Beginning a few days ago, my browser, Google Chrome, has been generating frequent, annoying pop-up ads on a random basis. They always appear when I click on something, but it could be a link, a new tab, a photo, some text- anything goes, on any website, even Newsvine. They were usually for games, but they could get a little X-rated occasionally, or they might try to sell me something. Either way, I never wanted what appeared.
Here, most people would say that I downloaded something and it contained some malware, which is usually the cause, but here's the kicker: I haven't downloaded anything in over 3 months. I also have an adblocker and a pop-up blocker. And a firewall/anti-virus scanner.
The last bit of information that I can offer is that ads never appeared in incognito. Ever.
So I am experiencing pop-up ads, what can I do to get rid of them?
Lucky for you, pop-ups are a relatively easy fix, when you compare them to other computer viruses, worms, etc. Pop-ups come in the form of adware, or malware in the advertisement form. They are usually among the least dangerous but most annoying forms of malware. There are two probable locations for the malware to be hidden: on your computer, or on your browser. I'll start with the easier one.
Browser-based malware is what I had. I don't know the official term for it, but the description works: it's malware that hasn't made it onto your PC, which means it's easy to get rid of. Just uninstall and re-install Chrome. Once you add all your settings back in, life will be as if nothing happened- took me about 10 minutes to do all of this, and I have a slow computer.
Computer-based malware (again, not a real term) is what most people wind up having, which can be really easy to fix, or really hard, depending on how deep the malware is embedded. This usually works its way onto your system as a package deal with a download that really is safe and trusted. Hackers are very good at doing that kind of thing.
If you're lucky, the adware will be discovered through a virus scanner- like Norton, McAfee, or AVG. If you have one of these paid systems, update it and scan your PC. If you don't, I recommend Malwarebytes. It's free and it is probably the most effective anti-virus scanner out there (which is great because, again, it's free).
However sometimes the virus is too deep into your system for a simple scan. If nothing is picked up (and you've already re-installed your browser), run your computer on safe mode and try scanning again. Safe mode scans can be dangerous if your scanner "detects" something that is actually supposed to be there, but you should know what the virus looks like if you own a PC, especially if it has the word "trojan" in it.
If nothing works, you will probably have to get some IT people involved, or try a host of other solutions on the internet. It might be embedded in the registry, which you should never try to fix on your own if you're looking at THIS article for help, since you could easily screw up your computer if you mess with the registry (been there, done that).
These are the methods that I've used in the past and that have worked for me thus far. They've kept my computer running for far longer than it should have worked (5 1/2 years). I am no expert but I hopefully helped in some little way. If it works for me, it usually works for many others.
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