There are many types of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) and one of them is adware (sometimes named ‘ad-supported’ software). The VirtualDesktopKeeper is an adware that have a negative impact on the functioning of your computer. It causes the appearance of annoying advertisements or the redirect to various unwanted sites. The VirtualDesktopKeeper changes PC system settings, generates lots of various advertisements, slows down the Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer and the speed of your internet connection. Moreover, it may lead to the fact that web sites are slow to load and the browser interface can even freeze.
The VirtualDesktopKeeper adware which redirects your internet browser to intrusive ads, can attack your PC’s internet browsers such as the Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and MS Edge. Maybe you approve the idea that the pop up advertisements from it is just a small problem. But these annoying VirtualDesktopKeeper advertisements eat PC resources. Even worse, it be able to gather your surfing history and user info, including passwords and credit card numbers. In the future, your user info can be sold to third party companies.
To find out how to get rid of VirtualDesktopKeeper popup advertisements, we recommend to read the tutorial added to this blog post below. The guidance was prepared by experienced security experts who discovered a method to get rid of the annoying ‘ad supported’ software out of the computer.
How to remove VirtualDesktopKeeper pop up ads
Fortunately, it is not hard to get rid of the VirtualDesktopKeeper adware that responsible for web-browser redirect to the undesired ad sites. In the following steps, we will provide two ways to free your personal computer of this adware. One is the manual removal way and the other is automatic removal way. You can select the method that best fits you. Please follow the removal steps below to remove VirtualDesktopKeeper ads right now!
To remove VirtualDesktopKeeper, execute the following steps:
- How to remove VirtualDesktopKeeper popup advertisements without any software
- Get rid of VirtualDesktopKeeper adware with free programs
- Use AdBlocker to stay safe online
- How to avoid install of VirtualDesktopKeeper
- To sum up
How to remove VirtualDesktopKeeper popup advertisements without any software
Read this “How to remove” section to know how to manually remove adware related to VirtualDesktopKeeper pop-up ads. Even if the tutorial does not work for you, there are several free malware removers below that can easily handle such ‘ad supported’ software responsible for VirtualDesktopKeeper pop up ads.
Uninstalling the VirtualDesktopKeeper, check the list of installed software first
It is of primary importance to first identify and delete all potentially unwanted software, ad-supported software software and hijackers through ‘Add/Remove Programs’ (Windows XP) or ‘Uninstall a program’ (Windows 10, 8, 7) section of your MS Windows Control Panel.
- If you are using Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 then press Windows button, next press Search. Type “Control panel”and press Enter.
- If you are using Windows XP, Vista, 7, then press “Start” button and click “Control Panel”.
- It will show the Windows Control Panel.
- Further, press “Uninstall a program” under Programs category.
- It will display a list of all applications installed on the computer.
- Scroll through the all list, and delete questionable and unknown software. To quickly find the latest installed programs, we recommend sort applications by date.
See more details in the video guide below.
Delete VirtualDesktopKeeper pop-up ads from Firefox
If the Mozilla Firefox internet browser program is hijacked, then resetting its settings can help. The Reset feature is available on all modern version of Firefox. A reset can fix many issues by restoring Mozilla Firefox settings such as search engine, startpage and new tab to its default state. It will save your personal information like saved passwords, bookmarks, and open tabs.
Press the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and click the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu as shown in the following example.
A small menu will appear, press the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, press “Refresh Firefox” button as displayed in the figure below.
Follow the onscreen procedure to restore your Firefox web browser settings to its original state.
Remove VirtualDesktopKeeper popup advertisements from Chrome
Run the Reset internet browser tool of the Google Chrome to reset all its settings such as search provider by default, new tab and start page to original defaults. This is a very useful tool to use, in the case of browser redirects to unwanted ad webpages.
Open the Google Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal dotes (
). It will display the drop-down menu. Select More Tools, then press Extensions.
Carefully browse through the list of installed plugins. If the list has the extension labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following guide: Remove Google Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy otherwise, just go to the step below.
Open the Google Chrome main menu again, click to “Settings” option.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Advanced” link. Now scroll down until the Reset settings section is visible, as shown on the image below and click the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
Confirm your action, press the “Reset” button.
Remove VirtualDesktopKeeper advertisements from Internet Explorer
The Internet Explorer reset is great if your web browser is hijacked or you have unwanted addo-ons or toolbars on your web browser, that installed by an malicious software.
First, open the Microsoft Internet Explorer, click 
) button. Next, click “Internet Options” as on the image below.
In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, click Reset button. The Internet Explorer will open the Reset Internet Explorer settings dialog box. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and press Reset button.
You will now need to restart your machine for the changes to take effect. It will remove adware responsible for redirects to ad web-sites, disable malicious and ad-supported browser’s extensions and restore the IE’s settings like newtab page, start page and default search engine to default state.
Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks
Once installed, the VirtualDesktopKeeper adware can add a task in to the Windows Task Scheduler Library. Due to this, every time when you boot your machine, it will open an undesired site. So, you need to check the Task Scheduler Library and remove all malicious tasks that have been created by ‘ad-supported’ program.
Press Windows and R keys on your keyboard at the same time. It will open a prompt that called 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 displayed in the following example.
Task scheduler, list of tasks
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, click the Actions tab. Necessary to look at the text which is written under Details. If you are not sure that executes the task, then google it. If it is a component of the adware, then this task also should be removed.
Further click on it with the right mouse button and select Delete as displayed in the figure below.
