Win Snare “Virus” Removal

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

If the pop-ups, ads and banners generated by Win Snare “Virus” don’t want to go away and you don’t know what to do, our “How to remove” team is here to help you. First of all, you should know that you are not facing a virus or some nasty malware like Ransomware, but an adware program, which has probably silently invaded your Chrome, Firefox, Explorer or other browser you are currently using. And while this is not a malicious threat you should be concerned about, it may still cause some intolerable disturbance to your normal browsing activity. This is probably the reason why you are reading our page now and here you are going to find out more about this adware, the way it has sneaked inside your system and the possible ways of completely removing it. Bear in mind, though, that uninstalling Win Snare is not as easy as the way it got installed on your PC and you may need our special removal guide to help you manually find and delete all of its traces. So, do take a look at the information below and closely follow the instructions.

How does Win Snare “Virus” behave?

There are thousands of ad-generating pieces of software and new ones keep coming up every day. Win Snare is just one of the typical representatives of this quite annoying type of programs, unified under the term “adware”. What adware literally means is advertising software that displays mostly aggressive and often undesired advertisements. They usually appear in the form of pop-ups, banners, new tabs, new pages, links or boxes on the user’s screen during their web browsing sessions. There are many companies who use such software to install their toolbars or impose their homepage as a default one in order to collect traffic and clicks from users. And even though such activity is considered legal and pretty harmless to one’s system, it may still be annoying to some people that may wish to remove it and uninstall the adware that is delivering the ads to them.

What the security experts say about adware

Compared to threats like Trojans, different viruses or Ransomware, adware like Win Snare is classified as not-so-risky to harmless, according to most security experts. It cannot mess up your files or corrupt your system. However, it may keep track of your online activity and collect browsing related data, which may later be used by the developers or third parties in various ways. Most adware programs, including Win Snare, are involved in the Pay-Per-Click remuneration scheme, where they display sponsored advertisements and web pages for paid clicks that convert into income. This is the main reason why such software displays dozens of popping boxes, banners, notifications and tabs so aggressively and tricks users into clicking on them by all means. And this is also the main reason why adware has gained its name of potentially unwanted and irritating software among most of the affected users, who in turn feel disturbed by the ads and don’t see much use in them, other than the screen overloaded with distractive and aggressive messages.

How can Win Snare get to your PC?

Win Snare usually arrives as part of some free application installers that users may download from various web locations. Free software platforms, direct downloads, installation managers and kits, torrent sites or spam email offers with test software are just some of the means through which such adware is distributed. However, unlike other sneaky programs that get installed without your approval, users can choose whether to allow adware to be installed on their machine or not. But what usually happens is they simply install the bundle of the program they desire as is, without reading the EULA or checking the manual settings that may give them more control over the installation process. These settings are usually called “advanced” or “custom” and they open a menu where users can see all the additional programs that the installer may contain. From there, they can disable the programs they don’t recognize or don’t need and easily prevent the disturbance that may come with them if they get installed.

Unfortunately, you have most probably ended up with Win Snare by skipping these major options the last time you installed some software on your computer. But the good thing is that the next time you will know what to do. At least now you know that what you have on your PC is not a virus, but the possible irritation and browsing interruption this adware may cause is usually enough for some users to decide to uninstall it. If this is the case with you, below you will find a very helpful removal guide that will show you how to get rid of this program in no time and never see its annoying ads again.

Win Snare “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.

  • 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:

  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

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  1. Go through the list of programs and find Win Snare 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 Win Snare 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 Win Snare 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.

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  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 Win Snare 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.

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#4 Remove Win Snare 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.

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#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.

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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.


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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.

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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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