Recently, I saw a great deal of posts like “my web browser shows me undesirable Smarter-surf.com pop-up promotions, is it a computer virus?” or “these Smarter-surf.com pop-up ads in my Chrome making me insane, how to deal with them?”. According to the statistics for last months, computer virus creators started a large adware distribution campaign. Let me demonstrate you, how you can eliminate the computer viruses from your personal computer, and forget about the irritating Smarter-surf.com pop-ups.
Pop-Ups : Discovering The Nature
You can admit that some sites (like a Smarter-surf.com) use you pop-up promotions. The message can include something like “do you want to get alerts concerning the most recent information?” or “permit notifications to be reported regarding latest price cuts?”. Typically, such messages are riskless, and may only sidetrack you with its sudden arrival. Plus it can be quickly disabled, in case notifications from this web site are no longer wanted.
Pop-up notices are quite an efficient advertising and marketing mechanism. If you are interested in items of some sort, you can enable pop-ups from the web site where you can acquire this stuff, and as soon as these items are in stock again, or if you can have a price cut – you will certainly get the notification regarding this. The counterparty – online retailers, vehicle lending services, etc – will be in profit, too – purchaser will undoubtedly obtain a suggestion regarding the item he/she planned to pay for. And also such a marketing method is practically free of charge – this aspect is really crucial for firms.
| Site | Smarter-surf.com |
| IP Address | 172.67.159.40 |
| Infection Type | Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads |
| Symptoms | Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner. |
| Similar behavior | Extremesecurityadblocker.com, Runstrongextremelyinfo-program.info, News-fodasu.cc |
Smarter-surf.com Pop-Ups Are Not So Safe
However occasionally pop-up advertisements can show up without your confirmation, as well as with an information which is totally different from your current interests or search questions. And, besides unwanted Smarter-surf.com pop-ups from the unknown origin, you can simultaneously see a great deal of ads, including ones on the pages which initially have no ads whatsoever. Such a scenario can be the signal of adware presence.
Adware is the kind of malware which injects into your PC, then begins showing you numerous advertisements. Their subject often has no match with your usual search questions. Besides banner promotions, your web browser can also show you a significant amount of various Smarter-surf.com pop-up promotions, which show up in the lower right area.
The model of adware usage is very sly. The huge pack of adware is dispersed with trojan viruses, which are injected in your personal computer previously. Ads, which are shown to you by virus, are paid by their creators. In a couple of weeks, all antivirus programs began to catch these adware, for this reason, trojan sheds in earnings. And to terminate the user’s desktop, malware distributors start ransomware distribution through these trojans.
Even if there is no active ransomware distribution, your computer can still be affected by adware virus. A huge quantity of promotions in addition to Smarter-surf.com pop-ups can make your PC as slow as snail, so your normal tasks will certainly be impossible to carry out in usual way.
How Can I Deal With Smarter-surf.com Pop-Ups?
Concluding the paragraphs above: your computer, along with your data, is in a severe risk. To stop this virus, you need to use anti-malware tool. Microsoft Defender, which is installed in every Windows 10 distribution, is able to deal with Smarter-surf.com pop-ups malware. However, it can’t change the browser changes which were implemented by harmful program. Another downside of the anti-malware program by Microsoft is its particular susceptability: viruses can disable Microsoft Defender via the Group Policies after being infiltrated to your PC.
To be 100% sure that your computer is clean of any malicious programs now, and will be clean in future, I can advice you to use GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
To detect and remove all unwanted applications on your PC, including Smarter-surf.com pop-ups virus, with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, it’s better to utilize Standard or Full scan. Quick Scan is not able to find all the malicious apps, because it scans only the most popular registry entries and folders.
You can see the detected malicious programs sorted by their possible hazard simultaneously with the scan process. But to choose any actions against malicious programs, you need to wait until the scan is finished, or to stop the scan.
To set the action for each detected malicious or unwanted program, click the arrow in front of the name of detected malicious app. By default, all malware will be removed to quarantine.
Reset browser settings to original ones
To revert your browser settings, you are required to use the Reset Browser Settings option. This action is not able to be intercepted by Smarter-surf.com virus, hence, you will surely see the result. This action can be located in the Tools tab.
After pressing the Reset Browser Settings option, the menu will be shown, where you can specify, which settings will be reverted to original.
Reset browser setiings without using third-party programs
Besides using antivirus tools for browser restoration, you may pick the “Reset browser settings” option, which is usually embedded in all popular browsers.
Reset Microsoft Edge ⚙ Settings
- 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:
Reset Mozilla Firefox ⚙ Settings
- 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 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:
- 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:
After choosing this option, you will see the next message:
Reset Opera ⚙ Settings
Reset Google Chrome ⚙ Settings
As an afterword, I want to say that the time plays against you and your PC. The activity of browser hijacker Smarter-surf.com must be stopped as soon as possible, because of possibility of other malware injection. This malware can be downloaded autonomously, or offered for you to download in one of the windows with advertisements, which are shown to you by the hijacker. You need to act as fast as you can.
