Friendshipmale.com
Friendshipmale.com is a browser hijacker that doesn’t do anything bad to the system, but it’s still can be considered as a possible security risk. Notorious for spamming the screen with annoying advertisements and pop-ups, Friendshipmale.com is also known for hijacking the browser’s settings and pushing some sponsored search engine or homepage into it.
In general, browser hijackers are neither viruses nor legitimate apps that can serve a useful purpose. Rather, they fall somewhere in between these two categories of software and operate in a bit annoying manner.
The Friendshipmale.com Malware
There are many types of hijackers like the Friendshipmale.com malware and some are just software components that change the user’s search engine or homepage choices. Apps like the Friendshipmale.com malware, Shampoo Extension and Wigglewurm with more complex hijacking capabilities may be installed as stand-alone programs on the computer, and they can make a slew of changes to the operating system and browser settings.
What is Friendshipmale.com?
Some browser hijackers employ shady practices, such as false captchas on websites, to get access to the user’s Chrome, Firefox, or Edge browser in order to generate more traffic and rise their sponsored sites in search engine results. Pay-Per-Click and Pay-Per-View are the two most frequent online advertising methods used by these programs software components and, while they are not illegal, these advertising methods still come with their own risks. Friendshipmale.com is a typical representative of the hijacker software category and, as such, the tactics it employs to achieve its advertising goals may raise some concerns about the security of a computer system that should not be overlooked.
If you need help, Friendshipmale.com may be uninstalled from your computer by following the step-by-step hijacker removal instructions found just below this article. To save some time, you may also want to use a reputable anti-malware program. A combination of both methods will ensure that Friendshipmale.com won’t reappear automatically the next time you restart your PC.
SUMMARY:
| Name | Friendshipmale.com |
| Type | Adware/Browser Hijacker |
| Detection Tool | Some threats reinstall themselves if you don't delete their core files. We recommend downloading SpyHunter to remove harmful programs for you. This may save you hours and ensure you don't harm your system by deleting the wrong files. |
Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Friendshipmale.com!
How to remove Friendshipmale.com
- First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
- Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find Friendshipmale.com in the programs list that would show up.
- Select Friendshipmale.com from the list and click on Uninstall.
- Follow the steps in the removal wizard.
If you have a Mac virus, please use our How to remove Ads on Mac guide.
If you have an Android virus, please use our Android Malware Removal guide.
If you have an iPhone virus, please use our iPhone Virus Removal guide.
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What we suggest you do first is, check the list of programs that are presently installed on the infected device and uninstall any rogue software that you find there:
- From the Start Menu, navigate to Control Panel ->>> Programs and Features ->>> Uninstall a Program.
- Next, carefully search for unfamiliar programs or programs that have been installed recently and could be related to Friendshipmale.com.
- If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Friendshipmale.com.
- If a notification appears on your screen when you try to uninstall a specific questionable program prompting you to just alter it or repair it, make sure you choose NO and complete the steps from the removal wizard.
Remove Friendshipmale.com from Chrome
- Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
- Go to more tools
- Now select extensions
- Remove the Friendshipmale.com extension
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- Once you open Chrome, click on the three-dots icon to open the browser’s menu, go to More Tools/ More Options, and then to Extensions.
- Again, find the items on that page that could be linked to Friendshipmale.com and/or that might be causing problems in the browser and delete them.
- Afterwards, go to this folder: Computer > C: > Users > *Your User Account* > App Data > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data. In there, you will find a folder named Default – you should change its name to Backup Default and restart the PC.
- Note that the App Data folder is normally hidden so you’d have to first make the hidden files and folders on your PC visible before you can access it.
How to get rid of Friendshipmale.com on FF/Edge/etc.
- Open the browser and select the menu icon.
- From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
- Look for the Friendshipmale.com extension
- Get rid of Friendshipmale.com by removing it from extensions
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If using Firefox:
- Open Firefox
- Select the three parallel lines menu and go to Add-ons.
- Find the unwanted add-on and delete it from the browser – if there is more than one unwanted extension, remove all of them.
- Go to the browser menu again, select Options, and then click on Home from the sidebar to the left.
- Check the current addresses for the browser’s homepage and new-tab page and change them if they are currently set to address(es) you don’t know or trust.
