Category Archives: freefixer

How To Remove BrowseStudio Adware

November 13, 2014adware, freefixerBrowseFoxRoger Karlsson

Just wanted to put up a short blog post before going back to coding. This is about an adware called BrowseStudio which appears to be a variant of CrossRider that I’ve previously blogged about many many times before. If the BrowseStudio adware is installed and running on your system, you will notice new add-ons installed in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer called “BrowseStudio 1.0.1“. It did not install into Chrome. I was also expecting to see some BrowseStudio ads, but did not. Do you see some ads on your machine? I’ll show how to remove BrowseStudio in this blog post with the FreeFixer removal tool.

So, how did Browse Studio install on your machine? It was probably bundled with some download that you installed recently. Bundling means that software is included in other software’s installers. When I first found Browse Studio, it was bundled with “Google Chrome”. This was not the official Google Chrome download, but an unofficial download which was signed by a company called Advertiso GmbH.

Generally, you can avoid bundled software such as BrowseStudio by being careful when installing software and declining the bundled offers in the installer.

As usual when I play around with some new bundled software I uploaded it to VirusTotal to see if the anti-malware progams there find something suspicious. Of the 54 anti-virus scanners, 10 detected the file. The BrowseStudio files are detected as BrowseFox.F by AVG, Trojan.BPlug.167 by DrWeb and AdWare.LinkSwift by VBA32.

Removing BrowseStudio is pretty straightforward with FreeFixer. Here’s a few screenshots that should help you along the way: A restart of your machine may be required to complete the removal.

Hope this helped you remove the BrowseStudio adware.

Any idea how BrowseStudio was installed on your machine? Please share by posting a comment. Thank you!

Thank you for reading.

Remove Power-SW 0.96 Firefox Add-on

November 13, 2014freefixerRoger Karlsson

Did you just find an add-on in Mozilla Firefox called Power-SW 0.96? If you don’t know where it came from, it was probably bundled with another software download. I found Power-SW in an unofficial Google Chrome download, that was digitally signed by Advertiso GmbH.

If you’d like to remove Power-SW, you can easily so by checking it for removal in FreeFixer.

Any idea how you got Power-SW on your machine?

Update: The Firefox team knows about Power-SW and shows it in the “Add-ons may be causing problems” dialog. Good job!

Remove ace.couprace.com Pop-Up Ads

November 12, 2014adware, freefixer, pop-upsCoup Pop-UpRoger Karlsson

If you are getting bombarded with pop-ups ads from ace.couprace.com you have some adware installed on your machine. I got the pop-up in Firefox, but it can also appear if you are browsing the web with Chrome or Internet Explorer. Here’s how the pop-up ad look on my computer:

I got the pop-ups when clicking links in Google’s search results. I think the ads can appear when using other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing. This raised some red flags since these search engines never shows ads in pop-ups.

I’ve noticed this type of pop-up ad triggered by adware such as BlockNSurf, New Player, Speed Check and SaferSurf. Sometimes the pop-up window is labeled with the adware name. Mine was labeled “Ads by BlockAndSurf” in the upper right corner of the browser:

Were the ace.couprace.com ads you were getting also labeled? Please post what the label said on your machine. Thanks!

So, if you’d like to stop the ace.couprace.com pop-up ads, I’d check if I could find something suspicious on the computer by looking in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. You can sort on the “Installed On” date to see if somehing was added recently.

You can also check your browser’s add-ons to see if you find something there.

If that does not help, try the freeware FreeFixer tool to track down the adware launching the pop-ups. Tip: If you don’t know if a file in FreeFixer’s scan result is legitimate or adware, click the More Info link for that file. It will show a VirusTotal report for the file which will help a lot.

Thank you for reading. Did this help you remove the ace.couprace.com pop-ups?

Update 2014-11-14: Thanks to “Ainigma” for reporting in that the ace.couprace.com pop-ups can appear when running Linux based Ubuntu and Google Chrome.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Google Analytics page for this blog post, and there are some indications that Mac users are also seeing the ace.couprace.com ads. If you are a Mac user and get the ace.couprace.com popup, please post a comment below. What browser do you use? Did you find out how to remove the adware responsible for the ace.couprace.com pop-ups?

