify your computer's security without any financial commitment.
Trojan Killer for “Totaltopstories.com” removal on locked PC
In situations where it becomes impossible to download antivirus applications directly onto the infected computer due to malware blocking access to websites, an alternative solution is to utilize the Trojan Killer application.
There is a really little number of security tools that are able to be set up on the USB drives, and antiviruses that can do so in most cases require to obtain quite an expensive license. For this instance, I can recommend you to use another solution of GridinSoft - Trojan Killer Portable. It has a 14-days cost-free trial mode that offers the entire features of the paid version. This term will definitely be 100% enough to wipe malware out.
Trojan Killer is a valuable tool in your cybersecurity arsenal, helping you to effectively remove malware from infected computers. Now, we will walk you through the process of using Trojan Killer from a USB flash drive to scan and remove malware on an infected PC. Remember, always obtain permission to scan and remove malware from a computer that you do not own.
Step 1: Download & Install Trojan Killer on a Clean Computer:
1. Go to the official GridinSoft website (gridinsoft.com) and download Trojan Killer to a computer that is not infected.
2. Insert a USB flash drive into this computer.
3. Install Trojan Killer to the "removable drive" following the on-screen instructions.
4. Once the installation is complete, launch Trojan Killer.
Step 2: Update Signature Databases:
5. After launching Trojan Killer, ensure that your computer is connected to the Internet.
6. Click "Update" icon to download the latest signature databases, which will ensure the tool can detect the most recent threats.
Step 3: Scan the Infected PC:
7. Safely eject the USB flash drive from the clean computer.
8. Boot the infected computer to the Safe Mode.
9. Insert the USB flash drive.
10. Run tk.exe
11. Once the program is open, click on "Full Scan" to begin the malware scanning process.
Step 4: Remove Found Threats:
12. After the scan is complete, Trojan Killer will display a list of detected threats.
13. Click on "Cure PC!" to remove the identified malware from the infected PC.
14. Follow any additional on-screen prompts to complete the removal process.
Step 5: Restart Your Computer:
15. Once the threats are removed, click on "Restart PC" to reboot your computer.
16. Remove the USB flash drive from the infected computer.
Congratulations on effectively removing Totaltopstories.com and the concealed threats from your computer! You can now have peace of mind, knowing that they won't resurface again. Thanks to Gridinsoft's capabilities and commitment to cybersecurity, your system is now protected.
Now, you should reset your browser settings. It is possible to do in manual or automated way. The former, obviously, requires more time to complete and can be somewhat complicated if you have never done that. Automated supposes the use of anti-malware programs that can reset all browser settings at once.
Reset your browsers 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 options for each browser. By default, they are set up in a manner that 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 the latter is also able to reset the HOSTS file without any additional commands.
Reset your browsers manually
Manual method of browser reset
To reset Edge, do the following steps:
For Mozilla Firefox, do the next actions:
After choosing this option, you will see the next message:
If you use Google Chrome
Opera can be reset in the next way
When the browsers are reset, you need to ensure that your browser will connect the right 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 lines2:
# 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.
Scan your system for possible viruses
After removing the Totaltopstories push notifications, it’s time to see if these pop-ups brought any threat to your system. Launch GridinSoft Anti-Malware, and then click on Standard scan. It will be enough in most cases to find and remove malware. The scan will last 5-10 minutes; you are free to use your system during that process.
Once the scan is complete, you will see the detections or a notification about a clean system. Proceed with pressing the Clean Up button (or OK when nothing is detected).