Task scheduler, delete a task
Repeat this step, if you have found a few tasks that have been created by the VirtualDesktopKeeper adware. Once is done, close the Task Scheduler window.
Get rid of VirtualDesktopKeeper adware with free programs
If you are not expert at computer technology, then all your attempts to remove VirtualDesktopKeeper pop-up ads by completing the manual steps above might result in failure. To find and remove all of the ‘ad supported’ software related files and registry entries that keep this ‘ad supported’ software on your computer, run free anti-malware software like Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM), MalwareBytes Free and HitmanPro from our list below.
Automatically delete VirtualDesktopKeeper pop ups with Zemana Anti-malware
Zemana Anti-malware highly recommended, because it can search for security threats such adware and adwares which most ‘classic’ antivirus apps fail to pick up on. Moreover, if you have any VirtualDesktopKeeper popup ads removal problems which cannot be fixed by this tool automatically, then Zemana Anti-malware provides 24X7 online assistance from the highly experienced support staff.
Please go to the following link to download Zemana. Save it on your MS Windows desktop or in any other place.
164113 downloads
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
When the download is finished, close all apps and windows on your machine. Double-click the install file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up like below, click the “Yes” button.
It will open the “Setup wizard” which will help you install Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) on your machine. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
Once install is complete successfully, Zemana will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown in the following example.
Now click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the VirtualDesktopKeeper adware which cause intrusive ads to appear. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your machine. While the Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) tool is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified as being infected by malware.
Once the scan is finished, Zemana Anti-Malware will produce a list of unwanted and ad-supported software. You may remove items (move to Quarantine) by simply click “Next” button. The Zemana Free will delete adware and move threats to the program’s quarantine. When that process is finished, you may be prompted to reboot the computer.
Delete VirtualDesktopKeeper pop-up ads and malicious extensions with HitmanPro
Hitman Pro is a free removal tool which can check your computer for a wide range of security threats such as malware, adwares, potentially unwanted apps as well as ad-supported software responsible for VirtualDesktopKeeper pop-up ads. It will perform a deep scan of your system including hard drives and Windows registry. After a malware is found, it will allow you to delete all found threats from your personal computer with a simple click.
Installing the HitmanPro is simple. First you’ll need to download Hitman Pro on your MS Windows Desktop by clicking on the following link.
After downloading is finished, open the folder in which you saved it and double-click the Hitman Pro icon. It will launch the Hitman Pro utility. If the User Account Control dialog box will ask you want to open the program, press Yes button to continue.
Next, press “Next” to begin checking your system for the VirtualDesktopKeeper adware responsible for redirecting your browser to unwanted web-pages. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your computer.
When finished, Hitman Pro will display a list of found items like below.
All found items will be marked. You can remove them all by simply press “Next” button. It will show a dialog box, click the “Activate free license” button. The HitmanPro will start to remove ad-supported software which cause annoying VirtualDesktopKeeper popup ads to appear. When finished, the utility may ask you to restart your computer.
Run Malwarebytes to delete VirtualDesktopKeeper pop ups
We suggest using the Malwarebytes Free. You can download and install Malwarebytes to find out the VirtualDesktopKeeper and thereby remove any annoying pop up advertisements from your internet browsers. When installed and updated, the free malware remover will automatically scan and detect all threats exist on the PC system.
MalwareBytes can be downloaded from the following link. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.
326464 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
When the downloading process is finished, close all windows on your PC system. Further, launch the file named mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up as shown below, press the “Yes” button.
It will display the “Setup wizard” which will help you set up MalwareBytes Anti-Malware on the computer. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
Once setup is complete successfully, press Finish button. Then MalwareBytes AntiMalware will automatically start and you can see its main window as shown on the screen below.
Next, press the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes Free program will scan through the whole PC for the adware responsible for VirtualDesktopKeeper ads. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your computer.
Once MalwareBytes AntiMalware has completed scanning, MalwareBytes Free will create a list of undesired and ad supported software. Review the results once the utility has done the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply click “Quarantine Selected” button.
The MalwareBytes Anti Malware will get rid of the VirtualDesktopKeeper and other PUPs. Once disinfection is done, you can be prompted to restart your machine. We recommend you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using the MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to delete hijacker infections, adware and other malware.
Use AdBlocker to stay safe online
In order to increase your security and protect your system against new undesired advertisements and harmful web pages, you need to run ad-blocking application that stops an access to malicious ads and web pages. Moreover, the application can block the show of intrusive advertising, that also leads to faster loading of sites and reduce the consumption of web traffic.
- Click the link below to download AdGuard. Save it to your Desktop.
Adguard download
26659 downloads
Version: 6.4
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: November 15, 2018
- Once downloading is complete, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
- After the installation is done, click “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
- In most cases, the default settings are enough and you don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you launch your personal computer, AdGuard will run automatically and stop ads, as well as other harmful or misleading sites. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the icon called AdGuard, that is located on your desktop.
How to avoid install of VirtualDesktopKeeper
Many programs developed to display a huge number of annoying ads within your computer’s internet browser. So, when you installing free programs, carefully read the disclaimers, select the Custom or Advanced installation method to watch for third-party software that are being installed, because certain of the programs are potentially unwanted programs like the VirtualDesktopKeeper adware.
To sum up
Once you have complete the step by step guide outlined above, your PC system should be clean from the VirtualDesktopKeeper adware that causes lots of undesired pop up ads and other malware. Unfortunately, if the step by step instructions does not help you, then you have caught a new ad supported software, and then the best way – ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.
