Worried when Playtopus Coming up
What is it like to get infected with playtopus adware? Here’s one of the descriptions from its victim:
‘I am helping a good friend with an adware virus on his laptop. He was getting adware banners at the bottom of his browsers. He was running Norton's antivirus but it obviously did not stop this one from infecting his PC. I had him download malwarebytes and run it. It came up with the pup.playtopus virus. We selected FIX and it said it cleaned it up successfully. We also deleted all o mporary IE files and rebooted. Unfortunately, it appears that malwarebytes did not clean all of it up because he is still getting the banners and spurious other windows coming up with advertisements. I went out to his program list and found the playtopus application. I had him uninstall the program, delete the temp IE files and reboot; to no avail. The banner can be closed (x in top right corner), but it then comes right back.’
Is playtopus a virus? You’ll find out if you try to uninstall the adware yourself or when you are in the middle of re-closing every single closed adware and simply unable to go surfing because of temporarily cease and will-not-stop ads. Thus, some people start to concern about their situation:
‘The program is listed in my program files but control panel will not uninstall. Also, I downloaded Kasperskys virus removal tool(because i use their protection software) and it seems like the virus renders that thing useless. I get random pop ups using any browser and i fear that its going to do harm ultimately.’
Why Need to Remove Playtopus
The exact reason why playtopus manages to torment your browser is that it falsifies browser settings; the reason why playtopus cannot be uninstalled is that it modifies system configuration. A distorted configuration can cast the system into dangerous position as a hiatus is coming into shape which will be easily detected by intrusive virus. What’s worse, a loophole in browser setting will be always exploited by tracking cookies which is unknown to users until they run a full scan. Some will even be stuck up with numerous cookies after quite a while. Up to that time, your privacy will be scraped without doubt.
Noticeably, thanks to the loophole created upon playtopus’s settlement, the annoying adware can also impose unwanted dysfunctions to you:
- Computer runs slower than before, so does the browser;
- Installed security tools seem not to work without efficacy;
- High CPU/memory usage at WinrsCMD is found;
- Auto shutdown happens from time to time;
- Some files and folders refuse to be deleted.
How to Remove Playtopus Easily?
Plan A: Remove Playtopus Manually
1. Get into the Safe Mode with Networkingstep: Reboot your computer. As the computer is booting but before Windows launches, tap the "F8 key" continuously which should bring up the "Windows Advanced Options Menu" as shown below. Use your arrow keys to highlight "Safe Mode with Networking" option and press Enter key.
2. Disable any suspicious startup items.
For Windows XP:
step: Click Start menu -> click Run -> type: msconfig in the search bar -> open System Configuration Utility -> Disable all possible startup items including those of playtopus:
3. Remove add-ons:
Internet Explorer:
1) Go to Tools -> ‘Manage Add-ons’;
2) Choose ‘Search Providers’ -> choose ‘Bing’ search engine or ‘Google’ search engine and make it default;
3) Select ‘Search Results’ and click ‘Remove’ to remove it;
4) Go to ‘Tools’ -> ‘Internet Options’; select ‘General tab’ and click website, e.g. Google.com. Click OK to save changes.
Google Chrome
1) Click on ‘Customize and control’ Google Chrome icon, select ‘Settings’;
2) Choose ‘Basic Options’;
3) Change Google Chrome’s homepage to google.com or any other and click the ‘Manage Search Engines…’ button;
4) Select ‘Google’ from the list and make it your default search engine;
5) Select ‘Search Result’ from the list to remove it by clicking the ‘X’ mark.
Mozilla Firefox
1) Click on the magnifier’s icon and select ‘Manage Search Engine…’;
2) Choose ‘Search Results’ from the list and click ‘Remove’ and OK to save changes;
3) Go to ‘Tools’ -> “Options”. Reset the startup homepage or change it to google.com under ‘General tab;
4. Disable proxy
- Click on Tools on the menu bar
- select Internet options
- go to Connections tab
- select LAN settings at the bottom of the dialog
- under the Proxy sever, untick 'use a proxy server for your LAN (These settings will not apply to dial-up or VPN connections).'
- Click OK
5. Show hidden files
step: a) open Control Panel from Start menu and search for Folder Options;
b) under View tab to tick Show hidden files and folders and non-tick Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK;
c) click on the “Start” menu and then click on the “Search programs and files” box, Search for and delete these files created by playtopus:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\rundll32.exe
C:\users\user\appdata\Local\PLAYTO~1\UNINST~1.DLL,ProcessRequest
%AppData%\NPSWF32.dll
%AppData%\random.exe
%AppData%\result.db
6. Open Windows Task Manager and close all playtopus running processes.
step: Use CTRL+ALT+DEL combination to open Task Manager
7. Delete all registry values related to playtopus in your local hard disk C.
step: Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press the "R" button. Type in "regedit" and hit "Enter" to gain access to the Registry Editor.
Registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\CustomizeSearch=[site address] HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Search Bar=[site address] HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\LowRegistry\DontShowMeThisDialogAgain
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\[random]
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell =[random].exe Good for you: Wanna make the removal of Playtopus easier? Dare to try something new? Spyhunter can not only remove Playtopus completely for you but also protect your computer from additional malware like trojan, spyware and ransomware. Download and install Spyunter right away!
Plan B: Remove Playtopus automatically (with SpyHunter)
Step A. Download removal tool SpyHunter
1) Click here or the icon below to download Free SpyHunter automatically.
2) Follow the instructions to install SpyHunter
Step B. Run SpyHunter to block Playtopus
Run SpyHunter and click "Malware Scan" button to scan your computer, after detect this unwanted program, clean up relevant files and entries completely.
Step C. Restart your computer to take effect.
Note
Are you thinking about making the Playtopus removal 1 stone 2 birds happen? There is actually one antivirus program can help you. Download and install Spyhunter to remove Playtopus and protect your computer in the futher!