Playspotz “Virus” Removal

Can’t Remove Playspotz ads? This page includes detailed ads by Playspotz Removal instructions!

The Playspotz pop-ups are beyond irritating. They cover every single website you visit, they are stubborn and invasive. Thanks to the ads, your entire online experience ends up destroyed as your PC speed is slowed down. Long story short, the Playspotz pop-ups are a sign of trouble. These commercials appear after an adware-type virus has slithered itself onto your machine. Hence, you’re stuck with adware. At some point, the infection managed to trick you into letting it get downloaded. Luckily, adware is considered to be the least problematic type of virus you could stumble across. The Internet is filled with some much more aggressive and vicious infections. For instance, you could have installed Trojan horses or a nasty ransomware-type virus. The parasite that is currently on board is relatively easy to tackle. However, you have to act quickly. There’s no such thing as a harmless cyber parasite so don’t underestimate this program. Anything that was developed by hackers could eventually get out of hand. To save yourself some serious damage, get rid of the adware now. This pest messes with your browser settings. It makes modifications completely behind your back and works in silence. As you could imagine, having such a secretive infection is extremely worrisome. The adware is hiding somewhere on your PC system changing your default settings. It adds a browser extension or a plugin to your browsers. And no, your authorization wasn’t part of the deal. Hackers don’t need to seek any permission before their parasite makes changes. Hence, the adware isn’t going to require your consent. It installs a certain plugin because that way your browsers get injected with ads. By modifying your browser settings, the virus starts boosting web traffic. Are you familiar with the pay-per-click mechanism? Hackers use this rather questionable method to gain profit online. The thing is, though, crooks’ revenue comes directly at your expense. Clicking any of the Playspotz pop-ups makes cyber criminals a little bit richer. Are you willing to become a sponsor of crooks? Furthermore, are you willing to compromise your safety further? Note that the Playspotz commercials are sponsored which means they are potentially corrupted. You’ll remain once click away from malware as long as the adware is on your device.

How did I get infected with?

Adware usually gets added to the freeware or shareware bundles people download. That gives you a good reason to pay attention next time you install such bundles. Check out the programs you’re about to give green light to beforehand. If you spot some additional infections hackers have attached to the bundle, deselect them. Keep in mind that rushing exposes you to parasites so don’t skip any installation steps. Take your time instead. We’d recommend that you opt for the Custom/Advanced option in the Setup Wizard. Not many people read the Terms and Conditions either. Same thing goes for the EULA (End User License Agreement). As you can see, not being aware of the terms you accept allows crooks to infect you. Check out the bundle thoroughly instead of overlooking the threat infections pose. Remember that cyber crooks could be surprisingly creative when it comes to spreading malware online. Unless you’re very careful, you could fall victim to some pesky parasite once again.

Why is this dangerous?

The adware makes it pretty much impossible for you to browse the Web. It’s compatible with all three of the most popular browsers out there. Yes, that includes Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. If you try to find anything, you’ll have to deal with the pile of pop-ups the adware generates. These commercials are extremely irritating but they are also unsafe. As mentioned, hackers use the Playspotz ads to gain profit. That means the advertisements are sponsored and potentially fake. There is no telling which ad is safe and which one is corrupted. To prevent installing more infections, avoid clicking these ads. Be careful as the commercials might appear to be perfectly harmless. You may come across attractive discounts, coupons and product deals/offers. However, put your security first and stay away from these dubious ads. Please follow our detailed manual removal guide down below.

How to Remove Playspotz virus

The Playspotz 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 Playspotz 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 Playspotz in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Playspotz startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

STEP 1: Track down Playspotz 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 Playspotz 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 Playspotz 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 Playspotz traces from Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer

• Open Google Chrome

• In the Main Menu, select Tools then Extensions
• Remove the Playspotz 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 Playspotz

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 Playspotz, 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 Playspotz 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 Playspotz 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.