Popsit.site Virus. Ads Removal Guide

Written by Valdis Koks

Popsit.site search hijacker is a type of malware that infuses into your computer system, and afterwards changes the search engine configurations in your web browser to one which it desires. It also makes some unpleasant changes that may cause private information leakages, in addition to other malware delivery. In this article, you will see the manual of Popsit.site hijacker clearing in various options, as well as also the technique of making your web browser like new.

icon hijacker - Do I really need it?

Popsit.site Info

Name Popsit.site extension
Type Browser hijacker1
Short Description The unwanted software that amends important browser settings without the user’s permission.
Symptoms The Popsit.site hijacker replaces the browser parameters set by the users and replaces these settings with its own values.
Distribution Method Bundling with Freeware or Shareware, misleading pop-up ads produced by adware.
Detection Tool Inspect If Your System Has Been Affected by the Popsit.site hijacker.

The ways of injection of Popsit.site search hijackers are diverse. Many of them belong to the malware spreading via the malvertising or malevolent web links of different websites. In some cases, your system may be contaminated with this malware via the trojan-downloader, which is utilized to spread different other malware. There is a solitary kind of this unwanted program – web browser plugin that might build into any browser which supports the add-on setup2.

You will not likely setup this plugin by yourself, because their names are pretty uncertain, and the usefulness is really controversial. The “developers” of Popsit.site hijacker typically state that it can save the .doc/.docx files from the sites already to .pdf format, or to save the whole web site on your disk. It is pretty tough to imagine if someone may be needed in such features in 2024, when the Internet access is not time-limited and every computer has the ability to open the needed .docx documents at Google Docs.

Nevertheless, besides their uselessness, they may easily be located in the Chrome Web Store. Naturally, virus analysts sound the alarm about such spam right into the legit source of browser extensions, asking for the Google reaction – getting rid of these extensions from their place. However, they are still not hurrying to fix that protection problem.

Icon - Your PC hijacker

Is the Popsit.site virus?

At the first sight, you may think that these redirects are only annoying, but not hazardous. Because of this reason a great deal of people are just playing for time as opposed to removing this malware, obtaining much more possibilities of being infected with numerous other malware, which are a lot more serious than Popsit.site is.

Besides the changed browser search engine or search engine result, you may also see different advertisements even on those internet sites that do not have any kind of ads on it by default. And you may easily misclick while shutting off the advertisement, and initiate the downloading of an unrecognized file, which may be a malware, or a potentially unwanted program, or even ransomware – whatever the maintainers of this hijacker want.

If your web browser is corrupted as a result of the Azorult trojan activity, the system may begin malfunctioning in the near future – this symptome is among the most usual in case of trojan injection.

Icon - remove Popsit.site hijacker

How to remove Popsit.site?

First, let me say several words about prevention the Popsit.site malware injection. It is very simple to discuss the options of protecting your system from such irritating items as browser hijackers, but it is extremely simple to be caught on this lure even being a professional user. As it was mentioned above, this virus can hide after the attractive (at the first sight) promotion, or in packs with other adware you can get in dozens of ways. But no matter the common difficulty of the penetration methods, it is really simple to prevent the Popsit.site hijacker appearing in your system:

  • Do not follow the dubious links;
  • Restrict the usage of pseudo-free software (one which is offered as free, but has an additional unwanted programs in its pack);
  • Leave the habit of clicking advertisements on the web. If you need to buy something, it is better to google it;
  • Avoid downloading the files from dubious sources, like forums or file sharing websites.

Preparation before removing Popsit.site.

Before starting the actual uninstall procedure, we recommend that you do the following introductory milestones.

  • Make sure you have this hand-operated tutorial always all set to utilize.
  • Do a backup of every one of your data, consisting of the kept logins, passwords and other qualifications. You ought to support your info with a cloud backup service and ensure your data are safeguarded from any kind of kind of loss, also from the most extreme infections.
  • Wait till the durable backup process is over.

