It may happen that, while browsing the Internet or while using any other program, suddenly an advertising window appears that is difficult to close or minimize to an icon, which can appear even several times during the day. These windows often display advertisements, banner windows of giant casinos, webcams, poker and many other things certainly not required at the moment.
All browsers can be affected by this type of problem and sometimes it is a symptom of a bigger infection that has taken hold on the PC.
Here we don't talk about the legitimate advertisements that appear on the sites (and which guarantee their survival), but about ads and windows that sometimes also prevent you from opening Google, Facebook and Navigaweb or adware that show advertisements even where they should not be there.
In this guide we will show you the best free tools to remove and block unsolicited windows, invasive pop-ups and any processes and programs that call this stuff in an attempt to monetize on users' shoulders.
READ ALSO -> Clean your PC from viruses (and prevent other infections in the future)
1) AdwCleaner
One of the best free tools that we can use to scan our PC in search of the origin of advertisements, extensions and sponsored programs is AdwCleaner .
Just install it on the PC flooded with advertising and unwanted windows and start the scan by clicking on the Scan Now button.
The program will immediately search in every corner of the PC signaling additional programs, toolbars, unwanted extensions, changes to the browser and any active processes in memory capable of recalling unwanted advertising windows.
At the end of the scan, all the detected threats will be automatically cleaned, so as to free your PC and go back to using it as before, without any hassle.
2) Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
If the windows continue to appear even after cleaning with AdwCleaner, most likely spyware or malware has crept into the PC processes, favoring the installation of crap and new unwanted programs and tools.
To immediately remove this type of threats related to advertising windows we can use download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
This program acts as a support to the antivirus already present on the PC and allows you to scan all the portions of memory and disk where malware and adware can nest, so as to permanently remove them.
To use it, click the Scan Now button, then wait for the end of the process; at the end select all the elements eventually revealed and click the Remove button.
The program is free for occasional scans, but it is also available in a Premium version to perform scheduled and automatic scans, thus remaining in watchful memory on every possible new threat that we may encounter.
3) SUPERAntiSpyware
If the advertising windows appear even when we do not use internally (so while we do something else), perhaps we have been spied on with spyware, which tries to collect all personal information, also stealing sensitive data.
If you are afraid of being attacked by spyware and the advertising windows require access to sites or credit card data, we download the free SUPERAntiSpyware program, available for free download from here -> SUPERAntiSpyware .
Once installed, simply launch the scan by clicking on the Scan button and wait patiently for the results.
If threats are detected, select them and eliminate them to free our PC from spyware and adware.
4) Advanced cleaning tools
If the tools we have reported to you so far have not been enough to eliminate the threats on your PC, it is time to download some very powerful tools, to try as a last resort.
We did not recommend them immediately because given their power it is better to keep them as "last resort".
The tools to be used to permanently clean your PC of advertising windows, spyware and any viruses present are ComboFix and Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, available for free download from here -> ComboFix and Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool .
We launch ComboFix first, so as to display a window similar to the command prompt in which it is sufficient to press a button to start the scan.
This scan can be very long and will remove many common threats on your PC, in order to completely clean it up.
At the end of the scan we restart and check if the PC is working again without windows; if they still appear or we see strange program or antivirus behaviors, it is better to scan immediately with Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, a powerful free tool that can detect and remove most of the viruses, trojans, ransomware and other crap that can lurk on our PC.
To use it, simply install it, click Start Scan and wait for the end of the scan on the PC; at the end the program will report all the viruses found, just click Remove to clean the computer.
5) Final checks on the PC
In addition to checking if there are any hidden threats on the PC, we will have to check that they have not changed the DNS and the proxy on Windows, so as to always show windows and spy on our connection.
To check the DNS connection : open the Control Panel, enter the Network and the Internet and view the Network Connection Center .
Click on " Change card settings " on the right and locate the LAN or Wifi connection used to surf the internet.
Now click on it with the right button, enter the Properties, scroll the list of items until you find and select Internet Protocol version 4 and click on Properties .
We therefore check that the " Obtain DNS server address automatically " option is selected and, if necessary, delete any number written below.
Click OK and restart the computer.
To verify that a Proxy is not set up, open the Start menu and type Internet Options .
Let's go to the Connections tab, press the LAN Settings button and check that where Server Proxy is written there is no selection.
In that case, we delete and raise the flag.
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