Activate Search Private Now pop-up – How to remove [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

The Activate Search Private ads should not be underestimated, because the reason for their appearance within your web-browser is penetration an adware (sometimes called ‘ad-supported’ software) into your personal computer. It can bring a security risk to your system. So, do not ignore it! Of course, the Activate Search Private is just a page, but the ad supported software uses it to open intrusive and unwanted ads, even without your permission and desire to see it. The unwanted ads can be just the beginning, because your PC system is hijacked by malicious software, so the amount of pop-ups in the future may increase. Its appearance will prevent you normally browse the web-pages, and more, can lead to crash the internet browser.

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

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

We recommend to delete the adware, which redirects your web browser on the Activate Search Private unwanted web page, as soon as you found this problem, as it can direct you to web-resources which may load other harmful software on your computer.

How to Activate Search Private popup ads get installed onto computer

Just as the beginning of this post, if you have ever seen the Activate Search Private web-page appear in your web-browser, it means your PC system has been infected with the adware. Most often ad supported software is bundled with free programs. So, think back, have you ever download and start any free programs? Because most users, in the Setup Wizard, simply click the Next button and don’t read any information like ‘Terms of use’ and ‘Software license’. This leads to the fact that the machine is infected, the browser’s configured to display a lot of the Activate Search Private unwanted advertisements. Even removing the free programs that contains this ad supported software, the unwanted ads does not disappear. Therefore, you must follow the instructions below to clean your system from the ‘ad supported’ software and thereby get rid of Activate Search Private ads.

How to manually remove Activate Search Private advertisements

This steps will assist you remove Activate Search Private pop-ups. These Activate Search Private removal steps work for the Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer, as well as every version of Windows operating system. Some of the steps may require you to close the web browser or restart your system. So, bookmark or print it for later reference.

1. Delete suspicious and unknown applications by using Windows Control Panel
2. Disinfect the browser’s shortcuts to get rid of Activate Search Private redirect
3. Remove Activate Search Private pop-up ads from Chrome
4. Get rid of Activate Search Private from FF
5. Remove Activate Search Private pop-ups from IE
6. Delete unwanted Scheduled Tasks

Delete suspicious and unknown applications by using Windows Control Panel

We recommend that you begin the computer cleaning process by checking the list of installed software and uninstall all unknown or suspicious software. This is a very important step, as mentioned above, very often the malicious applications such as ‘ad supported’ software and browser hijackers may be bundled with free applications. Delete the unwanted software may delete the annoying advertisements or web-browser redirect to unknown or annoying sites.

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

Next, click “Uninstall a program”
It will open a list of all programs. 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 Activate Search Private redirect

When the ad supported software 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 redirected 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 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 Activate Search Private pop-up ads from Chrome

Reset Chrome settings is a easy way to remove the malware and adware, as well as to restore the internet browser’s settings that have been modified by ad-supported software.

1. Now start the Google Chrome and press Menu button (small button in the form of three horizontal stripes).
2. It will display the Chrome main menu. Select “Settings” option.
3. You will see the Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and press “Show advanced settings” link.
4. Scroll down again and click the “Reset settings” button.
5. The Chrome will open the reset profile settings page as on the image above.
6. Next, click the “Reset” button.
7. Once this task is finished, your internet browser’s settings will be restored to their original defaults. This will reset your home page, newtab page and search provider by default.
8. To learn more, read the post How to reset Chrome settings to default.

Get rid of Activate Search Private from FF

If the Firefox settings have been changed by the ad supported software, then resetting it to the default state can help you to remove the redirect onto Activate Search Private web site.

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

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

It will display the confirmation prompt, click the “Refresh Firefox” button. The Mozilla Firefox will begin a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the ad-supported software. When it’s finished, press the “Finish” button

Remove Activate Search Private pop-ups from IE

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

In the Internet Options window click on the Advanced tab, then click the Reset button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will show the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” window as shown 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.

