Remove Ads by FreezeTheApp From Chrome/Firefox

Were you suddenly infected by Ads by FreezeTheApp? Our removal guide is designed to help you get rid of Ads by FreezeTheApp from Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

The first and most important thing you should know is that you were infected by an adware – the virus class commonly believed to be the lowest rung in the malware ladder. Its threat mostly lies in the fact that it lowers significantly the security level of your PC by using the weakest link in any security – the human.Since you are reading this article, you have identified the source of all the pop-ups, hyperlink ads, and fake banners that have been plaguing you, and that is Ads by FreezeTheApp. Obviously this malicious application is a prime candidate for complete eradication. If there ever was a doubt in your mind you should do that, then we want you to understand that our experiments point that programs of this class have more negative side effects than positive.

Namely these effects are:

1. A general sluggishness of the system, even when you are performing tasks that are easy and theoretically not very taxing on your PC. The slowness comes from the advertisements themselves – they are purely created by your PC’s Processor, which has to pose them on top of the web pages’ layout, which takes a lot of its cycles. For obvious reasons this can lead to a variety of problems, especially on older machines.
2. Browser crashing, stuttering, and occasional freezing (pun intended) always accompanies Ads by FreezeTheApp. If things get too much for you, you can ameliorate all the effects by limiting the tabs you have open to this one (hopefully). Of course the best remedy is to remove the virus.
3. Some sound glitching while you are playing music or movies (related to the stuttering).

Remove Ads by FreezeTheApp

IMPORTANT! START HERE, PLEASE!

First thing first – viruses of Ads by FreezeTheApp’s caliber always change. They have small differences that aim to confuse people and make it harder for anyone to rely on removal guides. For that reason we have created a self-styled “universal” guide. No matter the “version” of this thing, you should be able to remove Ads by FreezeTheApp with the instructions below. However if it happens that something isn’t working, please contact us in the comments.

For exactly the same reasons some of the steps may be entirely unnecessary – if this happens just move on with the next one and try until the virus is eradicated. Some users have reported that they can not see Ads by FreezeTheApp in Safe Mode, while other do not have this issue.

STEP 1:

Our first step here is a reboot in Safe Mode. If you already know how to do it, just skip this and proceed to Step 2. If you do not know how to do it, continue reading:

STEP 2:

Ads by FreezeTheApp has infected ALL of your browsers. This means that you need to remove it from all of them or it will just regenerate and you’ll have to start from scratch once again. Also, bear in mind that adware are well-known for trying to trick users into installing other adware. It is in your best interests to learn what these fakes were in order to understand if you yourself were tricked. If the answer is yes, try remembering the name of the things you installed:

1. Fake updates for Java, Flash Player, or even Windows itself. These sudden pop ups are not limited to web pages exclusively. They can appear even while you are performing everyday PC actions.
2. If you click on the ads generated by Ads by FreezeTheApp you may be redirected to random websites that contain malware and are set to start downloading .exe files which turn into more malware.
3. Did you receive any sudden prompts from your anti-virus program asking you to renew the database or perform a scan? This may have been a virus in disguise.

If any of this happened to you, you need to look extra hard for additional viruses.

  For Internet Explorer Users:

Open IE, then click   —–> Manage Add-ons.

Find Ads by FreezeTheApp . Disable it.

If your Home Page is different from the usual, click  —–> Internet Options>edit the URL box with your preferred search engine, and click Apply.

  For Mozilla Firefox Users:

Open Firefox, click on  (top right) ——-> Add-ons.

.

Hit Extensions next.

Ads by FreezeTheApp  should be somewhere around here –  Remove it.

 For Google Chrome Users:

 Start Chrome, click  —–>More Tools —–> Extensions.

 

In  Extensions,  find the virus and  select  .

 Click    again, and proceed to Settings —> Search, the fourth tab, select Manage Search Engines.  Remove anything but the search engines you normally use.

 For Safari Users:

Open Safari, and click Safari —–>Preferences —–> Extensions—–>Uninstall the malware.

STEP 3:

Right click on the browser’s shortcut, then click Properties.

NOTE: Below, we are showing Google Chrome, but the method is the same for all browsers.

Once you’ve reached Properties —–> Shortcut (on the band at the top), then in the Target type field, you should REMOVE EVERYTHING AFTER .exe.

STEP 4:

(Works for Windows XP, 7,  8,  8.1)

Hold and R together. Write appwiz.cpl  in the new field, then click OK.

 

You are now in the Control Panel. Search around for Ads by FreezeTheApp and anything else suspicious-looking. Uninstall  it/them. Also, be extremely careful. Viruses often spend one last ditch effort to trick you into installing more of their kind. If you see a screen like this when you click Uninstall, choose NO:

Hold and R again – but this time copy + paste the following and click OK:

notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts

A .txt file will open – don’t touch anything there. If you are hacked and someone has access to your PC, there will be a bunch of other IPs connected to you at the bottom. This is what hosts file looks like:

If there is anything connecting to you below “Localhost” you may be hacked, and it’s best to ask us in the comments for directions.

STEP 4:

A BIG WARNING HERE! READ THIS BEFORE PROCEEDING!

This is perhaps the most important and difficult step, so be extremely careful. Anything you perform in the following few steps can damage your system significantly if you do not perform it in the right way. If you are not feeling comfortable, we advise you to download a professional Ads by FreezeTheApp remover. Also, note that your account names and passwords may be exposed to the virus – including any accounts connected to your credit cards. If you do not delete the virus completely it could send the data back to whoever created it, so open your eyes wide. 

Open the Task Manager by right clicking on the Taskbar and choosing Start Task Manager.

Once it opens, choose the Processes Tab. Look at all of the processes in front of you and try to determine which ones are a virus. Google them or ask us in the comments and we will provide the best assistance we can. If the virus returns later on, the reason is that you missed something here. However, we should warn you – doing this can be extremely risky, so the best course is to seek assistance from us.

Right click on each of the virus processes separately and select Open File Location. Also, End the process after you open the folder. Just to make sure we don’t delete any programs you mistakenly took for a virus, copy the folders somewhere, then delete the directories you were sent to.

STEP 5:

Take a look at the following things:

Type msconfig in the search field and hit enter: you will be transported to a new window. 

Go in the Startup tab and Uncheck anything that has “unknown” as Manufacturer.

Type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter.

Once inside, press CTRL and F together and type the virus’s Name. Right click and delete any entries you find with a similar name. Alternatively, if you can’t find any this way, look in these directories, and delete the registries manually:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—–Random numbers
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—-Windows—CurrentVersion—Run– Random
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—Internet Explorer—-Main—- Random
•  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREGoogleChromeExtensions

Did we help you? Please, consider helping us by spreading the word!

STEP 6 – Optimization

We’ve prepared a short and sweet optimization guide, specifically designed for users who just removed a virus. It is completely free, you do not need to download anything, and it’s not very time consuming. If you are interested – How To Remove Guide’s Optimization Tips.