How to remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam

Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert pop-up is a social engineering attack, which by using fake alerts, attempts to deceive you and other computer users into believing that the computer has been infected. Be aware, however, that “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” is a scam. The main purpose of this scam is to force you into calling a fake Technical Support trying to sell unnecessary virus removal service. Never attempt to call the fake support service!

Text presented in the fake alert:

Windows Antivirus - Critical Alert

Alert: The page you tried to visit turns out to be infected and your computer is at risk.
It is possible that we disable your internet connection to prevent the spread of the virus on our network.
Disinfection of the computer is however possible: Call for Help

Experienced security researchers have determined that users are redirected to “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” scam by adware or from suspicious ads. Is Adware dangerous? Adware is type of applications designed to insert advertising into your World Wide Web browsing or even desktop experience. Adware can be made to alter your homepage, search provider, search results, or even add toolbars to your internet browser. Adware run in the background when you’re online, and adware software can slow down your computer and affect its performance.

Another reason why you need to remove adware is its online data-tracking activity. Adware can install a component that enables its developer to track which web sites you visit, which products you look at upon those pages. They are then able to select the type of ads they show you. So, if you had adware software on your system, there is a good chance you have another that is collecting and sharing your confidential data with third parties, without your say-so.

Usually, adware gets into your system as part of a bundle with freeware, sharing files and other unsafe software which you downloaded from the Internet. The makers of adware software pays software developers for distributing adware software within their software. So, bundled applications is often included as part of the installation package. In order to avoid the install of any adware software: select only Manual, Custom or Advanced installation mode and uncheck all third-party applications in which you are unsure.

Threat Summary

Name	“Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert”
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), pop-ups, popup ads, pop up virus
Symptoms	you experience a ton of of unwanted pop up ads you keep getting redirected to suspicious websites new entries appear in your Programs folder new plugins suddenly installed on your internet browser your internet browser startpage has modified without your permission you cannot update your antivirus your web browser slows to a crawl your internet browser became slower than normal
Removal	“Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” removal guide

 

In the step-by-step guidance below, we will explain helpful solutions on how to free your PC system of adware software and delete “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” scam from your web browser.

How to Remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam (Adware virus removal guide)

In order to get rid of “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” scam, start by closing any applications and pop-ups that are open. If a pop up won’t close, then close your internet browser (Chrome, IE, Edge and Firefox). If a application won’t close then please restart your machine. Next, follow the steps below.

To remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert”, use the steps below:

1. How to remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-ups without any software
   • Uninstall adware software through the Microsoft Windows Control Panel
   • Remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop up from Chrome
   • Remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up from IE
   • Delete “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” from Mozilla Firefox by resetting web browser settings
2. How to remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popup with freeware
   • How to automatically get rid of “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popups with Zemana
   • Run Hitman Pro to delete “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop up
   • Automatically remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam with MalwareBytes Free
3. How to Stop “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam
4. To sum up

How to remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-ups without any software

If you perform exactly the steps below you should be able to get rid of the “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop up scam from the MS Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers.

Uninstall adware software through the Microsoft Windows Control Panel

First, go to MS Windows Control Panel and delete dubious apps, all applications you do not remember installing. It’s important to pay the most attention to apps you installed just before “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popup appeared on your web-browser. If you don’t know what a program does, look for the answer on the Internet.

Carefully browse through the list of installed applications and remove all dubious and unknown programs. We suggest to click ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed programs by date. After you’ve found anything dubious that may be the adware responsible for “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popup or other potentially unwanted application (PUA), then choose this program and click ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the suspicious program blocked from removal, then run Revo Uninstaller Freeware to completely remove it from your PC system.

Remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop up from Chrome

Another way to remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popups from Google Chrome is Reset Google Chrome settings. This will disable malicious extensions and reset Google Chrome settings to default values. It will save your personal information like saved passwords, bookmarks, auto-fill data and open tabs.

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

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

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

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

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click 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 display the confirmation prompt as shown on the screen below.

You need to confirm your action, press the “Reset” button. The internet browser will start the process of cleaning. When it’s done, the web browser’s settings including start page, search provider and newtab back to the values which have been when the Google Chrome was first installed on your machine.

Remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up from IE

The Microsoft Internet Explorer reset is great if your browser is hijacked or you have unwanted add-ons or toolbars on your web browser, that installed by an malicious software.

First, run the Internet Explorer, click ) button. Next, click “Internet Options” similar to the one below.

In the “Internet Options” screen select the Advanced tab. Next, press Reset button. The Microsoft Internet Explorer will display the Reset Internet Explorer settings dialog box. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box and click Reset button.

You will now need to reboot your system for the changes to take effect. It will get rid of adware responsible for “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popup, disable malicious and ad-supported web-browser’s extensions and restore the Internet Explorer’s settings like startpage, search provider and new tab page to default state.

