Should I remove protectedsurf?

What percent of users and experts removed it?

88% remove it12% keep it

Overall Sentiment

Bad

What do people think about it?

(click star to rate)

How common is it?

Reach 0.0001%

Versions

Version	Distribution
1.0	100.00%

Other programs by Exciting Apps

protectedsurf

from Exciting Apps

Remove protectedsurf by Exciting Apps

What is protectedsurf?

This is an adware program from 50OnRed that integrates into the user's web browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox) and will perform a number of functions mostly designed to generate advertising supported or affiliate revenue. In order to do so the program will display a number of different ad formats by injecting the ads directly in the user's browser based on either the activity of the user's past and present behavior or based on the context of the web page. Ads are displayed as banners, text-links, search related adverts or in many cases malvertising in order to get a user to download and install additional software, mostly bundled adware. This adware will also track and report back the user's surfing behavior including web pages and domains visited as well as the advertisements displayed and clicked.

Additionally this program may modify/hijack the web browser's homepage and search provider as well as change a number of the security settings of the browser. These changes will allow it to perform additional ad-supported functions in the browser. Typically it comes bundled with free applications from the Internet through a bundles offer for free software including video utilities or for updates.

Overview

A majority of users end up uninstalling this less than a week of it being installed. The setup package generally installs about 5 files and is usually about 1.14 MB (1,194,091 bytes).

Typically distributed through a pay-per-install bundle
Displays unwanted advertisements
Hijacks the browser's default search provider
The experts agree, you should remove it!

protectedsurf has been found to be bundled with 3rd party software. If you have not purposefully installed this, you should be safe uninstalling it.

Program details

Installation folder: C:\users\user\appdata\Local\protectedsurf

Uninstaller: C:\users\user\appdata\Local\protectedsurf\uninstall.exe

Estimated size: 1.14 MB

Files installed by protectedsurf

gpedit.exe
SoftwareDetector.exe
uninstall.exe
sqlite3.exe
storageedit.exe

How do I remove protectedsurf?

You can uninstall protectedsurf from your computer by using the Add/Remove Program feature in the Window's Control Panel.

On the Start menu (for Windows 8, right-click the screen's bottom-left corner), click Control Panel, and then, under Programs, do one of the following:

Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall a Program.
Windows XP: Click Add or Remove Programs.

When you find the program protectedsurf, click it, and then do one of the following:

Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall.
Windows XP: Click the Remove or Change/Remove tab (to the right of the program).

Follow the prompts. A progress bar shows you how long it will take to remove protectedsurf.
If for some reason uninstallation fails, please install Microsoft's uninstall fixer utility which will help fix problems with programs that can't be uninstalled at support.microsoft.com.