May 2, 2016

Arcade Shadow Adware Removal Guide

Is Arcade Shadow installed on your PC without your permission? Are there tons of pop-ups on your web browser that won’t allow you to close down? Is new tab window with ads opened itself whenever you are online? Is your homepage suddenly changed to a weird website without your permission? If you are wondering why you are suffering with these troubles, this article will give you an answer and provide you an effective way to get rid of ads by Arcade Shadow completely.

Arcade Shadow Adware Description:

Arcade Shadow Adware, also known as Ads by Arcade Shadow, is categorized as Adware that injects advertisements onto web pages while browsing the web and affects the functioning of web browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. This application is an advertising platform used to generate pop-up ads and boost Internet traffic although it seems like a helpful site to provide users various online games. It usually installs packaged with other software – especially free programs and downloads such as TV shows, music or movies. Once it is downloaded on a vulnerable PC, the program can behave in an annoying manner. It keeps displaying various deals, offers and coupons to interrupt online activities. Also it can modify your browser settings, alter your default homepage and generate various advertisements and misleading errors to further entice you into downloading unwanted products. Some people also complain that this type of Adware has the ability to decrease default security level and add undesirable or insecure toolbar to the infected machine without any permission. Therefore, it is necessary to remove Arcade Shadow ads in order to protect the computer and avoid other fatal computer problems.

Being as a victim, computer users always find that unstoppable popping up tabs/windows flooded with ads titled with Arcade Shadow come out of nowhere. They may also end up with unwanted browser add-on, extension, plugin, toolbar and similar adware like Arcade Royal or Arcade Yum. Whenever a user launches the browser and tries to surf the internet, they cannot see their default homepage anymore. They will be redirected to another site that shows misleading information. Adware can block you from viewing the websites you want. Signs of this adware also involves in a sluggish system and changed internet settings. Don’t click on any ads related to Arcade Shadow or it will compromise your internet security and privacy. This adware may access your data and collect your cookies for generating more and more personalized ads so you have to get rid of this unwanted application as early as possible.

The following instructions require certain levels of computer skills. If you’re not sure and are afraid to make any critical mistakes during the process, please live chat with YooCare Expert now.

How Do You Know Your Browser Is Hijacked?

If you open your browser window (includes IE, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome etc.) and notice immediately that your home page has been changed to a page you do not recognize, then your browser may have been hijacked by adware. For this type of adware, it can keep giving you Arcade Shadow pop-up ads. Other malicious activities can be shown on your computer after hijacked are listed below:
1. It can not only change your web pages, but also alter other settings to add toolbars, pop-up advertisements, and bookmarks that you did not create.
2. It can modify the homepage settings of your web browser, more commonly by reducing your internet security options. And the worse thing is it prevents you from changing them back.
3. New toolbars or Favorites are installed that give you icons and links to web pages that you don’t want.
4. It may block you from visiting certain website you’d like to visit and show an error page instead.
5. It will display constant pop-up ads, sometimes in such large amounts that you are not able to close neither the ads nor the browser.

It May Initiate the Following Symptoms:

1. You keep getting random pop-ups opening in new browser tabs.
2. When clicking on Google search links you get taken to sites that have nothing to do with the subject you searched for.
3. Anti-virus and firewall software won’t start.
4. Internet stops working.
5. Unknown software has been installed without your authorization.
6. You can’t access reputable sites unless you type the URL into the navigation bar

Malicious Adware Manual Removal Guides:

Arcade Shadow adware hijacks your browser to redirect your web search results and changes the homepage and browser settings. To completely uninstall it from an infected system, manual removal is the first choice because sometimes antivirus software cannot pick up the exact computer threat timely or remove it permanently. Now most browser hijackers are quite similar to spyware and adware threats and therefore cannot be removed with the help of popular antivirus products. Users can follow the manual guide here to get rid of this adware completely.

1. Clear all the cookies of your affected browsers.

Since this tricky hijacker virus has the ability to use cookies for tracing and tracking the internet activity of users, it is suggested users delete all the cookies before a complete removal.

Google Chrome:

Click on the “Tools” menu and click the “Clear browsing data” button.
Select “Delete cookies and other site data” to delete all cookies from the list.
clear-browser-data

Internet Explorer:
Open Internet explorer window
Click the “Tools” button
Point to “safety” and then click “delete browsing history”
Tick the “cookies” box, then click “delete”

delete-browsing-history-1

Mozilla Firefox:

Click on Tools, then Options, select Privacy
Click “Remove individual cookies”
In the Cookies panel, click on “Show Cookies”
To remove a single cookie click on the entry in the list and click on the “Remove Cookie”
To remove all cookies click on the “Remove All Cookies” button

Remove-All-Cookie1

2. End the malicious process from Task Manager.

Once Arcade Shadow adware is installed, computer user may notice that CPU usage randomly jumps to 100 percent. At any time Windows always has many running processes. A process is an individual task that the computer runs. In general, the more processes, the more work the computer has to do and the slower it will run. If your system’s CPU spike is constant and remain at a constant 90-95%, users should check from Task Manager and see if there is a suspicious process occupying the system resources and then end it immediately.

(The name of the virus process can be random.)

Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to quickly bring up Task Manager Window:

task-manager

3. Show hidden files and folders.

Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.

Click the View tab.

Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.

show-hidden-files

4. Remove all the malicious files related to Arcade Shadow ads manually.

%AppData%Local[random].exe
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.exe

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main StartPage
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Video Shows You How to Safely Modify Windows Registry Editor:

“Arcade Shadow” pop-up is something unwanted and annoying because it can appear anytime on your web browser and block you from surfing the web properly, especially when you are on e-commerce websites, such as eBay or Amazon. This pop up is generated by Adware that releases loads of pop-up advertisements. Those ads cover your screen and prevent you from viewing the website you want. Also your browser may keep crashing all the time, giving you ‘not responding’ error. Removing these pop-ups is a difficult job because this type of adware will not show any presence in control panel/add or remove programs. It may not be listed there or it could give you endless error messages to prevent the removal. Pop-up ads from Arcade Shadow can push more system trouble like other potentially unwanted program and malicious software to add up on the system. You had better uninstall it manually as soon as it is detected.
Note: If you are not a computer expert and have no idea how to perform the removal, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further help.

Published by & last updated on May 2, 2016 12:36 pm

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