Special utilities have been developed to deal with adware. Some of them work on their own, and others are part of antivirus systems. This article will consider the most well-known services that will help clean computers from advertising.
What is adware?
In addition to viruses, users’ computers are often attacked by advertising utilities. Adware is a type of software designed to display advertisements to generate money. Adware rarely harms your computer, but it can interfere with your web browsing. More interestingly, adware enters your system without your consent and attacks it with annoying ads. It’s worth noting that Adware usually comes bundled with free software. Basically, these are small or significant changes in the browser, you may just notice strange additional ads, for example, even on the start page of the search engine.
Of course, the adware cannot directly force you to buy something, but it does provide enough information for people who are good at psychology and marketing. There is also special malicious software that allows you to change advertising links on sites to the necessary ones.
Best programs to remove ads
- AdwCleaner
AdwCleaner is an excellent tool for removing “unwanted” applications that are loaded with installation files for advertising and spyware purposes.
Features of the AdwCleaner utility:
- advanced search engine and detection of adware and spyware modules with AdwCleaner bleeping;
- option to neutralize extraneous additions;
- destruction of hijack applications, along with the consequences of their functioning;
- simple and prompt cleaning of the browser from unnecessary toolbars, which were independently built into it during the software installation;
- cleaning files with unauthorized extensions and plugins.
You can easily figure out how to use the AdwCleaner utility by examining the simple Russian interface of the main menu. To begin with, the directories and registry are scanned, then you can work with the result obtained either by deleting everything found or by selecting the necessary elements.
- SuperAntiSpyware
It is another malware detection and removal program. At the end of the installation process, it offers a free trial of the paid option. In fact, this is a rare occurrence. After installation, a menu opens. A quick scan showed about 485 cookie problems (and this is after Spybot). The program allows you to limit and narrow the search area. This is achieved by specifying scan paths and exclusions from the search area. Contains a good set of settings. There is a preferences button on the main window, opening which you can see many tabs with a bunch of options, but, unfortunately, the options cannot be visually divided by color into available and unavailable. The free version does not provide real-time protection.
- Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes is a good tool for detecting and removing malicious software. At the beginning of the installation process, you will be prompted to upgrade to a trial version. This behavior is quite common. In this case, a quick scan showed that the program copes well with its task. By the way, she was able to identify problems that the previous two could not identify. The scanning options themselves are quite expected – it is a quick and complete scan. The scan history log is well organized. The free version lacks support for real-time protection. Another disadvantage is that to scan your computer for rootkits, you will need to download a separate program.
Advantages:
- Usually, it finds more threats than similar programs, deeper scanning is carried out;
- It can find PuP (Potentially Unwanted Program) and many types of malware;
- Can be launched from the context menu with the right mouse button in Explorer;
- Allows you to configure scan settings.