How to Remove Mactonic (Pop-up Ad “Virus”)

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Mactonic is a malicious cyber threat. It falls under the adware umbrella. And, it makes for a terrible companion! If it makes its way into your PC, you’re in trouble. The application poses many dangers. That’s why, you’d do best to get rid of it ASAP. Don’t wait around to experience the consequences of its stay. Adware programs are meddlesome and meddling. They intrude on every online action, you take. They wreck your system’s well-being. And, altogether, make a mess of everything. But, by far, the worst part of having adware, is the security risk. The Mactonic tool jeopardizes your personal and financial details. It follows instruction to spy on you. And, its espionage begins as soon as it infiltrates your PC. The program tracks your browsing, and records everything you do. When it determines it has collected enough information, it sends it. To whom? Well, to strangers with agendas. The cyber criminals, who published the threat, to be precise. These are unknown individuals with malicious intentions. NOT people, you can trust with your sensitive information. Protect your privacy! Ensure your system’s well-being! Locate where the nasty adware lurks, and delete it on discovery. The sooner you do, the better.

How did I get infected with?

Mactonic turns to trickery, when it comes to invasion. It manages to sneak into your system undetected. And, that’s even though, you have to consent to its entry. It may seem a bit confusing, but it’s pretty simple. Let’s explain. Adware tools, like Mactonic, have to ask if you approve their admission. Only if you say YES, can they continue with installment. That’s why, they make sure to ask in a way that would result in consent. In other words, the most covert ways, they can. Freeware, fake updates, spam emails, corrupted links. The array of methods, they can turn to, is extensive. Whichever one, they choose, however, they still need you. They need you to throw caution to the wind. To rely on luck, instead of due diligence. To leave your fate to chance, and skip reading terms and conditions. To agree to everything in haste. The adware needs you to give into distraction, naivety, and haste. Don’t! Don’t ease its infiltration. Don’t choose carelessness over caution. Protect your PC from such sneaky threats, and always take the time to be thorough. Even a little extra attention can go a long way.

Why is this dangerous?

As soon as the adware invades, be wary. You’re in for a horrendous experience. The tool spreads its nastiness throughout your system. And, it doesn’t take long for you to notice. At first, you see its influences, every time you browse. If you so much as touch your browser, you get flooded with interference. Mactonic makes sure to intrude on your activities, at every turn. It floods your screen with pop-up, in-text, and banner ads. As well as, redirect you to suspicious-looking sites. The infection also puts you through a bombardment of fake alerts, and warnings. Remember to click nothing, the adware throws at you! That will only worsen your predicament. Adware applications can also force changes on you. They can perform a variety of reshuffles, without asking permission. Or, even bother to inform you. That includes, replacing your default search engine and homepage. Or, approving the installment of malware into your PC. That’s right. The Mactonic tool can fill your system to the brim with unwanted infections. The question is, will you let it? Or, would you rather, avoid the risks that follow it? Do what’s best for you, and your computer, and delete it ASAP. It’s the best thing you can do. So, do it FAST!

How to Remove Mactonic virus

The Mactonic 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 Mactonic 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 Mactonic in the computer memory

STEP 2: Locate Mactonic startup location

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

STEP 4: Undo the damage done by the virus

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

• Open Google Chrome

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

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 Mactonic, 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 Mactonic 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 Mactonic 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.