What is Freemake Video Downloader?
Freemake Video Downloader is an application, which allows you to download video clips from the popular media websites. The official webpage presents itself like this: “Freemake YouTube Downloader is a free software to download online videos to PC free and fast. Download videos from YouTube, Facebook, Dailymotion, Vevo, Vimeo, and 10,000+ sites. You can grab any streaming video in original quality or convert it to MP3, AVI, MKV, WMV, 3GP, or for iPhone, iPod, PSP, Android. Easy setup, no fees, no signup, no limitations.” Although this program should never be called as a virus because it doesn’t have a malicious code inside, it may easily initiate unwanted system’s changes on your computer. In most of the occasions, Freemake Video Downloader shows up on a computer out of nowhere and then alters the start page, default search engine, new tab page and other settings. Besides, some users have reported about annoying pop-up advertisements that are caused by Freemake Video Downloader.
Due to aforementioned issues, this suspicious downloader has ben attributed to the ‘browser hijacker’ and PUP (potentially unwanted program) categories. It’s very important to stress the fact that the sole purpose of this hijacker is to boost traffic to affiliate domains. Unfortunately, but some of the promoted websites may be, softly saying, suspicious, so Freemake Video Downloader redirect may cause you some computer-related issues. Lastly, it is also blamed for privacy-related issues because once installed it may engage tracking cookies and start collecting browsing-related data about you. Therefore, our security experts highly recommend you to remove Freemake Video Downloader virus from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari right away. For that, try using FortectIntego.

How can Freemake Video Downloader hijack my computer?
This program can be downloaded on the system just like any other PUP. It’s easy to use, so it has already become very popular among PC users. However, people seldom initiate a research on it and did not know that its second name is ‘browser hijacker’. Consequently, they install Freemake Video Downloader reasonably and start regretting it immediately after they discover what browser’s modifications it has caused. Unfortunately, but people don’t necessarily have to download this app with a reason. It is also spread in a bundle with other applications. So careless installation of a freeware may help this PUP to end up on your PC’s system. Luckily, you can easily prevent its infiltration by paying more attention to freeware’s installation process and unchecking additional downloads before they get installed on the system by default. By the way, you will only be allowed to do so by selecting Advanced or Custom installation mode.
Freemake Video Downloader FAQ:
Question: Freemake Video Downloader ended up on my computer just like a virus. How should I remove it and what precautionary measures should I take to prevent its infiltration in the future?
Answer: Freemake Video Downloader hijacker is a redirect virus, but certainly NOT a virus. Therefore, you should be able to remove it by yourself (step-by-step guide is given below). However, we highly recommend you to check your computer with a reliable anti-spyware anyway because it might have tricked you into installing other PUPs. Finally, don’t forget to update your guard regularly and always install free software attentively.
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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