Welcome, reader, to our “Microsoft Critical Alert” Pop-up Scam removal guide. The following instructions will aid you in removing the unwanted software from your PC.
You have come to the right page if you would like to learn how to effectively remove the annoyance that “Microsoft Critical Alert” is probably causing you. This program is a browser hijacker and what it typically does is, it replaces the homepage and the default search engine of your browser (be it Chrome, Firefox, IE, etc.) and redirects you to various sponsored advertisement pages full of annoying ads, pop-ups banners, and links. Fortunately, this is nothing permanent or dangerous and in the guide below we will show you how to remove the annoying program and all of its changes. But even though “Microsoft Critical Alert” cannot be considered as dangerous as a computer virus, it still needs a bit of understanding before you proceed to the removal instructions. That’s why we suggest you read the information below to familiarize yourself with the specifics of this software.
Can “Microsoft Critical Alert” be compared to a virus?
If your browser has suddenly been invaded by an intrusive program that imposes some changes on it, and the ads and popping tabs seem impossible to be stopped, the first thing you may think of is a virus or some nasty malware like a Trojan or Ransomware. However, “Microsoft Critical Alert” is not a virus and it falls under a different category of software called Browser hijacker, which is not a harmful, but rather unwanted type of software. Generally, browser hijackers are browser components, which aim to expose you to online advertisements, and they do that by imposing some changes in your browser and redirecting your web searches to all kinds of sponsored advertisements. The online advertising industry is using such applications to directly display advertisements on the user’s screen while they are browsing the web. Very often, advertisers pay programmers huge amounts of money to bring traffic and clicks to their websites, and browser hijackers are used exactly for that purpose. The infamous Pay-Per-Click method comes into play here, where the hijacker developers receive some money from every click that redirects users to such sponsored ads, pop-ups, banners and pages. In recent years, this method has turned into a popular source of income for many online based businesses and software developers. Since profits here can be huge, so is the amount of the intrusive browser hijackers that may interrupt your browsing activity.
Users usually install the browser hijacker by themselves
In case you’re wondering how “Microsoft Critical Alert” got installed on your computer and took over your browser, you should know that you may have installed it there yourself. This usually happens thanks to a distribution method called software bundling where ad-generating components like browser hijackers may get bundled inside the installer of another program that the users download and install. Free software may contain such a bundle, but you may also get it if you download applications from file sharing platforms, torrents, free installation managers, spam email links, open source download platforms or even free downloads from the web. The moment you run the setup, it may prompt you to the standard installation procedure, and this is what most users do. However, in order to prevent any additional software from getting installed along with the software you desire, it is best to skip that option and seek for the so-called Advanced or Custom installation. Not only it will reveal the bundled programs if any, but it will enable you to prevent their installation. Do keep in mind that preventing them is way easier than uninstalling them later, and in most of the cases, you may need a removal guide like the one below to fully remove the browser hijacker.
Uninstalling “Microsoft Critical Alert” may save you from some hidden hazards…
Even though “Microsoft Critical Alert” is not malicious itself, you should always keep in mind that tricky threats such as viruses, Trojans and even the recently popular Ransomware may hide in many different places and may use different system vulnerabilities to sneak inside your PC. Randomly popping ads, page redirects, and intrusive messages are some of the favorite places, where hackers love to hide their malware. That’s why, it is not excluded that, in the flow of advertisements, you may unknowingly come across a real nasty infection. Having this in mind, it may be best to uninstall “Microsoft Critical Alert” in order to eliminate the possibility of unexpected security hazards. Moreover, the irritation and the browsing-related disturbance this browser hijacker may cause can really drive you nuts. Your browser may become so slow, due to the unstoppable flow of ads that it tries to display, that it may take ages for you to load the pages you want. Your computer may also get sluggish and no one likes a sluggish system. In case that this is enough for you to decide to remove “Microsoft Critical Alert”, the guide below contains all the needed instructions. Just follow them and you will soon get your browser back to normal.
“Microsoft Critical Alert” Pop-up Scam Removal
I – Uninstallation
- Use the Winkey+R keyboard combination, write Control Panel in the search field and hit enter.
- Go to Uninstall a program under Programs.
- Seek the unwanted software, select it and then click on Uninstall
- If you are unable to spot “Microsoft Critical Alert”, 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.
II – Safe mode and revealing hidden files
III – Cleaning all your browsers
- Go to your browser’s icon, right-click on it and select Properties.
- Go to the Shortcut tab and in the Target make sure to delete anything written after “.exe”.
- Now, open your browser and follow the instructions below depending on whether you are using Chrome, Mozilla or IE.
- Chrome users:
- Go to your browser’s main menu located in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
- Scroll down, click on Show Advanced Settings and then select Clear browsing data. Just to be sure, tick everything and clear the data.
- 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:
- Similarly to Chrome, go to the main menu and select Add-ons and then Extensions.
- Remove any suspicious browser extensions that you may have even if they do not have the name “Microsoft Critical Alert” on them.
- IE users:
- Go to Tools and select Manage add-ons.
- 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
- Go to your start menu, type Task Manager in the search field and from the results open View running processes with Task Manager.
- Thoroughly look through all processes. The name “Microsoft Critical Alert” 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.
- If you spot the process ran by “Microsoft Critical Alert”, 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
- In the start menu search box write View Network Connections and open the first result.
- Right-click on the network connection you are using and go to Properties.
- Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
- If Obtain DNS server addresses automatically is not checked, check it.
- Go to Advanced and select the DNS If there is anything in the DNS server addresses field, remove it and click OK.
- Click OK on the rest of the opened windows.