Seems like it’s mostly users from Europe and Southeast Asian that are having problems with the couprace.com ads. Are you also from this part of the world? I’m living in Sweden.

Remove ais.coupat-bat.com Pop-Up Ads

November 12, 2014adware, freefixer, pop-upsCoup Pop-UpRoger Karlsson

If you get pop-ups ads from ais.coupat-bat.com you probably have adware on your machine. Here’s how the pop-up ad look on my machine:

I’ve seen this type of pop-up launched by adware such as BlockAndSurf, NewPlayer, SpeedCheck and SaferSurf. Sometimes the pop-up window is tagged with the name of the adware. Here’s a screenshot from my machine where the ad was labeled “Ads by BlockAndSurf” in the upper right corner of the browser window:

Were the ais.coupat-bat.com pop-ups you were getting also labeled? Please post what the label said on your machine. Thank you!

So, if you’d like to remove the ais.coupat-bat.com pop-up ads, I’d check if I could find something suspicious on the machine by looking in the Remove Programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. Sort on the “Installed On” date to see if anything was added recently.

I would also check my browser’s add-ons to see if something unexpected shows up there.

If that does not help, try the freeware tool FreeFixer to track down the adware responsible for the pop-ups. Tip: If you don’t know whether a file in FreeFixer’s scan result is legit or malware, please click the More Info link for the file. It will show a VirusTotal report for the file which will help a lot.

Thank you for reading. Did this help you remove the ais.coupat-bat.com pop-ups?

How To Remove EnterDigital Adware

November 9, 2014adware, freefixerBrowseFoxRoger Karlsson

Hello there. Did something titled EnterDigital appear on your machine? EnterDigital appears to be a variant of BrowseFox that I’ve written about before. If you got EnterDigital installed and running on your machine, you’ll notice new add-ons installed in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Chrome seems to be unaffected by the adware. I’ll show how to remove EnterDigital in this blog post with the FreeFixer removal tool.

EnterDigital is bundled with a number of downloads. Bundling means that software is included in other software’s installers.

Generally, you can avoid bundled software such as EnterDigital by being careful when installing software and declining the bundled offers in the installer.

When I find some new bundled software I always upload it to VirusTotal to test if the anti-viruses there find something. 24% of the scanners detected the file. Some of the detection names for EnterDigital are BrowseFox.F, PUP.Optional.EnterDigital.A and Artemis.

Removing EnterDigital is pretty easy with FreeFixer. Just select the EnterDigital files as the screenshots below shows. You might have to restart your system to complete the removal.

Hope this helped you solved the EnterDigital problem.

Do you also have EnterDigital on your computer? Any idea how it installed? Please share your story the comments below. Thank you!

Hope you found this useful. Thanks for reading.

Remove aal.coupmatch.com Pop-Up Ads

November 6, 2014adware, freefixer, pop-upsCoup Pop-UpRoger Karlsson

Just wanted to let you know about the aal.coupmatch.com pop-ups. If you see these ads on your machine, you most likely have some adware on your machine that launch these pop-ups.

I’m in a hurry, so please bare with this short post. Here’s my suggested removal for the aal.coupmatch.com pop-ups ads.

1. Examine the programs installed on your machine in the Add/Remove programs dialog in the Windows Control Panel. Uninstall if you find some adware.

2. Go through the add-ons installed in your browser. If you find some adware, remove it.

3. If that did not help, you can use FreeFixer to manually track down the adware files that opened the aal.coupmatch.com pop-up. Tip: Use the More Info links to open up a VirusTotal report for a particular file in the scan result.

freefixer-more-info-blockandsurf — The More Info links. Click for full size

Did you find some adware on your machine? Please post the name of the adware in the comments below to help other users with the aal.coupmatch.com popup problem.

On my machine, the adware responsible for the aal.coupmatch.com pop-up was called Safer-Surf.

Thank you for reading!

Ads By new_player – Removal Instructions

November 5, 2014adware, freefixerRoger Karlsson

Hello readers. This will be a short post on some ads labeled “Ads By new_player“. The four images in the ads are labeled “Buzzwok“.

