How to remove Chrome Cleaner extension [Virus removal guide]

The Chrome Cleaner is an unwanted extension from the group of adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software). It is designed for Google Chrome web browser in order to show a large number of undesired advertisements and redirect your browser to various undesired web pages. Unlike viruses, the Google Chrome extension will not delete or infect your files, but its actions will cause some problems with your web browser. This is because, it’ll hijack your Chrome, get full access to its settings and can change them. Of course, the Chrome Cleaner did not ask you for permission and do it secretly as possible. Once your web-browser settings will be changed, you will be redirected to unwanted advertisements, some of which can lead to harmful or misleading web sites. For this reason, we suggest that remove Chrome Cleaner extension from your web browser as soon as possible.

While your internet browser is affected with the Chrome Cleaner extension, it may be redirected to undesired ads. These ads will be injected within the content of web-sites that are you opening in your web-browser and can be varied: pop-up ads, in-text ads, different sized banners, offers to install an questionable software. The ads will appear on all web sites, including web sites where previously you have never seen any advertising links.

It’s not a good idea to have an unwanted application such as the Chrome Cleaner plugin that designed to redirect your browser to various ad pages. The reason for this is simple, it doing things you do not know about. Even worse, the add-on can collect lots of user data about you that may be later sold to third party companies. You do not know if your home address, account names and passwords are safe. And of course you completely do not know what will happen when you click on any Chrome Cleaner popup ads.

So, obviously, you need to remove the virus ASAP. Use the free step-by-step instructions below. This guide will allow you clean your computer of the Chrome Cleaner extension and thereby remove annoying advertisements.

Remove Chrome Cleaner extension

Fortunately, it is not hard to delete Chrome Cleaner malicious plugin that causes multiple intrusive ads and popups. In the following tutorial, we will provide two ways to clean your machine of this virus. One is the manual removal way and the other is automatic removal solution. You can select the way that best fits you. Please follow the removal guide below to delete Chrome Cleaner extension right now!

To remove Chrome Cleaner, execute the following steps:

1. How to delete Chrome Cleaner without any software
   • Delete potentially unwanted software using Windows Control Panel
   • Remove Chrome Cleaner from Chrome
2. Run free malware removal utilities to completely get rid of Chrome Cleaner add-on
   • Run Zemana Anti-malware to get rid of Chrome Cleaner
   • How to get rid of Chrome Cleaner with Malwarebytes
   • Double-check for potentially unwanted applications with AdwCleaner

How to delete Chrome Cleaner without any software

Most common harmful extension may be uninstalled without any antivirus programs. The manual harmful addon removal is few simple steps that will teach you how to delete the Chrome Cleaner .

Delete potentially unwanted software using Windows Control Panel

The best way to start the computer cleanup is to delete unknown and suspicious programs. Using the MS Windows Control Panel you can do this quickly and easily. This step, in spite of its simplicity, should not be ignored, because the removing of unneeded applications can clean up the Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Edge from pop up ads, hijackers and so on.

Press CTRL, ALT, DEL keys together to open the Microsoft Windows Task Manager.

Click on the “Processes” tab, look for something like Chrome Cleaner then right-click it and select “End Task” or “End Process” option.

Next, remove any unwanted and suspicious software from your Control panel.

Windows 10, 8.1, 8

Now, click the Windows button, type “Control panel” in search and press Enter. Select “Programs and Features”, then “Uninstall a program”.

Select the application that has the name like “Chrome Cleaner”, uninstall it.

Windows Vista, 7

Close all open browsers including the Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, MS Edge and IE. From the “Start” menu in Microsoft Windows, choose “Control Panel”. Under the “Programs” icon, select “Uninstall a program”.

Choose the applications with the names like Chrome Cleaner, then click “Uninstall/Change” button to delete this undesired program from your system.

Windows XP

Click the “Start” button, select “Control Panel” option. Click on “Add/Remove Programs”.

Select the program named such as Chrome Cleaner, the click “Change/Remove” button. Follow the prompts.

Remove Chrome Cleaner from Chrome

Reset Google Chrome settings is a easy way to remove the hijacker infections, malicious and ‘ad-supported’ extensions, as well as to recover the browser’s start page, newtab page and search engine by default that have been modified by Chrome Cleaner harmful addon that causes web-browsers to open intrusive ads.

First start the Google Chrome. Next, click the button in the form of three horizontal dots ().

It will display the Google Chrome menu. Select More Tools, then click Extensions. Carefully browse through the list of installed extensions. If the list has the add-on signed with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following steps: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.

Open the Chrome menu once again. Further, click the option called “Settings”.

The web browser will open the settings screen. Another way to open the Google Chrome’s settings – type chrome://settings in the web browser adress bar and press Enter

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and press the “Advanced” link. Now scroll down until the “Reset” section is visible, as displayed on the image below and click the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.

The Google Chrome will show the confirmation prompt as on the image below.

