How to remove lightening-z.pro pop-ups [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

Have you become that your web-browser randomly displays lightening-z.pro instead of the one you want to see? It’s a sign that you have an installed adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) on your machine. The ad supported software is a part of dangerous software that created to show a large number of annoying pop-up ads. Complete the step-by-step guide below ASAP. It will clear your computer from adware that generates a huge number of pop-up ads in the browser and thereby remove the redirect to lightening-z.pro web site.

The adware can change the settings of the Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, FF and MS Edge, but often that a malicious software like this can also infect all types of browsers by changing their desktop shortcuts. Thus forcing the user each time open the web-browser to see lightening-z.pro unwanted advertisements.

Instructions, which is shown below, will allow you to clean your PC from the adware as well as remove lightening-z.pro annoying ads from the Chrome, FF, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge and other web-browsers.

How does lightening-z.pro popup ads get installed onto PC system

The adware usually come bundled with other free software that you download off of the Internet. Once started, it’ll infect your PC and configure your browser’s to open a huge number of the lightening-z.pro unwanted ads without your permission. To avoid infection, in the Setup wizard, you should be be proactive and carefully read the ‘Terms of use’, the ‘license agreement’ and other installation screens, as well as to always select the ‘Manual’ or ‘Advanced’ installation mode, when installing anything downloaded from the Internet.

How to manually remove lightening-z.pro redirect

If you perform exactly the step-by-step guide below you should be able to remove the lightening-z.pro ads. Read it once, after doing so, please print this page as you may need to close your web browser or reboot your machine.

1. Uninstall suspicious and unknown programs by using Windows Control Panel
2. Disinfect the browser’s shortcuts to get rid of lightening-z.pro redirect
3. Get rid of lightening-z.pro advertisements from Google Chrome
4. Remove lightening-z.pro redirect from Firefox
5. Delete lightening-z.pro pop-ups from Microsoft Internet Explorer
6. Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks

Uninstall suspicious and unknown programs by using Windows Control Panel

We recommend that you start the PC system cleaning procedure by checking the list of installed programs and remove all unknown or suspicious software. This is a very important step, as mentioned above, very often the malicious software such as ad-supported software and browser hijackers may be bundled with free programs. Delete the unwanted programs may remove the annoying ads or web-browser redirect to unknown or annoying web-pages.

It’ll open the Windows Control Panel as shown on the image below.

Next, click “Uninstall a program”
It will open a list of all applications. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall any suspicious and unknown applications. To quickly find the latest installed programs, we recommend sort applications by date of installation in the Control panel.

Disinfect the browser’s shortcuts to get rid of lightening-z.pro redirect

Once the adware is started, it can also alter the internet browser’s shortcuts, adding an argument like “http://site.address” into the Target field. Due to this, every time you launch the web browser, it will be rerouted to an annoying ads.

To clear the web-browser shortcut, right-click to it and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, locate the Target field. Click inside, you will see a vertical line – arrow pointer, move it (using -> arrow key on your keyboard) to the right as possible. You will see a text that begins with “http://” that has been added here. You need to remove it.

When the argument is removed, press the OK button. You need to clean all shortcuts of all your web browsers, as they may be infected too.

Get rid of lightening-z.pro advertisements from Google Chrome

Like other modern browsers, the Chrome has the ability to reset the settings to their default values and thereby get rid of the redirect to lightening-z.pro unwanted advertisements that is caused by the ‘ad supported’ software.

At first, start the Google Chrome. Next, press the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (). It will appear the main menu. Click on the option named “Settings”. Another way to display the Google Chrome’s settings – type chrome://settings in the web browser adress bar and press Enter.

The browser will open the settings screen. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Show advanced settings” link. Now scroll down until the “Reset settings” section is visible, like below and click the “Reset settings” button.

The Google Chrome will show the confirmation dialog box. You need to confirm your action, click the “Reset” button. The program will run the process of cleaning. Once it’s finished, the browser settings including the ‘block pop-ups’ option back to the values that have been when the Chrome was first installed on your machine.

Remove lightening-z.pro redirect from Firefox

If the FF settings have been replaced by the adware, then resetting it to the default state can help you to remove the reroute onto lightening-z.pro web-site.

First, start the FF and click button. It will open the drop-down menu on the right-part of the browser. Next, click the Help button () as shown below.

In the Help menu, select the “Troubleshooting Information” option. Another way to open the “Troubleshooting Information” screen – type “about:support” in the internet browser address bar and press Enter. It will show the “Troubleshooting Information” page as shown on the screen below. In the upper-right corner of this screen, click the “Refresh Firefox” button.