Step 1: Uninstall Popsit.site and related software from Windows

Here is a technique in few very easy steps that must have the ability to uninstall most applications. Either you use Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista or XP, these milestones will work well. Moving the app or its folder to the Trash can be a very wrong idea. In case you do that, remnants of the app may remain, and that can cause the unstable performance of your system, malfunctions with the file type associations and other unpleasant behavior. The effective solution to get an app off your device is to remove it manually. To do that:

1. Keep holding the Windows Logo Button and “R” on your keyboard. A Pop-up window will soon arrive.

Windows keyboard R

2. In the field that appeared, type in “appwiz.cpl” -1  and choose OK – 2.

Run appwiz.cpl

 

3. This will open a window with all the apps available on the device. Choose the app that you want to get rid of, then choose “Uninstall

Follow the steps above and you will successfully get rid of most unwanted apps.

Step 2: Get rid of Popsit.site from all your available browsers.

Mozilla FirefoxGoogle ChromeInternet ExplorerMicrosoft Edge

1. Launch Mozilla Firefox. Go to its menu window

2. Choose the “Add-ons” icon in the menu.

3. Find the unwanted extension and select “Remove

Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Remove

4. Upon deleting the extension, reload Mozilla Firefox, closing it with the help of a red “X” button in the upper right corner and start it again.

1. Launch Google Chrome and go to its drop menu

Google Chrome drop menu click

2. Click on “Tools” and then in the extended menu select “Extensions

Google Chrome Tools select Extensions

3. In the “Extensions” menu find the unwanted extension and apply the “Remove” button related to it.

Google Chrome Extensions Remove

4. As soon as the extension is deleted, reload Google Chrome by closing it by means of the red “X” button at the top right corner and launch it again.

1. Launch Internet Explorer

2. Click on the gear icon marked ‘Tools’ to open the drop menu and choose ‘Manage Add-ons’

Manage-add-ons

3. In the “Manage Add-ons” window, locate the extension you want to delete and then click “Remove”. A pop-up window will come up to inform you that you are about to delete the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and choose “Remove”.

Internet Explorer extension removal

4. Once the unwanted extension is deleted, reload Internet Explorer by shutting it down from the red “X” button located at the top right corner and launch it again.

1. Launch Edge

2. Access the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.

3. From the drop menu choose “Extensions”.

Microsoft Edge menu Extensions

4. Locate the suspected dangerous extension you want to delete and then click on the Remove button.

Microsoft Edge Extensions Remove

Step 3: Clean any registries that could be added by Popsit.site on your device.

The usually attacked registries of Windows machines are the following:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

You can access them by going to the Windows registry editor and getting rid of any values added by Popsit.site. Follow the steps below:

  1. Start the Run Window command once again, type “regedit” and click OK.Window command regedit
  2. As soon as you open it, you can freely go to the Run and RunOnce keys, whose locations are displayed above.Window command Run and RunOnce keys
  3. You can delete the value of the virus by right-clicking on it and deleting it.Window command regedit delete the value virus

Tip: To locate a virus-created value, you can right-click on it and select “Modify” to find which file it is set to run. If this is the malware file location, delete the value.

Step 4: Scan for Popsit.site with Loaris Trojan Remover

1. Click on the “Download” button to proceed to Loaris Trojan Remover download.

It is recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by Trojan Remover. Click on the corresponding links to check License AgreementPrivacy Policy.

2. Click “Install” to start.

Loaris Trojan Remover Install

There were 4 scan types suggested:

  • Standard Scan.
  • Full Scan.
  • Custom Scan.
  • Removable Scan.

 

3. After the installed has finished, click on the ‘Scan’ tab. Click on ‘Full Scan’.

Loaris Trojan Remover Full Scan

4. Once the scanning is started, Loaris will initiate the thorough analysis of your device and may soon identify specific threats currently slowing down the performance of your system. Make sure to wait until the scanning is completed to let the software fully evaluate the safety of your workstation.

Loaris Trojan Remover - scan in process

5. After Loaris Trojan Remover has finished scanning your PC for any files of the associated threat and found them, you can try to get them removed automatically and permanently by clicking on the ‘Apply’ button. There were options to move the files to quarantine, ignore or delete them.

Loaris Trojan Remover - show viruses

If any threats have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart your PC.

 

  1. About browser hijackers on Wikipedia
  2. Possible danger of free browser extensions

About the author

Valdis Koks

Security engineer, reverse engineering and memory forensics

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