How to remove SockShare ads [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

If you find that your web-browser has become show the annoying SockShare ads then it’s a sign that your machine is infected with malicious software from the adware family. The adware (sometimes called ‘ad-supported’ software) is a form of unwanted software that can open a ton of ads without a user’s permission. Moreover, it can reroute the browser on harmful and misleading web sites. Also, if you seeing that the Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Edge tries to load an unknown web-page, when you try to open a long-known web-page, then you do not need to wait! Press the stop button in browser’s address bar. Use the guide below and clean your computer from adware as soon as possible. It will assist you to remove the unwanted SockShare ads and any other annoying pop-ups.

The adware usually affects only the Google Chrome, Firefox, MS Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer by changing the web browser’s settings or installing a malicious extensions (addons). Moreover, possible situations, when any other internet browsers will be affected too. The ‘ad supported’ software will perform a scan of the computer for internet browser shortcuts and modify them without your permission. When it infects the browser shortcuts, it’ll add the argument such as ‘http://site.address’ into Target property. So, each time you run the web browser, you will see an unwanted ad web site.

The ‘ad supported’ software is the part of the software that is used as an online promotional tool. It is created with the sole purpose to show dozens of pop-up ads, and thus to promote the goods and services in an open web browser window. So, the SockShare adware is just one of the many programs of the so-called ‘ad-support’ type. It is designed to fill the internet browser’s constant stream of ads, or redirect the internet browser to not expected and intrusive advertising sites. Moreover, the ‘ad supported’ software can substitute the legitimate advertising links on misleading or even banners that can offer to visit malicious web sites. The reason is simple, many advertisers agree on any ways to attract users to their web-sites, so the creators of adware, often forcing users to click on an advertising link. For each click on a link, the authors of the ad-supported software receive income. It is the so-called ‘Pay-Per-Click’ method.

We suggest you to get rid of adware and clean your personal computer from SockShare ads ASAP, until the presence of the adware has not led to even worse consequences. You need to follow the step-by-step guide below that will allow you to completely delete the unwanted pop-up ads, using only the built-in Windows features and a few of specialized free tools.

How does your computer get infected with SockShare ads

The adware spreads with a simple but quite effective way. It’s integrated into the setup package of various freeware. Thus on the process of setup, it’ll infect your web browser. To avoid ad supported software infection, you just need to follow a few simple rules: carefully read the ‘Terms of Use’ and the ‘License’, select only a Manual, Custom or Advanced setup mode, which enables you to make sure that the program you want to install, thereby protect your personal computer from the malicious software like this ‘ad supported’ software that opens the SockShare advertisements.

How to manually remove SockShare advertisements

The simple answer is right here on this page. We have put together simplicity and efficiency. It will assist you easily to clean your system of adware. Moreover, you can choose manual or automatic removal method. If you are familiar with the computer then use manual removal, otherwise use the free anti-malware tool designed specifically to get rid of adware that causes annoying SockShare ads. Of course, you can combine both methods. Read this manual carefully, bookmark or print it, because you may need to close your web-browser or restart your machine.

1. Uninstall suspicious and unknown programs by using Windows Control Panel
2. Disinfect the browser’s shortcuts
3. Remove SockShare advertisements from Mozilla Firefox
4. Remove SockShare advertisements from Chrome
5. Remove SockShare from Internet Explorer
6. Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks

Uninstall suspicious and unknown programs by using Windows Control Panel

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

It’ll display the Windows Control Panel as shown on the screen below.

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

Disinfect the browser’s shortcuts

When the adware is started, it can also alter the web browser’s shortcuts, adding an argument such as “http://site.address” into the Target field. Due to this, every time you run the web browser, it will be rerouted to an unwanted 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 which begins with “http://” that has been added here. You need to remove it.

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

Remove SockShare advertisements from Mozilla Firefox

First, launch the Firefox. Next, click the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (). It will open the drop-down menu. Next, click the “Help” button ().

In the Help menu, click the “Troubleshooting Information”. In the upper-right corner of the “Troubleshooting Information” page, click “Refresh Firefox” button.

Confirm your action, click the “Refresh Firefox”.

Remove SockShare advertisements from Chrome

Reset Chrome settings is a simple way to get rid of the malicious and ad-supported extensions, as well as to restore the internet browser’s homepage, new tab page and search engine by default that have been modified by ad supported software.

1. Open the Google Chrome, then click the Menu icon (icon in the form of three horizontal stripes).
2. It will show the Google Chrome main menu. Click the “Settings” menu.
3. Next, click the “Show advanced settings” link, which located at the bottom of the Settings page.
4. Further, click the “Reset settings” button, which located at the bottom of the Advanced settings page.
5. The Chrome will display the reset settings dialog box as shown on the screen above.
6. Confirm the web-browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
7. To learn more, look the article How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.

Remove SockShare from Internet Explorer

To remove the SockShare pop-up ads you need to reset the Internet Explorer to the state, that was when the Windows was installed on your machine.

First, launch the IE, then click ‘gear’ icon . It will open the drop-down menu on the right part of the browser, then press the “Internet Options” as shown below.

