“Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus Removal

[bannerTop]

Welcome to our “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.

Adware programs are hardly a treat to have on your system, and a program known as “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus certainly doesn’t make an exception. Don’t be worried, though – it’s not a virus. On the contrary, it’s very easy to tell, when you’ve been infected by an adware program, because it wants to be noticed, unlike genuine threats such as Trojans and ransomware. All the popups and banners and other online ads that have recently started filling your Chrome or Firefox browser are the main symptom of an adware infection. And though not inherently harmful or capable of in any way corrupting your PC, there are a few things we believe our users should be aware of, when it comes to this type of software. Below we’ve taken the liberty of describing some of the side effects of programs like “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus, as well as the reasons why you may want to remove this program as quickly as possible. In addition, we have also included a removal guide just below this article, which you are free to use in order to locate and uninstall this program from your system.

What adware programs are really about and what to be aware of

“Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus and other programs like it usually tend to boil down to a single purpose, as the name of this software category would suggest: advertising. As such, their main goal is to integrate with your browser and start generating tons of popups, banners, box messages, in-text links and various other online ads to display on the user’s screens every time they decide to open their browsers and surf the web. The purpose is, of course, gaining exposure for the numerous websites, products and services that they promote with those ads, which is how their vendors essentially benefit from the whole practice. But on the other hand, the adware developers are also equally invested in it, as they earn revenue in accordance with remuneration models like the popular Pay Per Click scheme or PPC. This ensures that they can make a small profit every time a user clicks on a given popup or banner that their adware generates. That way, if you picture thousands or even hundreds of thousands of users getting infected, business it pretty much booming.

However, the above also results in very aggressive advertising approaches and ends in users being harasses by the numerous ads, as you may well have experienced already yourself. In addition, the adware developers can often resort to various tactics that hardly any of the affected users would approve of, and we don’t either. Programs like “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus often have the capacity of tracking your browsing history with the intention of extracting certain information from it. Such are usually the websites you like to spend the most time on, as well as the things you search for online and the kind of content you tend to share on various social media platforms. Based on this data, the adware program can then determine which of its ads will be more likely to ‘speak’ to you and attract your attention. As a matter of fact, you may have already taken notice of this yourself. The longer you have adware on your PC, the more you will see how the ads start to oddly relate to your latest browsing activity.

Now, with all that in mind, there’s also one more thing that users ought to know when it comes to these programs. We already mentioned that “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus is not malicious and has no intent to harm you or your computer. Nevertheless, these programs could potentially make your PC more vulnerable to viruses and other malware, thanks to changes they often initiate to your Registry, as well as due to the constant ad bombardment. It’s not very likely, but still possible that you may run into a malicious ad (known as a malvertisement) in the midst of other ads that just keep reappearing on your screen. These fake ads are online advertisements that look no different from the regular ones, but have been meddled with by hackers, who have injected them with their malicious scripts. The moment you click on an ad like that, you can instantaneously end up getting infected by some dreadful virus and there’s no telling the extent of harm it could cause. Therefore, we advise you to simply uninstall the program exposing you to so many ads and avoiding any interaction with the ads that you see online.

SUMMARY:

Name	“Cat.exe has stopped working”
Type	Adware/Browser Hijacker
Danger Level	Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms	Typically numerous ads that all of a sudden start appearing for no apprent reaosn can signalize the presence of adware.
Distribution Method	Program bundles, spam email ampaigns, other adware or similar programs, etc.

“Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus Removal

I – Safe mode and revealing hidden files

1. Boot your PC into Safe Mode /link/
2. Reveal hidden files and folders /link/

II – Uninstallation

[bannerMiddle]

1. Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
   
2. Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
   
3. Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall

If you are unable to spot “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus, search for any unrecognized programs that you do not remember installing on your PC – the unwanted software might disguise itself by going under a different name.

III – Cleaning all your browsers

1. Go to your browser’s icon, right-click on it and select Properties.
   
2. Go to the Shortcut tab and in the Target make sure to delete anything written after “.exe”.
   
3. Now, open your browser and follow the instructions below depending on whether you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE.

• Chrome users:

1. Go to your browser’s main menu located in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
   
2. Scroll down, click on Show Advanced Settings and then select Clear browsing data. Just to be sure, tick everything and clear the data.
   
3. Now, in the left pane, go to Extensions and look through all extensions that are integrated within your browser. If you notice any suspicious add-on, disable it and then remove it.
   

• Firefox users:

1. Similarly to Chrome, go to the main menu and select Add-ons and then Extensions.
2. Remove any suspicious browser extensions that you may have even if they do not have the name “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus on them.

• IE users:

1. Go to Tools and select Manage add-ons.
   
2. Click on all add-on types from the left pane and check if there is anything suspicious in the right panel. In case you find anything shade, make sure to remove it.

IV – Removing Shady processes

[bannerMiddleSecond]

1. Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
   
2. Thoroughly look through all processes. The name “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus might not be there, but if you notice any shady looking process that consumes high amounts of memory it might be ran by the unwanted program.
3. If you spot the process ran by “Cat.exe has stopped working” Virus, right-click on it, open its file location and delete everything in there. Then go back to the Task Manager and end the process.
   

V – DNS check

1. In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
   
2. Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
   
3. Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
   
4. If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
   
5. Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
   
6. Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.