How to remove Websurfguard pop-ups? — Fix Guide

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Websurfguard pop-up notifications may appear unexpectedly, covering the material of the page you went to or opening your browser when you don’t desire it to be opened.

Clicking on the Websurfguard ad may result in the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the tutorial of Websurfguard popups removal in a couple of methods, and also checking your personal computer for other malware existence.

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What are Websurfguard pop-ups?

Websurfguard popups are a result of adware action. Adware is a sort of malware that suggests you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which produces a major volume of profit for adware suppliers. These advertisements may consist of sometimes shocking composition, or have a web link to malevolent content/website, since adware maintainers have no purpose to inspect the goodness of the content they are going to reveal – their single target is cash.

Websurfguard push notification

Websurfguard push notification.

Pop-up promotions itself is a good, low-cost and also extremely successful advertising solution1. It makes it possible for the vendor to link the buyers’ attention to their website, and the customers to receive the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to purchase. When the customer will get a pop-up notification that the TV set he wishes to buy is offered at the online shop he/she visited previously with a 15% price cut, one will undoubtedly use this possibility and purchase it. Considering the incredibly low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a marketing instrument is a much-loved thing amongst the marketing teams of huge online retailers.

Nevertheless, such a rewarding strategy could not be missed by malware developers. Option to show the popup advertisements forcibly to the people of malware attack is a great basis for malicious adjustments with the popup ads. And Websurfguard.com advertisements is among hundreds that are “employed” in this system.

Here is a summary for the Websurfguard site
SiteWebsurfguard.com
HostingAS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.
United States, San Francisco
Infection TypeAdware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address104.21.63.131
SymptomsAnnoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behaviorTheupgradedata, Currentaccountadv, Winweesue
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Websurfguard virus?

There are a number of ways of getting contaminated by the adware that cause the Websurfguard popups storm. A lion’s part of this virus instances is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are spread on the peering networks. Freeware may likewise be downloaded from the official web page, and the adware is supplied as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of people oftentimes use the dubious programs from untrusted sources: abandonware, a wide range of tools that are free, and even hacked programs. All of these types of applications are unsafe, because it is quite easy to include a Websurfguard malware under the cover of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

Websurfguard popup malware can likewise be concealed in the advertisement somewhere on the unusual site. Such sites are usually full of intense and blinking advertisements, and their owners typically permit any kind of promotions to be placed on their web page. Thus, clicking on such banners is a shot in the dark: only the advertisement contractor realizes what will happen when you click this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or unwanted programs, you can also receive something much more unsafe, like ransomware or coin miner; the large 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 Websurfguard popup virus can initiate a variety of problems on your personal computer. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-ups can show you the advertisements, where you are offered to get one more dubious program, or “a perfect security tool”. Scareware is usually spread under the last motto. Potentially unwanted programs, in turn, can have spyware functionality. And it is quite hard to distinguish the unwanted app from a legit one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and fake antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also used as a spreading way by different 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 tapping these promotions, they may be clicked by whoever who also makes use of 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 wipe out the viruses with anti-malware applications as soon as possible.

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

The guide of Websurfguard adware removal includes 2 parts. Initially, we need to remove the malware, and afterwards fix the effects of its action. The elimination process is really easy, since it may be performed even with using Microsoft Defender – security program that is available on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, due to its huge resources utilization, as well as some defects that can be critical for some kinds of individuals, Defender is frequently disabled by the users, so its use is likely impossible. What’s more, a variety of trojan viruses have the ability to switch off the embedded antivirus. It is much better to make use of the separated program that will not have such vulnerabilities.

I would certainly advise you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven antivirus tool that will certainly eliminate the viruses from your personal computer and make an invulnerable cover with a Proactive protection feature. However, let’s manage Websurfguard adware initially.

Removing Websurfguard 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 Websurfguard 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 ensure that your web browser will be connected the accurate DNS while connecting to the web page you need. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following text3:

# 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 much harder to repair, especially without the anti-malware software. A lot of adware variations that are utilized to show you the Websurfguard pop-up ads are altering the deep browser settings, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you attempt to change your browser settings after your computer was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will collapse quickly. In certain cases, you will see no crash, however, significant lag spike after pushing the “settings” key. Browser will stop reacting for ~ 30 secs, and afterwards it will be back to the typical, up 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 Websurfguard Pop-ups?

Name: Websurfguard

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