Internet is no less than a wonder of this age and planet, where we are voyagers traveling on our own intricate journeys of information. There is so much helpful and interesting content on the internet that tends to appeal to audiences of all sorts. Some sources on the internet spill over various genres and walks of life, grabbing the attention of even more people, this factor helps us to stay engaged and indulged in whatever the internet may present to us.
Today almost everyone has access to the internet and people are aware of its benefits and how to exploit them for further advantages. We use the internet to gain information about day-to-day tasks or even to look for answers to the most complex questions of life.
We can use the internet to promote and manage our businesses using advertisements and various promotions. But there is also a darker side to the internet, which tends to target its accessors with malicious intent, by allowing users to see irrelevant and sometimes even inappropriate content. The annoying advertisements, pop-ups, and malware are the things that everyone on the internet wants to avoid.
We use Web Browsers to access the various Websites which form the internet. These browsers help create a means of communication between the users and the internet, by displaying information on our devices, which we might be using to access the internet.
We can watch our favorite videos on our favorite sites, share our pictures on social media accounts, and also stay up to date with current affairs and all of this is made possible by a web browser. There are so many popular Web Browsers these days, some are limited to specific operating systems, but the widely used ones are Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Brave, Opera, Edge, and the Web Browser under discussion which is Google Chrome.
Chrome is perhaps the biggest browser in terms of active users and it is appreciated due to its pace, the relevance of the content it displays according to our searches, and its optimization. Recent updates have also introduced new customization options, to make the chrome windows look more appealing and attractive.
Chrome now has the potential to support so many extensions which can help us improve our browsing experience. Unfortunately, as chrome allows us to access the internet, it can get infested with advertisements, pop-ups, and all sorts of malicious content. However, there are ways by which you can get rid of such inconveniences on Google Chrome.
Changing Ads Permission
Chrome allows advertisement on various sites because that is a source of payment for the people who depend on the internet to earn a livelihood. However, Chrome has a strict policy regarding what sort of ads can be displayed to someone who is visiting a website. These ads have the potential to be scams and even malware, that when clicked on can download programs into your computer that may very well be viruses, and soon all the data on your computer system will be at risk of theft or even vandalism. In the Chrome settings, there is an option to block specific ads on specific websites. The steps to access Ad permissions are as follows:
- Click on ‘More’ represented by the three dots on the top right of your Chrome Tab to access your Chrome Settings.
- Click on ‘Settings’.
- Then you will be able to see the ‘Settings Screen’ and then you will be required to click on the ‘Privacy and security’ option, present in the left sidebar of the screen.
- You will be required to scroll down a little to reach the ‘Site Settings’ option, which controls what information sites can use and display.
- After entering those site settings you will be required to scroll further down to access ‘Additional content settings’.
- In the ‘Additional content settings’ dropdown list, click on the ‘Ads’ option.
- On this ‘Ads’ screen, you are advised to choose the ‘Block ads on sites that show intrusive or misleading ads. This way most malicious ads will remain hidden from you and your browsing experience will not be ruined.
Cleaning your Computer using Chrome
When you surf the internet to view all sorts of relevant information, you might unconsciously access websites that may download programs on your computer, and you are not even aware of it. These programs often infect your computer and keep redirecting you to malicious websites which target you with false advertisements and further open several pop-ups to destroy your browsing experience. These programs can also corrupt more files on your computer and can be a potential privacy issue too. However, using Chrome you can scan your computer for such infectious files, that might be causing these pop-ups to appear on your computer screen. To find this harmful software through chrome, you will need to follow these steps.
- First access the ‘Settings’ by pressing the three dots icon on your chrome tab.
- Click the ‘Advanced’ option on the sidebar to reveal the drop-down list and then click on the ‘Reset and clean up option.
- Click ‘Clean up computer’ to ‘Find’ any malware on your computer.
- Chrome will now search for any harmful software on your computer and this process could take some time. After Chrome is done locating, it will specify the number of suspicious items. For easy access, it is going to display the pathway to access this program to delete it, by showing the directory too. You can then remove this malicious content from your Computer and hopefully, the issue will be resolved and you won’t see an endless reappearance of pop-ups.
Removing Ads using an Extensions
Google Chrome allows the use of extensions that help us in conducting different tasks on the internet. These tasks are otherwise a pain to carry out, for example looking for discount coupons for different products can be really difficult, but with a simple click of a button, these coupons can be found for you without the need for much effort. So it can be concluded that extensions help us with such inconveniences and in our case, they can help too. Many developers have created extensions that block ads on the websites you want to view. Today we are going to look at how you can block ads on Google Chrome using the extension AdBlock.
- In order to get the AdBlock Chrome extension, you will need to access the AdBlock Website.
- Press the ’Get AdBlock Now’ button.
- You will be redirected to the chrome web store, from where you can get the AdBlock extension. Click on the ‘Add to Chrome’ button to add this extension to your browser.
- You will see a pop-up asking for your permission to add this extension to Chrome. Click the ‘Add extension’ button to prevent ads from showing on websites.
- You can check your extensions to see if AdBlock is enabled or not. For this, you will need to access the Chrome settings by pressing the three dots icon on the top right of your Chrome Tab.
