How do I get rid of Storm Alerts ads (adware)
August 6th, 2016
I have Avast 2015 Free AV and it’s not detecting it. I’m quite disappointed. I did a search on Google on how to remove such crap but it seems every search I make on this topic, that shows up seems to be spam sites, making me install more software that I don’t feel they’re safe. Not sure it’s the Storm Alert altering my search results. Some articles just says to uninstall it from Control Pa’s Uninstall/Install a program feature (duh!) if it were listed there, I would’ve done it a long time ago. The thing is, I’ve removed it using my Uninstaller from IObit but it’s still there in Chrome even after restarts. I want to avoid reinstalling Chrome since I have many things setup to my needs and I’ll hate to re-setup everything all over again so I’ll put it as last option.
I am using Chrome browser on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.
Here is what it looks like:
What do you guys recommend to use to remove this? Should I try Malware Bytes next?
This looks like a good guide and it uses trusted freeware stuff (ADWcleaner and Malwarebytes).
EDIT..
OOps, forgot the link before!
http://malwaretips.com/blogs/ads-by-storm-alert-removal/
I use both of those listed. Run Malwarebytes 1st and adwcleaner will get the rest. ADW looks very basic but does its job. After it scans be sure to look at all the tabs(there will be several) and check everything you want it to remove.
I forgot to mention, I also tried ADWCleaner. It didn’t even find it. I just installed AVG 2015 Internet Security and I haven’t see the links in texts yet. If I do see again, I’ll report back because AVG detected some stuff that Avst/ADWCleaner/Malware Fighter didn’t.
Did you look in the extensions section of Chrome. If it’s there, just delete it. If all else fails you back up your Chrome settings and just reinstall it.
Yes, I did checked there. I don’t see it there as an extension.
May be a stupid question but did you reset Chrome after doing all the things you have done? I’ve done it and didn’t lose any personal data.
May be a stupid question but did you reset Chrome after doing all the things you have done? I've done it and didn't lose any personal data.
I used to do a reinstall of Chrome before and all my extensions come back since they’re connected via my google account which is to be expected (it was just like the way it was after the reinstall). However this time I have this tab saver and I have the profiles setup. I can’t find an info saying that the saves are cloud-base and that they’ll be restored in case of Chrome installs. Anyways, I think my AVG solved it. I haven’t see the ads for almost 3 hours now. Before, it kept popping about every 30 seconds in texts. Out of all the security software I installed, only AVG detected it lol.
those software are not as good as they are praised for adware cleaning based on my experiences. most of adware work like a trojan , from a hidden source , no matter how many times you clean plugins and such , source will re-create it until the source is deleted. but there is a good part source have to run as an executable so you can easily detect it.
http://technet.microsoft.com/tr-tr/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
this advanced task manager from microsoft itself , shows everything that runs on your computer , system things at above and user started tasks at below. this software is a portable executable which needs no installation. your adware source most likely be found below among user started tasks , just look for an unusual name of application running , you can see its path too, kill the process and go and delete it. after that use anti spyware software you have to clear the remnants. and as you said cleaners or sites for a specific adware cause harm more than its benefit , basically they do or show how to clear remnants and registry entries. you said you fixed it , if it comes back use the process explorer i gave above . personally i would use it , even if problem is fixed , to see if strange things running on my system. i got experienced through adware things after my married friends called me and said “it is urgent” , cuz when i got there , i generally see bouncing nude women on the screen , it needs to be cleared of before wives saw it
edit : i forgot to tell , in order to be sure that adware is completely get ridden of , u need to restart computer , thats most likely when the source creates things again.
those software are not as good as they are praised for adware cleaning based on my experiences. most of adware work like a trojan , from a hidden source , no matter how many times you clean plugins and such , source will re-create it until the source is deleted. but there is a good part source have to run as an executable so you can easily detect it.
http://technet.microsoft.com/tr-tr/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
this advanced task manager from microsoft itself , shows everything that runs on your computer , system things at above and user started tasks at below. this software is a portable executable which needs no installation. your adware source most likely be found below among user started tasks , just look for an unusual name of application running , you can see its path too, kill the process and go and delete it. after that use anti spyware software you have to clear the remnants. and as you said cleaners or sites for a specific adware cause harm more than its benefit , basically they do or show how to clear remnants and registry entries. you said you fixed it , if it comes back use the process explorer i gave above . personally i would use it , even if problem is fixed , to see if strange things running on my system. i got experienced through adware things after my married friends called me and said "it is urgent" , cuz when i got there , i generally see bouncing nude women on the screen , it needs to be cleared of before wives saw it
edit : i forgot to tell , in order to be sure that adware is completely get ridden of , u need to restart computer , thats most likely when the source creates things again.
Thanks for the extra tip. Lol, bouncing nude women. I get it. I think I’ve helped one of my “married” friends cleaned his infected computer. I found them unintentionally while trying to dig the source of the infection lol. Marriage can’t stop such stuff xD