In the “Internet Options” screen, you need to select the “Advanced” tab and press the “Reset” button. The Internet Explorer will open the “Reset IE settings” dialog box as on the image below. Next, click the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. After that, click the “Reset” button.

When the task is done, press “Close” button. Close the IE and reboot your computer for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your internet browser’s settings to default state and disable ‘ad-supported’ extensions.

Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks

If the annoying ad sites opens automatically on Windows startup or at equal time intervals, then you need to check the Task Scheduler Library and remove all the tasks that have been created by unwanted programs.

Press Windows and R keys on the keyboard together. This shows a prompt that titled with Run. In the text field, type “taskschd.msc” (without the quotes) and press OK. Task Scheduler window opens. In the left-hand side, press “Task Scheduler Library”, as shown in the figure below.

In the middle part you will see a list of installed tasks. Select the first task, its properties will be display just below automatically. Next, click the Actions tab. Pay attention to that it launches on your PC. Found something like “explorer.exe http://site.address” or “chrome.exe http://site.address”, then you need remove it. If you are not sure that executes the task, check it through a search engine. If it’s a component of the malicious programs, then this task also should be removed.

Having defined the task that you want to remove, then click on it with the right mouse button and select Delete as shown on the screen below.

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

Remove SockShare advertisements automatically

You can get rid of SockShare advertisements automatically with a help of Malwarebytes Free. We recommend this free malware removal utility because it can easily delete adware, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted applications and toolbars with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.

Download Malwarebytes Free on your personal computer from the link below. Save it on your Desktop.

When the download is finished, close all windows on your personal computer. Further, launch the file named mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as shown on the image below, press the Yes button.

It will display the “Setup wizard” which will allow you install Malwarebytes on the system. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.

Once the installation is finished successfully, click Finish button. Then Malwarebytes will automatically start and you can see its main window as shown on the image below.

Next, click the “Scan Now” button . This will begin scanning the whole machine to find out malware and ad supported software which causes the SockShare advertisements. When a threat is found, the number of the detected objects will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is finished. Please be patient.

Once the checking is complete, you can check all threats detected on your machine. Make sure all entries have “checkmark” and press “Quarantine Selected” button.

The Malwarebytes will begin removing malware and adware that causes unwanted pop-up ads. Once the disinfection is finished, you may be prompted to restart your personal computer. I recommend you look at the following video, which completely explains the procedure of using the Malwarebytes to remove ad supported software and other harmful applications.

How to block SockShare pop-up ads

To increase your security and protect your computer against new annoying ads and malicious web pages, you need to use an application that blocks access to dangerous advertisements and web pages. Moreover, the program can block the display of intrusive advertising, that also leads to faster loading of web-sites and reduce the consumption of web traffic.

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

   Adguard download
   26658 downloads
   Version: 6.4
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: November 15, 2018
   
2. When downloading is finished, run 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 that will help 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 machine, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop popups, annoying ads, as well as other malicious or misleading web-pages. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, which is located on your Windows desktop.

Scan your PC system and delete SockShare pop-up ads with AdwCleaner.

This removal program is free and easy to use. It can scan and remove adware, browser hijackers, malware and unwanted toolbars in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Edge web browsers and thereby restore back their default settings (home page, newtab page and search provider by default). AdwCleaner is powerful enough to find and get rid of malicious registry entries and files that are hidden on the PC.

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

Once downloading is complete, open the directory in which you saved it and double-click the AdwCleaner icon. It will launch the AdwCleaner tool and you will see a screen as shown below. If the User Account Control prompt will ask you want to open the program, click Yes button to continue.

Now, press the “Scan” to perform a system scan for the ad supported software which causes annoying SockShare ads.

When it has finished scanning your machine, it will show a list of all items detected by this utility as shown on the screen below.

You need to click “Clean” button. It will open a dialog box, press “OK” to begin the cleaning process. Once the cleaning process is complete, the AdwCleaner may ask you to reboot your PC. After reboot, the AdwCleaner will open the log file.

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

Finish words

After completing the step-by-step guide above, your machine should be clean from malware and ad supported software. The Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge will no longer open SockShare unwanted advertisements and redirect you to unknown web-pages. Unfortunately, if the steps does not help you, then you have caught a new type of ad-supported software, and then the best way – ask for help.

1. Download HijackThis from the link below and save it to your Desktop.
   
   

   HijackThis download
   4711 downloads
   Version: 2.0.5
   Author: OpenSource
   Category: Security tools
   Update: November 7, 2015
   
2. Double-click on the HijackThis icon. Next click “Do a system scan only” button.
3. Once the scan is complete, the scan button will read “Save log”, press it. Save this log to your desktop.
4. Create a Myantispyware account here. Once you’ve registered, check your e-mail for a confirmation link, and confirm your account. After that, login.
5. Copy and paste the contents of the HijackThis log into your post. If you are posting for the first time, please start a new thread by using the “New Topic” button in the Spyware Removal forum. When posting your HJT log, try to give us some details about your problems, so we can try to help you more accurately.
6. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the annoying SockShare pop-up ads.