Delete “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” from Mozilla Firefox by resetting web browser settings

The Mozilla Firefox reset will remove redirects to intrusive “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” web-site, modified preferences, extensions and security settings. It’ll save your personal information such as saved passwords, bookmarks, auto-fill data and open tabs.

Start the Firefox and click the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the browser screen. Next, click the question-mark icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu. It will show the slide-out menu.

Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you’re unable to access the Help menu, then type “about:support” in your address bar and press Enter. It bring up the “Troubleshooting Information” page as displayed on the screen below.

Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation dialog box. The Firefox will begin a task to fix your problems that caused by the “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” adware. When, it is complete, click the “Finish” button.

How to remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popup with freeware

Malware removal utilities are pretty effective when you think your personal computer is affected by adware. Below we’ll discover best utilities which can be used to get rid of adware and “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” scam from your machine and web-browser.

How to automatically get rid of “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popups with Zemana

Zemana Anti-Malware is an extremely fast utility to remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop up from the MS Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. It also deletes malicious software and adware software from your system. It improves your system’s performance by deleting PUPs.

Zemana Free can be downloaded from the following link. Save it on your Desktop.

Once the downloading process is complete, start it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will try to update itself and when this procedure is done, click the “Scan” button . Zemana AntiMalware utility will start scanning the whole computer to find out adware software that causes multiple unwanted pop ups.

This process can take quite a while, so please be patient. When a malicious software, adware or potentially unwanted applications are found, the count of the security threats will change accordingly. You may remove threats (move to Quarantine) by simply press “Next” button.

The Zemana Free will begin to remove adware software responsible for “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” popups.

Run Hitman Pro to delete “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop up

If the “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up problem persists, use the HitmanPro and scan if your internet browser is infected by adware. The HitmanPro is a downloadable security tool that provides on-demand scanning and helps remove adware, PUPs, and other malware. It works with your existing antivirus.

1. Visit the following page to download the latest version of Hitman Pro for Microsoft Windows. Save it on your MS Windows desktop.
   
   

   HitmanPro
   12066 downloads
   Author: Sophos
   Category: Security tools
   Update: June 28, 2018
   
2. After the downloading process is done, double click the Hitman Pro icon. Once this utility is started, click “Next” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the adware software that causes “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” scam. When a malicious software, adware software or PUPs are found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.
3. When Hitman Pro has completed scanning, HitmanPro will display a list of detected items. Make sure all items have ‘checkmark’ and press “Next” button. Now press the “Activate free license” button to start the free 30 days trial to get rid of all malware found.

Automatically remove “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam with MalwareBytes Free

If you’re still having problems with the “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam — or just wish to check your personal computer occasionally for adware and other malicious software — download MalwareBytes. It’s free for home use, and finds and deletes various undesired programs that attacks your machine or degrades machine performance. MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) can remove adware, potentially unwanted applications as well as malware, including ransomware and trojans.

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware can be downloaded from the following link. Save it on your Windows desktop or in any other place.

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

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

Once installation is done, you’ll see window as shown in the following example.

Now click the “Scan Now” button for scanning your machine for the adware which cause popup scam. This procedure can take quite a while, so please be patient.

After MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) has completed scanning your PC, a list of all items detected is created. Review the results once the tool has complete the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply click “Quarantine Selected” button.

The Malwarebytes will now remove adware which causes undesired “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop up scam and move items to the program’s quarantine. After disinfection is complete, you may be prompted to reboot your PC.

The following video explains few simple steps on how to delete browser hijacker, adware software and other malicious software with MalwareBytes.

How to Stop “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam

If you want to remove unwanted ads, web-browser redirections and pop ups, then install an adblocker program such as AdGuard. It can stop “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert”, advertisements, pop ups and stop web sites from tracking your online activities when using the Firefox, Google Chrome, Edge and Internet Explorer. So, if you like surf the Internet, but you don’t like annoying ads and want to protect your computer from malicious webpages, then the AdGuard is your best choice.

Installing the AdGuard is simple. First you will need to download AdGuard by clicking on the link below.

After downloading it, double-click the downloaded file to start it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen similar to the one below.

Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed and an icon will be placed on your desktop. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick instructions as shown below.

Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick guide which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your PC, AdGuard will run automatically and stop unwanted ads, block “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” scam, as well as other malicious or misleading web 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, which is located on your desktop.

To sum up

Now your computer should be clean of the adware software which causes undesired “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” pop-up scam. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted pop-up advertisements and unwanted malicious web-pages) and Zemana Free (to periodically scan your personal computer for new malicious software, browser hijacker infections and adware software). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for MS Windows operating system. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new hijackers, harmful applications and adware are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to delete “Windows Antivirus – Critical Alert” scam from your browser, then ask for help here.