Delete unwanted Scheduled Tasks

If the annoying Activate Search Private web site 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 malicious program.

Press Windows and R keys on the keyboard simultaneously. This displays a prompt that called Run. In the text field, type “taskschd.msc” (without the quotes) and press 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, click the Actions tab. Pay attention to that it launches on your computer. Found something like “explorer.exe http://site.address” or “chrome.exe http://site.address”, then you need delete it. If you are not sure that executes the task, check it through a search engine. If it is a component of the ‘ad-supported’ program, then this task also should be removed.

Having defined the task that you want to get rid of, then click on it with the right mouse button and select Delete like below.

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

How to remove Activate Search Private pop-up ads automatically

Manual removal is not always as effective as you might think. Often, even the most experienced users can not completely remove Activate Search Private pop-up ads from the infected system. This is because the ad supported software can hide its components which are difficult for you to find out and remove completely. This may lead to the fact that after some time, the ad-supported software again infect your personal computer and it will start to display annoying Activate Search Private ads. Moreover, I want to note that it is not always safe to remove ‘ad supported’ software manually, if you do not have much experience in setting up and configuring the system.

I suggest using the Malwarebytes Free that are completely clean your PC. It’s an advanced malware removal application developed by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular anti-malware technology. It’s able to help you get rid of browser hijackers, malware, adware, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your personal computer for free.

Now, click the link below to download Malwarebytes Free on your system. Save it on your Windows desktop or in any other place.

Once the downloading process is finished, close all applications on your personal computer. Next, launch the setup file named mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as shown below, click the Yes button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” that will help you install Malwarebytes on your computer. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.

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

Now click the “Scan Now” button to perform a system scan for the ad-supported software which cause a redirect to Activate Search Private. Once the ad supported software or malware is found, the number of the detected objects will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is finished. Please be patient.

Once the system scan is finished, you can check all threats detected on your computer. Make sure all entries have “checkmark” and click “Quarantine Selected” button. The Malwarebytes will start removing malware and ad-supported software which cause Activate Search Private pop-ups. Once disinfection is complete, you may be prompted to restart your system.

I suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using the Malwarebytes program to remove adware and other malware.

How to block Activate Search Private

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

1. Download AdGuard program from the following link.
   

   Adguard download
   26633 downloads
   Version: 6.4
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: November 15, 2018
   
2. After the download is complete, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” window. Follow the prompts.
3. Once the installation is finished, click “Skip” to close it and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see a quick tutorial that 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 machine, AdGuard will launch automatically and block popup ads, Activate Search Private redirects, as well as other dangerous or misleading pages. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that is located on your Windows desktop.

Get rid of Activate Search Private pop-ups and malicious extensions with AdwCleaner.

If MalwareBytes cannot delete the annoying Activate Search Private redirect from the Chrome, FF, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, then we suggests to use the AdwCleaner. AdwCleaner is a free removal tool for ad supported software, browser hijackers, PUPs and toolbars.

Download AdwCleaner from the link below.

Once the download is complete, open the directory in which you saved it. Double click the AdwCleaner icon. Once this tool is started, you will see a screen like below.

Now, press the “Scan” button to start scanning your PC for the malicious extensions and ad-supported software that opens ads from Activate Search Private web-page. Once the checking is complete, it will show a scan report as shown below.

Review the report and then click “Clean” button. It will open a prompt. Click “OK”. Once the clean-up is done, AdwCleaner may ask you to restart your computer.

Look at the following video, which completely explains the procedure of using the AdwCleaner to delete ad supported software, browser hijackers and other harmful software.

Finish words

After completing the step-by-step instructions outlined above, your PC should be clean from malware and adware. The Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Internet Explorer will no longer show Activate Search Private unwanted advertisements and redirect you to unknown web pages. Unfortunately, if the few simple 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
   4698 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 system scan is done, the scan button will read “Save log”, click 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 Activate Search Private .