Recently, I saw a plenty of posts like “my web browser presents me undesirable Smilebox.co pop-up advertisements, is it a pc virus?” or “these Smilebox.co pop-up promotions in my Chrome making me crazy, how to manage them?”. According to the data for last months, virus suppliers started a wide adware distribution campaign. Let me show you, how you can eliminate the viruses from your personal computer, and also forget about the frustrating Smilebox.co pop-ups.
Pop-Ups : Discovering The Nature
You can admit that some sites (like a Smilebox.co) offer you pop-up advertisements. The message can contain something like “do you want to receive notices about the most recent news?” or “allow alerts to be reported regarding recent discounts?”. Generally, such messages are harmless, and can only sidetrack you with its unexpected arrival. Also it can be quite easily disabled, in case notifications from this web page are no longer desired.
Pop-up notifications are rather an efficient advertising and marketing tool. If you have an interest in products of some sort, you can enable pop-ups from the web site where you can purchase this stuff, and as quickly as these products are in stock again, or if you can have a discount – you will certainly get the notification regarding this. The counterparty – online sellers, auto lending services, etc – will remain in profit, too – purchaser will undoubtedly obtain a pointer regarding the item he/she planned to pay for. As well as such an advertising technique is practically cost-free – this element is very essential for corporations.
| Site | Smilebox.co |
| IP Address | 13.227.219.92 |
| Infection Type | Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads |
| Symptoms | Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner. |
| Similar behavior | Pushcoffeepro.com, Newpromob2.click, Litownpull.live |
Smilebox.co Pop-Ups Are Not So Safe
But occasionally pop-up advertisements can appear without your permission, as well as with a text which is completely various from your existing attentions or search queries. And, besides undesirable Smilebox.co pop-ups from the unknown source, you can simultaneously see a great deal of promotions, consisting of ones on the web pages which initially have no promotions at all. Such a situation can be the sign of adware existence.
Adware is the sort of computer virus which infiltrates into your PC, and then starts displaying you numerous promotions. Their content often has no correlation with your usual search questions. Besides banner ads, your web browser can also demonstrate you a big quantity of various Smilebox.co pop-up advertisements, which appear in the lower right corner.
The model of adware usage is really sly. The large pack of adware is dispersed via trojan viruses, which are injected in your system earlier. Promotions, which are displayed to you by malicious app, are paid by their creators. In a couple of weeks, all anti-malware programs began to stop these adware, hence, trojan sheds in productivity. And to finish the user’s computer system, malware distributors begin ransomware distribution via these trojans.
Even if there is no active ransomware distribution, your PC may continue to be impacted by adware virus. A massive number of advertisements along with Smilebox.co pop-ups can make your PC as slow as snail, so your regular activities will be impossible to perform in typical way.
How Can I Deal With Smilebox.co Pop-Ups?
Presuming the paragraphs above: your personal computer, and your data, is in a significant danger. To stop this infection, you need to utilize virus removal software. Microsoft Defender, which is installed in every Windows 10 distribution, has the ability to deal with Smilebox.co pop-ups virus. Nevertheless, it can not revert the web browser changes which were applied by malicious program. One more negative aspect of the antivirus by Microsoft is its particular vulnerability: malware can disable Microsoft Defender via the Group Policies after being injected to your computer.
To be 100% sure that your computer is clean of any malware now, and will be clean in future, I can offer you to use GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
To detect and remove all unwanted programs on your PC, including Smilebox.co pop-ups virus, with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, it’s better to use Standard or Full scan. Quick Scan is not able to find all the viruses, because it scans only the most popular registry entries and directories.
You can spectate the detected viruses sorted by their possible harm till the scan process. But to choose any actions against the viruses, you need to hold on until the scan is over, or to stop the scan.
To set the action for each spotted malicious or unwanted program, click the arrow in front of the name of detected virus. By default, all malware will be removed to quarantine.
Reverting browser settings to original ones
To revert your browser settings, you need to use the Reset Browser Settings option. This action is not able to be counteracted by Smilebox.co virus, hence, you will surely see the result. This option can be located in the Tools tab.
After pressing the Reset Browser Settings option, the menu will be shown, where you can choose, which settings will be reverted to original.
Reset browser setiings without utilizing third-party software
Besides using anti-malware programs for browser restoration, you can pick the “Reset browser settings” function, which is usually embedded in all popular web 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:
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 Smilebox.co 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.