What is FlashFree?
FlashFree is yet another dubious program that is promoted as a tool for blocking Flash and Silverlight objects. However, it seems that it has been released to the Internet due to marketing purposes, such as to increase page rank or sales for affiliate websites, generate income for its developers and so on. Unfortunately, once installed, it may start displaying an unbearable amount of commercial advertisements, which may redirect you to both reliable websites and really suspicious third-party websites. If you want to prevent FlashFree redirects and do not want to expose your PC to various cyber threats, you should ignore all pop-up, pop-under, and banner ads that are marked as 'Ads by FlashFree', 'FlashFree Ads', 'Powered by FlashFree' and so on. In addition to that, be aware that this dubious program may also diminish your PC's performance, increase security vulnerabilities, serve as a backdoor for other third-party apps, and may even track you and your online activities. It may collect personally non-identifiable information, such as search terms and most frequently visited websites. Unfortunately, your email address, PC's location and email address are also considered to be non-personal and may easily be collected. Due to all these issues, FlashFree virus has been categorized as an adware that is also known as a potentially unwanted program (PUP). Therefore, we highly recommend you to remove it ASAP with the help of a reliable anti-spyware, such as FortectIntego. By the way, this dubious adware may also affect Mac OS. If you are one of the Mac users who suffers from FlashFree redirects, you can also try using AdwareMedic or Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus for fixing your machine.
How can FlashFree hijack my computer?
If you want to protect your computer from potentially unwanted programs, such as FlashFree, first of all you should chance your internet surfing habits. Always make sure that you install a reliable anti-spyware and keep it up-to-date and try to stay away from suspicious websites, various ads, links, and similar things that show up during your browsing. Besides, you have to keep in mind that potentially unwanted programs usually spread bundled with other freewares, such as various download managers and media players, so it's very important to install them correctly. By saying 'correctly' we mean that you should NEVER accelerate the installation by simply clicking next-next-next…Instead of that, you should make a small research on the program you opt for installing and select Advance or Custom installation all the time. After that, you should check everything step-by-step and opt out of 'additional components', such as browser add-ons, plug-ins, toolbars, and extensions if they are offered to you and marked by default. Otherwise, you may end up with FlashFree virus on your PC and start experiencing all inconveniences about which we have already talked in the previous paragraph.
How to remove FlashFree virus?
FlashFree commonly spreads bundled with other adware or PUPs, such as SunriseBrowse, Sendori, Project Free TV and many others. So, if FlashFree redirects have started bothering your out of nowhere, you should also look for other suspicious programs on your computer. For that, we highly recommend you to use a reliable anti-spyware.
Uninstall from Windows
Uninstall from Windows 10/8:
- Type Control Panel into the Windows search box and open the result.
- Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.

Uninstall from Windows 7/XP:
- Click on Windows Start > Control Panel (Windows XP users should click on Add/Remove Programs).
- In Control Panel, select Programs > Uninstall a program.

Remove the unwanted program:
- In the Programs and Features window, look for any recently installed suspicious entries, select them, and click Uninstall.
- If User Account Control appears, click Yes to confirm, then complete the removal.

Delete from macOS
Remove the unwanted application:
- From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
- In the Applications folder, look for any suspicious entries, then drag them to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash).

Delete leftover files and folders:
- Select Go > Go to Folder.
- Enter /Library/Application Support and remove any suspicious folders related to the unwanted program.
- Repeat the same check in the /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders, deleting any suspicious entries.

- Finally, empty the Trash to permanently remove the leftovers.
Remove from Microsoft Edge
Delete unwanted extensions from MS Edge:
- Select Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and pick Extensions.
- From the list, pick the extension and click on the Gear icon.
- Click Remove.

Clear cookies and other browser data:
- Click on the Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services..
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Select Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files. (apart from passwords, although you might want to include Media licenses as well, if applicable) and click on Clear.

Restore new tab and homepage settings:
- Click the menu icon and choose Settings.
- Then find On startup section.
- Click Remove next to any suspicious startup page.
Reset MS Edge if the above steps did not work:
- Press on Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
- Click on More details arrow at the bottom of the window.
- Select Details tab.
- Now scroll down and locate every entry with Microsoft Edge name in it. Right-click on each of them and select End Task to stop MS Edge from running.

Instructions for Chromium-based Edge
Delete extensions from MS Edge (Chromium):
- Open Edge and click select Settings > Extensions.
- Delete unwanted extensions by clicking Remove.

Clear cache and site data:
- Click on Menu and go to Settings.
- Select Privacy, search and services.
- Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
- Under Time range, pick All time.
- Select Clear now.

Reset Chromium-based MS Edge:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- On the left side, pick Reset settings.
- Select Restore settings to their default values.
- Confirm with Reset.
- This will disable extensions and reset startup pages but will not delete bookmarks, saved passwords, or browsing history.

Remove from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
Remove dangerous extensions:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click on the Menu (three horizontal lines at the top-right of the window).
- Select Add-ons.
- In here, select the unwanted extension and click Remove.

Reset the homepage:
- Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
- Choose Settings.
- Under Home, set your preferred homepage and new tab settings.
Clear cookies and site data:
- Click Menu and pick Settings.
- Go to Privacy & Security section.
- Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
- Click on Clear Data...
- Select Cookies and Site Data and Temporary cached files and pages, then click Clear.

Reset Mozilla Firefox
If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:
- Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
- Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.

- Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox...
- Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.

Remove from Google Chrome
Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:
- Open Google Chrome, click on the Menu (three vertical dots at the top-right corner) and select More tools > Extensions.
- In the newly opened window, you will see all the installed extensions. Uninstall all suspicious extensions related to the unwanted program by clicking Remove.

Clear cache and web data from Chrome:
- Click on Menu and pick Settings.
- Under Privacy and security, select Clear browsing data.
- Select Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, as well as Cached images and files.
- Click Clear data.

Change your homepage:
- Click menu and choose Settings.
- Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
- Click on Open a specific or set of pages and click on three dots to find the Remove option.
Reset Google Chrome:
If the previous methods did not help you, reset Google Chrome to eliminate all the unwanted components:
- Click on Menu and select Settings.
- In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
- Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
- Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
- Confirm with Reset settings.

Delete from Safari
Remove dangerous extensions:
- Open Safari, click Safari in the menu at the top-left of the screen, and select Preferences.
- Go to the Extensions tab, look for any suspicious entries, and click Uninstall to remove them.

Clear history and website data:
- Click Safari in the menu and pick Clear History.
- Set Clear to all history and confirm with Clear History.

Reset Safari:
- Click Safari in the menu and select Preferences > Advanced.
- Enable Show Develop menu in menu bar.
- From the menu bar, click Develop and select Empty Caches.

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