Last week, I saw a great deal of posts like “my internet browser displays me unwanted Smooth-captcha.com pop-up advertisements, is it a virus?” or “these Smooth-captcha.com pop-up promotions in my Chrome making me mad, how to handle them?”. Due to the statistics for last months, virus distributors began a massive adware distribution campaign. Let me show you, how you can eliminate the computer viruses from your computer system, and forget about the irritating Smooth-captcha.com pop-ups.
Pop-Ups : Discovering The Nature
You can admit that some sites (like a Smooth-captcha.com) show you pop-up advertisements. The message can have something like “do you want to have notifications regarding the latest news?” or “permit alerts to be reported about latest price cuts?”. Usually, such messages are risk-free, and can just distract you with its unexpected visual appeal. Plus it can be quite easily turned off, in case notices from this web site are no longer wanted.
Pop-up alerts are quite an efficient advertising and marketing tool. If you want goods of some type, you can allow pop-ups from the site where you can get this things, and also as soon as these things are in store again, or if you can have a price cut – you will get the notice regarding this. The counterparty – online stores, cars and truck lending companies, etc – will certainly be in profit, too – customer will surely get a suggestion regarding the product he/she intended to pay for. And also such an advertising and marketing technique is nearly free – this element is extremely important for corporations.
| Site | Smooth-captcha.com |
| IP Address | 109.206.187.4 |
| Infection Type | Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads |
| Symptoms | Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner. |
| Similar behavior | Hechereckewi.info, Im-not-a-robot.com, Your-captcha.com |
Smooth-captcha.com Pop-Ups Are Not So Safe
But sometimes pop-up promotions can come out without your approval, and also with a material which is entirely different from your present interests or search queries. And, besides unwanted Smooth-captcha.com pop-ups from the unknown origin, you can simultaneously see a great deal of promotions, including ones on the pages which primarily have no promotions at all. Such a scenario can be the sign of adware presence.
Adware is the sort of virus which injects into your PC, then begins showing you numerous advertisements. Their content , in most cases, has no connection with your normal search questions. Besides banner ads, your browser can likewise demonstrate to you a massive amount of various Smooth-captcha.com pop-up ads, which come into view in the lower right corner.
The model of adware use is very sly. The large pack of adware is spread via trojan viruses, which are infiltrated in your PC previously. Ads, which are shown to you by virus, are paid by their makers. In several weeks, all anti-malware programs began to stop these adware, thus, trojan sheds in profitability. And to finish the user’s computer system, malware distributors begin ransomware distribution through these trojans.
Even if there is no active ransomware distribution, your PC may continue to be affected by adware virus. A big number of promotions in addition to Smooth-captcha.com pop-ups can make your PC as slow-moving as snail, so your typical activities will be difficult to do in usual way.
How Can I Deal With Smooth-captcha.com Pop-Ups?
Presuming the text above: your PC, along with your data, is in a major risk. To stop this virus, you need to use antivirus software. Microsoft Defender, which is installed in every Windows 10 distribution, has the ability to handle Smooth-captcha.com pop-ups malware. Nevertheless, it can not reset the browser changes which were implemented by malicious program. One more drawback of the anti-malware program by Microsoft is its certain vulnerability: malware can disable Microsoft Defender through the Group Policies after being injected to your computer.
To be 100% sure that your desktop is clean of any malware now, and will be clean in future, I can advice you to use GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
To detect and remove all malicious programs on your PC, including Smooth-captcha.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 programs, because it scans only the most popular registry entries and directories.
You can observe the detected malicious apps sorted by their possible hazard during the scan process. But to perform any actions against malware, you need to wait until the scan is over, or to stop the scan.
To choose the action for each spotted malicious or unwanted program, click the arrow in front of the name of detected malware. By default, all malware will be removed to quarantine.
Reverting 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 counteracted by Smooth-captcha.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 choose, which settings will be reverted to original.
Reset browser setiings without utilizing third-party software
Besides using antivirus programs for browser restoration, you can choose the “Reset browser settings” function, 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:
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 Smooth-captcha.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.