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WinShare “Virus” Removal

Edmend Stewart

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In this article we are going to try and help you remove WinShare “Virus”. Our instructions cover all Windows versions as well as most browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.

WinShare “Virus” is a part of the advertising software family. Its main functions are primarily focused on broadcasting online ads in the most efficient way – to make more and more users purchase or at least review the promoted products. Adware versions like WinShare “Virus” could get incorporated in all of the known browsers, including the most popular and widely used ones such as Firefox, Chrome and Explorer. The distributed ads could also be very diverse – shaped as boxes, appearing as pop-up windows or banners. What else could be said about WinShare? Programs like WinShare might really become the reason for much annoyance. Such Adware-based products may really start overproducing advertisements and might make every movement online impossible. That’s why many users would consider them slightly intrusive and as a result of this, adware has been classified as potentially unwanted software.

Does that mean Adware is malicious?

Potentially unwanted programs do NOT equal malicious programs. Viruses like Ransomware and Trojans always cause some harm to your machine. It could be by encrypting your files, blackmailing you, spying on you or stealing some important details. All viruses do something harmful to your PC. This is NOT the case with Adware. Adware doesn’t do anything damaging to your computer – it just advertises goods, services, software or something else. But there’s of course the question of why there are so many ads being displayed. The number of pop-ups and banners you might be experiencing may be very large, because software developers get payments if the way they promote products is efficient. Many manufacturers believe that the more you see a product, the more willing you will be to purchase it and they pay extra money to programmers to create Adware that could generate a big number of ads. Also, another criterion on which the payment to the developers might be based is the number of opened or clicked-on ads. That’s why some programmers might make their Adware broadcast ads that could be very hard to be closed.

Could there be any serious negative consequences coming from an Adware infection?

There have been no records of any harmful consequences of any Adware-based infection. Some of the characteristics of such an infection, though, could really be causing some trouble. For example, the machines infected with Adware, but which lack big amounts of system resources, might experience serious slowdown thanks to the broadcast of so many pop-up ads. Also, another more or less intrusive feature of WinShare might be its capability of predicting what kind of goods you will like based on detailed research of your browsing history. This research could be considered personally offensive by some users. However, all of the advertising techniques like generating banners, boxes, hyperlinks, pop-ups, browser tabs and other ads, which WinShare exploits are legitimate and comply with the state and international laws. Marketing is a legal branch of the industry.

What could you do to remove this program?

It is very fortunate that ad-producing software is not from the programs, which are difficult to be removed. Typically, guides like the one we are offering you below are just the tools you need to get rid of such an irritating software product. Please, remember that it is still possible that your case might be a more complex one and you may need to ask an expert for assistance or advice. What’s most important is that you adhere to certain prevention tips from now, so as to avoid future infections of the sort. When it comes to Adware, the best prevention tool is having an idea of how such programs tend to infect a given system. The most common sources of WinShare are software bundles. This is what developers assemble to spread ad-broadcasting software around.  Usually a bundle represents a set of diverse apps, games, sometimes browser hijackers as well as Adware programs. Such bundles are not capable of installing the programs inside them on your system by themselves. The affected users are often the ones who do that without having any clue that they are infecting their own computers with Adware. To be safe, you need to learn how to carefully install any program to your PC. Please, note that the only safe installation options are the advanced method of installing software or the custom one, which are a part of any installation wizard. Follow this piece of advice and you will benefit from all the advantages of a healthy PC!

WinShare “Virus” Removal

Many types of malware will restrict your access to their core files. It is highly recommended that you reboot your PC in safe mode before attempting to use this guide.

WARNING! If you are using Windows 8,0 or later and/or your operating system is installed on a fast SSD drive this may fail to work. In this case click here to see how to start your PC in Safe Mode.

#1: Uninstall the malicious program from your control panel

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Enter control panel to look for any suspicious programs, which may have installed on your PC. To do that:

  1. Navigate to your Desktop
  2. Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)
  3. In the Run window that just opened type appwiz.cpl

  1. Go through the list of programs and find WinShare or anything else that may seem suspicious. Right-click on it and choose the uninstallation option

WARNING! Carefully read any confirmation messages that may be created in the process. Sometimes you may get offers to download more Adware applications and this can be linked to either the Yes or the No answer depending on the wording!

Go through the list of programs again and check online for any potentially unwanted programs. We have an article that covers this awesome free software that makes sure that your computer is free from bloatware and programs that you don’t need.

#2: Remove WinShare From Chrome

Now we’ll remove the extensions that the malware has attached to your browser.

  1. Open your Google Chrome browser.
  2. Type chrome://extensions/  in the URL address bar and press Enter.
  3. Click on “Developer Mode” on the top right and look for the extension installed by WinShare and anything that might be related to it. Copy their IDs (the string of letters), then remove them by clicking on the trash bin icon.

  1. Type Regedit in the Windows Start Menu and press Enter. Go in : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\Extensions and delete the entries corresponding to the suspicious IDs you recorded.

#3: Remove WinShare From Firefox

  1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser.
  2. Type “about:support” in the URL address bar and press Enter.
  3. Click on the “Refresh Firefox” button on the right and confirm.

#4 Remove WinShare From Internet Explorer

  1. Open your Internet Explorer internet browser.
  2. Click on the Gear icon on the up right, then on manage add-ons.
  3. Go through the list disable any suspicious extensions.

#5 Remove any leftover parasitic processes

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From the task manager:

  1. Use Ctrl + Shift + Esc and open the Task manager, then click on the Processes
  2. Go through the list of processes and look for unknown or otherwise suspicious entries.
  3. If you see anything suspicious right click on the process and shoes Open File Location, then terminate the process and delete any files you find in the directory.

WARNING! If the directory you open from this menu has no files inside of it it’s probably because the malware has hidden them. You need to reveal hidden files and folders in order to be able to see them. Click here if you don’t know how to do that.


From the start menu:

  1. Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)
  2. In the Run window that just opened type msconfig
  3. Click on the Startup tab.

This menu controls which programs are loaded when windows starts after a reboot. Disable anything that seems suspicious. Optionally you can also disable any program that you don’t need and also has a high impact on your startup time.

Feel free to write to us in the comment section with any questions that you may have. Also if we have been helpful to you please share this article to help us reach more people like you.  

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