Remove Alpha Shoppers Adware

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The Alpha Shoppers app is supposed to be a useful tool. It is advertised as an app that saves money when shopping online. The truth behind this app is different. Alpha Shoppers is categorized as adware and Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP). There is nothing potential in your situation, though. You don’t want this app for sure. Once on board, Alpha Shoppers adds its malicious expansion to your web browser and takes control over it. From this point onward, it is the adware that is in control of what is being displayed. The furtive utility replaces your homepage and default search engine. It is also blocking its competitors’ content and replaces it with its own. Additionally, the Alpha Shoppers adware injects extra ad banners and in-text adverts on all opened websites. The adware, however, does not display just random adverts. It is selecting attractive commercials only. His task is quite easy actually. The furtive app monitors your web traffic and bases the commercials on the collected data. Thus, if you enter “sneakers” Alpha Shoppers will start to display discounts and coupons for sports shoes. This sounds good, yet, you cannot see the whole picture. The collected data is not used for marketing purposes only. It is sold to third parties. And this can be hazardous. Do you remember everything you do online? Which pages you visit, the ads you clicked on, the links you followed, search inquiries you make. The adware remembers. Even the activities you performed under “Incognito mode.” The adware is a master spy. It knows everything. And sells that information. This app is not that smart though. It may misinterpret your data. Thus, it may display advertisements for items and services that you don’t wish to see ads for. Adult content, games, and software that are not for kids’ eyes may appear on your screen. This tool has no parental control, so be advised. Do not let children play with the infected device.

How did I get infected with?

The Alpha Shoppers adware has an official download. However, it is also distributed via cunning techniques. Torrents, spam emails, fake updates and software bundling are commonly used techniques. A little extra caution, however, can prevent them from succeeding. Freeware, shareware and pirated copies of licensed software often become hosts for such parasites. One click can install more than one program, so keep your eyes open. When you are about to install a program, opt for the Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. It can be a button or tab. Under the Advanced installation, you will be presented with a list of all extras that are about to be installed. Examine the list carefully. These third-party apps, more often than not, are corrupted. Install only the tools you trust. Or, don’t install anything at all. Keep in mind that you can deselect all extras and still install the program you originally planned to set up. This is your computer. You are in control. It is also your responsibility to keep it clean. So, don’t be lazy. Always do your due diligence!

Why is this dangerous?

The Alpha Shoppers adware is not a direct threat to your computer. However, it acts as a backdoor to your system. Other malware and viruses can use it to penetrate your security. The Alpha Shoppers utility exposes its victims to numerous commercials. Yet, it doesn’t verify the promoted content nor the advertisers behind it. Anyone willing to spend some money can use the adware. All sorts of crooks take advantage. Be prepared, you will see “great offers” for financial software, free games, PC optimization tools, etc. You will also get automatically redirected to such websites. Do not waste your time there. With the adware on board, you are far more likely to be exposed to scam pages than to legit ones. What is worse, you may get automatically redirected to infected websites. Do not believe a word you read. Do your best to avoid the commercials. The Alpha Shoppers adware may display corrupted links. Keep in mind that one click is all it takes for a virus to be downloaded. There is no way to tell which ads are corrupted and which are not. Your best course of action is the immediate removal of the Alpha Shoppers adware. You can do it either automatically or manually. You have options. Make up your mind and act. The sooner you get rid of the adware, the better!

How to Remove Alpha Shoppers virus

The Alpha Shoppers infection is specifically designed to make money to its creators one way or another. The specialists from various antivirus companies like Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Norton, Avast, ESET, etc. advise that there is no harmless virus.

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to remove the Alpha Shoppers infection. Please, follow the procedures in the exact order. Please, consider to print this guide or have another computer at your disposal. You will NOT need any USB sticks or CDs.

STEP 1: Track down Alpha Shoppers in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Alpha Shoppers startup location

STEP 3: Delete Alpha Shoppers traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Alpha Shoppers in the computer memory

• Open your Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys simultaneously
• Carefully review all processes and stop the suspicious ones.

• Write down the file location for later reference.

Step 2: Locate Alpha Shoppers startup location

Reveal Hidden Files

• Open any folder
• Click on “Organize” button
  
• Choose “Folder and Search Options”
• Select the “View” tab
• Select “Show hidden files and folders” option
• Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”
• Click “Apply” and “OK” button

Clean Alpha Shoppers virus from the windows registry

• Once the operating system loads press simultaneously the Windows Logo Button and the R key.

• A dialog box should open. Type “Regedit”

• WARNING! be very careful when editing the Microsoft Windows Registry as this may render the system broken.

Depending on your OS (x86 or x64) navigate to:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

• and delete the display Name: [RANDOM]

• Then open your explorer and navigate to: %appdata% folder and delete the malicious executable.

Clean your HOSTS file to avoid unwanted browser redirection

Navigate to %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/host

If you are hacked, there will be foreign IPs addresses connected to you at the bottom. Take a look below:

STEP 3 : Clean Alpha Shoppers traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Alpha Shoppers by clicking on the little recycle bin
• Reset Google Chrome by Deleting the current user to make sure nothing is left behind

• Open Mozilla Firefox

• Press simultaneously Ctrl+Shift+A
• Disable the unwanted Extension
• Go to Help
• Then Troubleshoot information
• Click on Reset Firefox

• Open Internet Explorer

• On the Upper Right Corner Click on the Gear Icon
• Click on Internet options
• go to Toolbars and Extensions and disable the unknown extensions
• Select the Advanced tab and click on Reset

• Restart Internet Explorer

Step 4: Undo the damage done by Alpha Shoppers

This particular Virus may alter your DNS settings.

Attention! this can break your internet connection. Before you change your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS for Alpha Shoppers, be sure to write down the current server addresses on a piece of paper.

To fix the damage done by the virus you need to do the following.

• Click the Windows Start button to open the Start Menu, type control panel in the search box and select Control Panel in the results displayed above.
• go to Network and Internet
• then Network and Sharing Center
• then Change Adapter Settings
• Right-click on your active internet connection and click properties. Under the Networking tab, find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Left click on it and then click on properties. Both options should be automatic! By default it should be set to “Obtain an IP address automatically” and the second one to “Obtain DNS server address automatically!” If they are not just change them, however if you are part of a domain network you should contact your Domain Administrator to set these settings, otherwise the internet connection will break!!!

You must clean all your browser shortcuts as well. To do that you need to

• Right click on the shortcut of your favorite browser and then select properties.

• in the target field remove Alpha Shoppers argument and then apply the changes.
• Repeat that with the shortcuts of your other browsers.
• Check your scheduled tasks to make sure the virus will not download itself again.

How to Permanently Remove Alpha Shoppers Virus (automatic) Removal Guide

Please, have in mind that once you are infected with a single virus, it compromises your system and let all doors wide open for many other infections. To make sure manual removal is successful, we recommend to use a free scanner of any professional antimalware program to identify possible registry leftovers or temporary files.