How to Remove Atwola Tracking

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Atwola is the name, given to a tracking cookie. It’s newly-found cyber threat that you mustn’t underestimate. Although, it’s not technically a ‘virus,’ it comes pretty close. Cyber criminals have unleashed it onto the web with malicious purposes. Atwola gets used to spy your online activities. It tracks your browsing and gathers data on your interests. What do you like? What appeals to you? What do you find intriguing? What do you search for? It gathers all sorts of information on you. And, it stores that information. Then, once it gathers enough, sends it. To whom? Well, to the cyber criminals we mentioned above. And, you best believe that has consequences. These strangers with agendas exploit your information for personal profit. They use it to determine which ads to throw at you. It selects the right ads, to flood you with, to generate the most clicks and, therefore, the most revenue. But the annoyance and frustration of its meddling ads isn’t your biggest concern. The nasty cyber threat has access to your personal and financial information. Who knows what they can use it for? And, whatever they choose to do with it, you can’t stop them. Once they get their hands on it, you can do nothing. So, don’t allow that scenario to come true. Take actions before it’s too late. Do your best to locate the threat’s lurking spot, and delete it on discovery. The sooner, the better.

How did I get infected with?

The Atwola infection turns to the usual antics to slither into your system. More often than not, it uses freeware as it provides one of the easiest access points. For reasons unknown, most users throw caution to the wind when faced with it. When installing freeware, they opt to rely on luck instead of vigilance. For example, they skip reading the terms and conditions altogether. Instead of being thorough, and familiarize with them, they say Yes to everything. Needless to say, that’s a colossal mistake. One, that tends to lead to the same result every time – infections. If you’d rather avoid that outcome, be attentive! Choose caution over carelessness. One leads to malware, while the other helps to avoid it. Don’t rush or give into distraction and naivety. You’ll regret it if you do. Due diligence goes a long way. Remember that next time you’re installing freeware. Or, a supposed update. Or, dealing with spam email attachments. Just accept that in today’s day and age, everything on the Internet wants to exploit you for gains. And, not necessarily, with your best interest at hand. Caution is your friend. It helps you, and it can’t hurt.

Why is this dangerous?

The Atwola tracking cookie tracks your browsing activities. Not a big surprise, is it? After the targeted marketing comes into play, your screen gets overrun with ads. But it’s not only pop-ups. You also get flooded with suspicious-looking third-party websites. Coupled together, the pop-up ads and redirects, lead to even more issues. They slow down your computer’s performance to a crawl. They also result in frequent system crashes. But it doesn’t stop there. Atwola’s presence on your PC leads to countless more issues. For one, it opens your system to more malware. Like, adware and hijackers. Don’t let it. What if your system gets so overwhelmed with malware that it gives up? What if, one day, you get greeted with the dreaded blue? Yes, The Blue Screen of Death is a minor possibility. But it is one! So, are you okay to take that chance? Or, would you rather avoid the risks that go hand in hand with the dreadful Atwola cookie? Do what’s best for you and your PC, and pick the latter.

How to Remove Atwola virus

The Atwola 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 Atwola 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.

WARNING! Stopping the wrong file or deleting the wrong registry key may damage your system irreversibly.
If you are feeling not technical enough just use Spyhunter Professional Malware Removal Tool to deal with the problem!
>>Download SpyHunter – a Professional Remover.

Please, keep in mind that SpyHunter’s scanner tool is free. To remove the Atwola infection, you need to purchase its full version.

STEP 1: Track down Atwola in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Atwola startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

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

• Open Google Chrome

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

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 Atwola, 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 Atwola 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 Atwola 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.