- Then in the ‘Settings’ screen click on the ‘Extensions’ option presented in the left sidebar.
- ‘Extensions’ window will open with a list of all the extensions installed on your Chrome.
- Make sure the ‘AdBlock’ extension is enabled, in order to block ads on various websites. You can also choose from subscription plans for a more efficient experience.
Using an Anti-virus to remove adware
A virus is a malicious program, which duplicates itself and infects other files on your computer till the computer becomes incapable of working at all. There is various other malware that has the intention to disrupt your work in one way or another, whether by making your computer’s memory miserable or by constantly redirecting to websites that have very intrusive content including misleading yet tempting advertisements. Such programs get downloaded on your computer when you access some website or they can be hidden among the files that you may download.
A program that displays ads and pop-ups without your permission, whenever you have an internet connection is called adware. Adware can be extremely annoying, and multiple ads can obstruct whatever you’re working on.
However there is a very comprehensive way to deal with such malware, and that is the use of Anti-virus software. As the name suggests the purpose of an Anti-virus is to get rid of all forms of viruses and pieces of malware that might reside on your computer. An antivirus will scan your computer for any malicious content and this process could take some time.
Once the software is done scanning, it will show the contents of the detected pieces of malware. It will also display where a certain malware is located on your computer and it will present you with the option of removing it. Antivirus software can also detect adware, which keeps opening chrome tabs on your computer. After adware has been detected you can remove it using the antivirus and this way you will be able to prevent all sorts of ads and pop-ups to open on your Chrome browser, allowing you have a peaceful experience.
Today many antivirus software are available on the Internet and each one of them claims to do the job perfectly, however, some of these antiviruses don’t do a good job, some come with expensive subscription charges, and some lack the features due to being free or with low subscription rates. Here are a few antiviruses that we recommend:
- Norton
- Windows Defender
- Avast
- Avira
- McAfee
- Bitdefender
Hopefully using one of these antiviruses will remove that annoying adware from your computer and you won’t be spammed with ads while working on your computer.
Update your Google Chrome Browser
Chrome is often updated and in these updates, new features are introduced, along with new features, and various bug fixes are also included. Chrome also gets updated to withstand security breaches of all sorts, this means that browser-based malware can have a hard time getting to your computer system. However, an outdated version of chrome won’t allow such security measures, making it more prone to malicious content like adware, which spams you with misleading and inappropriate ads, making your browsing experience a living hell. So in order to avoid malware attacks from the internet make sure your Chrome is running on its latest version, which has the latest security features. This is a short guide on how to update Chrome.
- Go to the ‘More’ option represented by the three dots at the top right-hand corner of your Chrome window. In the dropdown list, there will be a ‘Help’ option allowing you to access the ‘About Google Chrome’ option.
- If the option to update Chrome is available, then you can update chrome to its latest version, however, if there is no option available to update Chrome that means your version is already up to date.
- After the update is done you can relaunch and enjoy the new customization and optimization of Google Chrome.
- Manually removing adware from your Computer:
Sometimes programs get installed on our computer, without us having the slightest knowledge of them. These programs get downloaded from the internet and have the ability to disguise themselves as harmless-looking programs, but they have the ability to ruin your experience while using a computer. Adware is among such programs, which spams a user with several ads affecting the overall memory of a computer and a user’s sanity. In order to get rid of these programs, we will need to get to the root of them and uninstall them on the computer using the Windows Control Panel.
- Toto access the control panel you will be required to go to the ‘Start’ menu.
- After you have accessed the ‘Start’ menu, you will be required to search ‘control panel’.
- Click the option to access the ’Control Panel’.
- Uninstall a program under the ‘Programs’ option.
- Then a list of all your installed programs will appear. You will need to handpick all the suspicious programs, which you think might be causing an issue. You might not be aware of how these programs got into your computer.
- In order to uninstall a program you will need to right-click on the program and a small menu will appear. Click the ‘Uninstall’ option to delete that program from your computer.
- Repeat the process to uninstall all suspicious programs.
By removing all malicious and unwanted programs, this issue will most probably get resolved and you won’t be targeted with malicious content in the form of ads and pop-ups.
More methods that are worth trying
The methods mentioned above will most likely get rid of most ads and pop-ups that may appear during your time browsing the internet, here are some more ways you can use to make sure you are not interfered with by a misleading ad.
- The Incognito mode, when enabled doesn’t allow any cookies or history to be stored on your browser. However, extensions are not enabled in incognito mode by default. This means your extension which has the purpose to block ads won’t be running. You can either turn specific extensions on or turn off the Incognito mode.
- Try using a different ad-blocking extension or update the previous one.
- Go to Chrome settings by pressing the three dots icon. On the side-panel access ‘Privacy and security’.
- In “Privacy and security” scroll down and click on the ‘Site settings’.
- In the ‘Site Settings’ scroll down to access ‘Pop-ups and redirects’.
- In ‘Pop-ups and redirects’, make sure that the ‘Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects’ is chosen. This way you won’t be redirected or faced with annoying pop-ups.
Did any of these solutions help you fix the problem? Let us know in the comments below. If you face any other errors while browsing, do let us know in the comment section.