You need to confirm your action, press the “Reset” button. The browser will run the process of cleaning. Once it’s finished, the internet browser’s settings including newtab, homepage and search engine by default back to the values which have been when the Google Chrome was first installed on your system.

Run free malware removal utilities to completely get rid of Chrome Cleaner add-on

Manual removal is not always as effective as you might think. Often, even the most experienced users can not completely remove Chrome Cleaner virus that causes intrusive pop up ads. So, we recommend to check your machine for any remaining harmful components with free harmful plugin removal applications below.

Run Zemana Anti-malware to get rid of Chrome Cleaner

Zemana Anti-malware is a tool which can remove adware, PUPs, browser hijackers and other malware from your computer easily and for free. Zemana Anti-malware is compatible with most antivirus software. It works under Windows (10 – XP, 32 and 64 bit) and uses minimum of PC resources.

Download Zemana from the link below. Save it on your MS Windows desktop or in any other place.

After the downloading process is complete, start it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the Zemana Anti Malware will try to update itself and when this task is finished, click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the Chrome Cleaner harmful extension which causes undesired ads.

A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your system. While the Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) is scanning, you may see how many objects it has identified either as being malware. Review the results once the utility has finished the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply press “Next” button.

The Zemana will begin to remove Chrome Cleaner malicious add-on that cause undesired popup advertisements to appear.

How to get rid of Chrome Cleaner with Malwarebytes

We suggest using the Malwarebytes Free that are completely clean your system of the malicious extension. The free tool is an advanced malware removal program developed by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular anti malware technology. It is able to help you delete intrusive Chrome Cleaner from your browsers, potentially unwanted programs, malware, browser hijackers, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your system for free.

Download MalwareBytes on your Microsoft Windows Desktop by clicking on the following link.

After the downloading process is complete, close all software and windows on your system. Open a directory in which you saved it. Double-click on the icon that’s called mb3-setup as shown in the figure below.

When the setup begins, you will see the “Setup wizard” that will help you install Malwarebytes on your personal computer.

Once installation is finished, you’ll see window as displayed on the image below.

Now click the “Scan Now” button to perform a system scan with this utility for the Chrome Cleaner malicious extension that causes a huge number of undesired pop-up advertisements. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your system and the speed of your machine. During the scan MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) will detect all threats exist on your computer.

As the scanning ends, MalwareBytes Free will show a scan report. Review the report and then click “Quarantine Selected” button.

The Malwarebytes will now get rid of Chrome Cleaner addon that causes multiple intrusive advertisements and pop-ups and add threats to the Quarantine. When disinfection is done, you may be prompted to reboot your machine.

The following video explains tutorial on how to remove browser hijacker, ad-supported software and other malicious software with MalwareBytes AntiMalware.

Double-check for potentially unwanted applications with AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner is a free removal utility that can be downloaded and run to get rid of Chrome Cleaner virus that causes web browsers to show unwanted pop-up ads, browser hijackers, malware, PUPs, toolbars and other threats from your PC. You can run this utility to detect threats even if you have an antivirus or any other security application.

1. Visit the following page to download AdwCleaner. Save it to your Desktop.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225263 downloads
   Version: 8.4.1
   Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: October 5, 2024
   
2. When the downloading process is finished, double click the AdwCleaner icon. Once this utility is started, press “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the Chrome Cleaner malicious add-on that causes tons of intrusive pop up ads. This procedure can take quite a while, so please be patient. When a malware, ‘ad supported’ software or PUPs are found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is complete.
3. After the scanning is complete, AdwCleaner will display a list of detected items. Next, you need to click “Clean” button. It will open a prompt, click “OK”.

These few simple steps are shown in detail in the following video guide.

How to stay safe online

It’s also critical to protect your browsers from malicious web-pages and ads by using an ad blocking program such as AdGuard. Security experts says that it will greatly reduce the risk of malicious software, and potentially save lots of money. Additionally, the AdGuard can also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.

1. Download AdGuard program by clicking on the following link. Save it directly to your Microsoft Windows Desktop.
   

   Adguard download
   26627 downloads
   Version: 6.4
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: November 15, 2018
   
2. After the downloading process is complete, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. Once 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 that will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you launch your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop advertisements, 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 icon named AdGuard, which is located on your desktop.

How can you prevent the Chrome Cleaner

In many cases, the Chrome Cleaner gets onto system by being attached to the install packages from a free hosting and file sharing web-sites. So, install a free software is a a good chance that you will find a bundled malicious addon. If you don’t know how to avoid it, then use a simple trick. During the installation, select the Custom or Advanced setup method. Next, click ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install third-party applications. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any programs or otherwise you may end up with another unwanted application on your computer like this Chrome Cleaner extension that causes web-browsers to show undesired pop up ads.

To sum up

After completing the guide outlined above, your Google Chrome should be clean from the Chrome Cleaner and other malware. The Chrome will no longer open undesired ads when you browse the Web. Unfortunately, if the instructions does not help you, then you have caught a new extension, and then the best way – ask for help.

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. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the undesired Chrome Cleaner plugin.