If using MS Edge/IE:
- Start Edge
- Select the browser menu and go to Extensions.
- Find and uninstall any Edge extensions that look undesirable and unwanted.
- Select Settings from the browser menu and click on Appearance.
- Check the new-tab page address of the browser and if it has been modified by “Friendshipmale.com” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.
How to Delete Friendshipmale.com
- Open task manager
- Look for the Friendshipmale.com process
- Select it and click on End task
- Open the file location to delete Friendshipmale.com
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- Access the Task Manager by pressing together the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys and then selecting Task Manager.
- Open Processes and there try to find a process with the name of the unwanted software. If you find it, select it with the right button of the mouse and click on the Open File Location option.
- If you don’t see a “Friendshipmale.com” process in the Task Manager, look for another suspicious process with an unusual name. It is likely that the unwanted process would be using lots of RAM and CPU so pay attention to the number of resources each process is using.
- Tip: If you think you have singled out the unwanted process but are not sure, it’s always a good idea to search for information about it on the Internet – this should give you a general idea if the process is a legitimate one from a regular program or from your OS or if it is indeed likely linked to the adware.
- If you find another suspicious process, open its File Location too.
- Once in the File Location folder for the suspicious process, start testing all of the files that are stored there by dragging them to our free online scanner available below.
- Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracyThis scanner is free and will always remain free for our website's users.This file is not matched with any known malware in the database. You can either do a full real-time scan of the file or skip it to upload a new file. Doing a full scan with 64 antivirus programs can take up to 3-4 minutes per file.Drag and Drop File Here To ScanAnalyzing 0 sEach file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracyThis scanner is based on VirusTotal's API. By submitting data to it, you agree to their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and to the sharing of your sample submission with the security community. Please do not submit files with personal information if you do not want them to be shared.
- If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, return to the Processes tab in the Task Manager, select the suspected process, and then select the End Process option to quit it.
- Go back to the folder where the files of that process are located and delete all of the files that you are allowed to delete. If all files get deleted normally, exit the folder and delete that folder too. If one or more of the files showed an error message when you tried to delete them, leave them for now and return to try to delete them again once you’ve completed the rest of the guide.
How to Uninstall Friendshipmale.com
- Click on the home button
- Search for Startup Apps
- Look for Friendshipmale.com in there
- Uninstall Friendshipmale.com from Startup Apps by turning it off
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- Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Friendshipmale.com-related entries from the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to open the Registry Editor app (type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter) and then open a Find dialog (CTRL+F key combination) where you have to type the name of the threat.
- Perform a search by clicking on the Find Next button and delete any detected results. Do this as many times as needed until no more results are found.
- After that, to ensure that there are no remaining entries lined to Friendshipmale.com in the Registry, go manually to the following directories and delete them:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory.
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/Random
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Random
Is Friendshipmale.com a dangerous software?
The Initial impression of Friendshipmale.com reveals that all this browser hijacker does is to place advertisements on the pages you visit as you browse the web and make a few potentially unwanted changes to your browser. Even if you are good ignoring the nagging pop-ups, pop-unders and page redirects, many users find themselves stuck with the new configurations of their browser and its behaviour. The good news is that there is no immediate impact on the computer from the frequent ads display and browser changes, but what you should know is that these changes may potentially be utilized by other online dangers such as Trojans, Ransomware cryptoviruses and malware for their entry into the system.
Sadly, most browser hijacker apps don’t have much control over the ads and links they are displaying on the screen, and this comes with its own risks. For instance, when people click on the random ads that Friendshipmale.com generates, they risk ending up on malicious websites or pages infected with malware that seems to be safe and useful from a first glance. The most typical response when landing on a a rogue website is to simply close the browser tab without clicking on anything else.
However, this may not always be possible since cybercriminals are getting more creative in luring users with realistic-looking content which may trick you into revealing your personal information, or downloading some legitimate-looking software and, in this way, putting your computer and system at danger. To reduce that risk, we recommend that you avoid clicking on anything that Friendshipmale.com displays on your screen or, remove the hijacker software and uninstall all of its associated files and settings. If done correctly, this will remove all the nagging ads and browser changes and prevent you from being exposed to phishing sites or sites that may distribute malware like Trojans, Ransomware, Spyware, Viruses and other similar online hazards.
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