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In this article we are going to try and help you remove MySafeSavings. Our instructions cover all Windows versions as well as most browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.
MySafeSavings is a program that falls under the category of adware. The term itself derives from the words ‘advertising’ and ‘software’, so it’s no wonder you’ve been plagued by myriads of ads, every time you open your browser. The ads are so numerous and so obstructively placed by design: the developers strive to get users to click on the ads as many times as possible. Each time this happens – the latter gain revenue thanks to the Pay Per Click scheme, which is a widely used online business strategy. We will explain the hidden downsides of this model further down in the article and below it you will find a removal guide that will help you easily and thoroughly uninstall My Safe Savings, removing all of its annoying and invasive ads with it.
PPC and its risks
The Pay Per Click scheme is not in itself something bad or evil. The same way that adware is not a virus. Yet, both these things have some pretty compromising qualities that tie them together with those terms. For example, PPC is often exploited out of greed and the desire to squeeze out as much money as possible. The developers take advantage of the strategy and use their software to gather information about each separate user. Your browsing patterns are carefully monitored in order to determine what products and services you could potentially be interested in, so that the adware can present you with relevant popups, banners, box messages and other advertising materials. This leads to two (potentially) negative outcomes.
First, as if the data collecting process weren’t unnerving enough, the developers can then sell all the gathered information to third parties, whenever they please. Who these parties are and what they aim to do with this ‘intel’ on you will not be disclosed to you. We don’t believe there’s a need to explain the dangers of data misuse and identity theft in the virtual world and what a pressing issue this is today. Secondly, there’s also the factor of demand and supply. It’s not plausible that the adware developers can offer products and services that would answer to each and every suspected interest of all the affected users. Therefore, this opens the doors for dishonest advertising. In the best case, some of the ads may not answer to the location they redirect you to, simply leading you to a different offer, which is still legit, however. Worst case scenario – you end up clicking on a so called malvertisement, which is an ad that’s been injected with malware. This way you can get infected by all sorts of viruses, including ransomware, which happens to be the biggest cyber-security threat to date. With that being said, My Safe Savings should not be mistaken for a virus, though. It’s considered by many to be a potentially unwanted program (PUP), but that’s just about it. For the most part, programs like MySafeSavings are completely legal.
How to avoid infection
Once you’ve successfully removed this software from your computer, you will probably not want to deal with it ever again. And understandably so; it’s always best to prevent an infection than allow it to happen and then be faced with the mess is creates. First of all, the main distribution method for adware is program bundling. This involves the process of incorporating some kind of software with another and distributing the package as a whole. Usually, users pay little to no attention to things like the EULA of software they download off the web, more so when this software was downloaded for free. If they were to do so, they’d be aware of the additional programs within the bundle. But there’s an easier way still to know about the contents of the bundle and people still manage to avoid it. The simplest way is to choose the custom or advanced setup within the installation wizard. That way you can customize the installation settings and not only see what additional software has been included, but also either allow or deny it from being integrated with your system – all with the simple click of the mouse. Alternatively, you should also mind the source from which you download content. If a website looks shady and not all too trustworthy – that’s probably exactly what it is and it’s best you simply pick a different site.
How To Uninstall MySafeSavings/My Save Savings
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.
- To enable Safe Mode reboot you PC, then hit F8 repeatedly. When the corresponding menu opens please select Safe Mode with Networking.
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:
- Navigate to your Desktop
- Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)
- In the Run window that just opened type appwiz.cpl
- Go through the list of programs and find MySafeSavings 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!
- Optional:
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 MySafeSavings From Chrome
Now we’ll remove the extensions that the malware has attached to your browser.
- Open your Google Chrome browser.
- Type chrome://extensions/ in the URL address bar and press Enter.
- Click on “Developer Mode” on the top right and look for the extension installed by MySafeSavings 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.
- 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 MySafeSavings From Firefox
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser.
- Type “about:support” in the URL address bar and press Enter.
- Click on the “Refresh Firefox” button on the right and confirm.
#4 Remove MySafeSavings From Internet Explorer
- Open your Internet Explorer internet browser.
- Click on the Gear icon on the up right, then on manage add-ons.
- Go through the list disable any suspicious extensions.
#5 Remove any leftover parasitic processes
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From the task manager:
- Use Ctrl + Shift + Esc and open the Task manager, then click on the Processes
- Go through the list of processes and look for unknown or otherwise suspicious entries.
- 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:
- Press simultaneously the Win button together with the R button (Win+R)
- In the Run window that just opened type msconfig
- 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.