It will show the confirmation dialog box, press the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Firefox will start a process to fix your problems that caused by the adware. When it is finished, press the “Finish” button

Delete lightening-z.pro pop-ups from Microsoft Internet Explorer

First, start the Microsoft Internet Explorer, then click the button in the form of gear (). It will show the Tools drop-down menu as shown on the screen below. Next, click the “Internet Options”.

In the Internet Options window click on the Advanced tab, then press the Reset button. The Internet Explorer will show the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” window as shown in the figure below. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click on “Reset” button.

You will now need to restart your PC for the changes to take effect.

Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks

Once installed, the ‘ad supported’ software can add a task in to the Windows Task Scheduler Library. Due to this, every time when you launch your personal computer, it will show lightening-z.pro unwanted web site. So, you need to check the Task Scheduler Library and get rid of all tasks that have been created by unwanted programs.

Press Windows and R keys on your keyboard together. It will open a prompt which titled with Run. In the text field, type “taskschd.msc” (without the quotes) and click OK. Task Scheduler window opens. In the left-hand side, click “Task Scheduler Library”, as on the image below.

In the middle part you will see a list of installed tasks. Select the first task, its properties will be open just below automatically. Next, press the Actions tab. Necessary to look at the text which is written under Details. Found something such as “explorer.exe http://site.address” or “chrome.exe http://site.address” or “firefox.exe http://site.address”, then you need remove this task. If you are not sure that executes the task, then google it. If it is a component of the malicious software, then this task also should be removed.

Further press on it with the right mouse button and select Delete as shown below.

Repeat this step, if you have found a few tasks that have been created by unwanted programs. Once is finished, close the Task Scheduler window.

How to get rid of lightening-z.pro advertisements automatically

We recommend using the Malwarebytes Free. You can download and install this utility to detect lightening-z.pro threat and get rid of it, from the link below. When installed and updated, the free malware remover will automatically scan and detect all threats present on the machine.

Once installed, the Malwarebytes will try to update itself and when this process is done, click “Scan Now” button for checking your machine for the adware and malware. During the scan it will detect all threats present on your personal computer. In order to delete all threats, simply press “Quarantine Selected” button.

The Malwarebytes is a free application that you can use to remove all detected folders, files, services, registry entries and so on. To learn more about the Malwarebytes, we recommend you to read and follow the instructions or the video guide below.

How to block lightening-z.pro

To increase your security and protect your system against new annoying ads and malicious web pages, you need to use an application that stops access to malicious advertisements and web pages. Moreover, the program can stop the open of intrusive advertising, that also leads to faster loading of pages and reduce the consumption of web traffic.

1. Download AdGuard application by clicking on the following link.
   

   Adguard download
   26656 downloads
   Version: 6.4
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: November 15, 2018
   
2. After downloading is complete, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” window. Follow the prompts.
3. When the installation is done, click “Skip” to close it and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see a quick tutorial which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you start your system, AdGuard will launch automatically and block ads, lightening-z.pro redirects, as well as other harmful or misleading web-sites. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that is located on your Windows desktop.

Scan your personal computer and remove lightening-z.pro pop-up ads with AdwCleaner.

This removal program is free and easy to use. It can scan and get rid of adware, browser hijackers, malware and unwanted toolbars in Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer and MS Edge web-browsers and thereby restore back their default settings (homepage, new tab and default search engine). AdwCleaner is powerful enough to find and remove malicious registry entries and files that are hidden on the system.

Download AdwCleaner tool by clicking on the link below. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.

When downloading is finished, open the directory in which you saved it and double-click the AdwCleaner icon. It will start the AdwCleaner tool and you will see a screen like below. If the User Account Control dialog box will ask you want to show the program, press Yes button to continue.

Now, press the “Scan” for checking your machine for the ad-supported software that cause a redirect to lightening-z.pro advertisements.

Once the scanning is finished, it will open a list of all items detected by this tool as on the image below.

You need to click “Clean” button. It will open a dialog box, click “OK” to start the cleaning procedure. Once the cleaning procedure is finished, the AdwCleaner may ask you to reboot your PC system. After restart, the AdwCleaner will show the log file.

All the above steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.

Finish words

Now your computer should be free of the lightening-z.pro redirect. Remove AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted advertisements and unwanted malicious web-sites) and Malwarebytes (to periodically scan your system for new malware and ad-supported software). Probably you are running an older version of Java or Adobe Flash Player. This can be a security risk, so download and install the latest version right now.

If you are still having problems while trying to remove lightening-z.pro pop-ups from your machine, then ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.