I found these ads after installing a download that I new bundled lots of adware. After uninstalling everything that came bundled with the download, except an adware called Host Secure, the “Ads By new_player” still remained. So that’s the one responsible for the ads. You can find more info on how to remove HostSecure here.

Did that help you with the removal?

Remove HostSecure – HostSecurePlugin and HostSecure.exe Uninstall Guide

November 5, 2014adware, freefixerDomaIQ, SoftPulseRoger Karlsson

Hello there and welcome to the FreeFixer blog. I just found another bundled adware called HostSecure or HostSecurePlugin and give you some removal instructions. If HostSecure is installed and running on your system, you will see HostSecure.exe running in the Windows Task Manager and an add-on called HostSecurePlugin added into Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. I’ll show how to remove Host Secure in this blog post with the FreeFixer removal tool.

Here’s how the add-on shows up in Firefox:

HostSecure is bundled in other software’s installers. Here’s one example how it appears in an installer for an unrelated program.

Generally, you can avoid bundled software such as HostSecurePlugin by being careful when installing software and declining the bundled offers in the installer.

As always when I stumble upon some new bundled software I uploaded it to VirusTotal to see if the anti-malware software there detect something interesting. 7 of the 54 anti-malware scanners detected the file. The HostSecurePlugin files are detected as Win-PUP/SoftPulse by AhnLab-V3, WS.Reputation.1 by Symantec and DomaIQ (fs) by VIPRE. Here’s the scan result for HostSecure.exe:

The file is digitally signed by Plugin Update SL.

Removing HostSecure is pretty straightforward with FreeFixer. Just select the Host Secure Plugin files for removal and then click the Fix button and the problem will be solved.

Hope that helped you with the removal.

Do you also have HostSecure on your computer? Any idea how it was installed? Please share your story the comments below. Thanks a bunch!

Thank you for reading.

How To Remove AppEnable Ads

November 4, 2014adware, freefixerBrowseFoxRoger Karlsson

Hello guys and gals. Did something called AppEnable appear on your system? AppEnable appears to be a variant of CrossRider that I blogged about previously. If AppEnable is installed and running on your computer, you will spot a toolbar with YouTube, Twitter, eBay and Flickr links. I’ll show how to remove AppEnable in this blog post with the FreeFixer removal tool.

Here’s how AppEnable appears in Firefox and Internet Explorer:

Here’s a screenshot from the the AppEnable EULA. It clearly shows that AppEnable is adware:

AppEnable is bundled in other software’s installers. When I first found AppEnable, it was bundled with a “Skype” download that was digitally signed by Astro Delivery.

When I play around with some new bundled software I always upload it to VirusTotal to check if the anti-virus progams there find anything suspicious. Of the 51 scanners, 9 detected the file. AVG reports AppEnable as BrowseFox.F, F-Prot detects it as W32/A-0909c198!Eldorado and NANO-Antivirus classifies it as Trojan.Win32.BPlug.ddwtte.

Removing AppEnable is a piece of cake with FreeFixer. Just check the AppEnable files for removal and then click the Fix button and the problem will be solved.

Hope this helped you solved the AppEnable problem.

Did you also find AppEnable on your machine? Any idea how it was installed? Please share by posting a comment. Thanks a bunch!

Thank you for reading and welcome back.

How To Remove TornTV

November 4, 2014adware, freefixerPess Kess Games, VASSANA KONGSOONGNERNRoger Karlsson

Did you just find something called TornTV on your machine? So did I. TornTV is added into Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. You can remove it from the Add/Remove programs dialog from the Windows Control Panel or by checking the TornTV files for removal in FreeFixer.

TornTV has been around for some time but I noticed that it is being signed by a different certificated now. One of the files, TornTV.exe is digitally signed by VASSANA KONGSOONGNERN, which appears to be an individual developer in Phuket, Thailand.

The Browser Helper Object, which is loaded into Internet Explorer, is signed by Kess Pess Games which according to the certificate is a company located in Nicosia, Cyprus.