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  • Active
  • Severity: Medium
  • Adware
  • Windows, Mac
  • Verified · Aug 2016

How to remove Soso Desk ads

A step-by-step removal guide for affected devices. Follow the verified procedure below — most readers complete it in under 10 minutes.

Olivia Morelli · Ransomware analyst

Do Soso Desk ads keep bothering you? Find out why do they appear:

Soso Desk virus is an incorrectly used term to describe an adware program, which generates intrusive web advertisements and controls user’s web browser. On its official website, this tool is promoted as a useful utility that is a free and small device manager, which is compatible with Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 versions. This tool was developed by Bysenda Technology Limited, a company that is based in HongKong. After analyzing this program, we have decided to share our findings with our readers.

This application appears to be less useful than it describes itself. We have discovered that it is just a potentially unwanted program (PUP), which has some browser hijacker features. When the user adds this hijacker to the computer system, it immediately changes user’s homepage to Search.SosoDesktop.com and inserts tracking cookies into the browser. If you think that this search engine is trustworthy, we advise you to think twice because it is sponsored by third-party companies, and so it showcases sponsored links within its search results. Clicking on these links can result in redirects to questionable Internet sites, which might present download links to get infectious files or programs for free. Despite Soso Desk redirect issue, which can repeatedly bother you every time you try to use the indicated search engine or click on Soso Search ads, this ad-supported program has another disadvantage. It won’t take long to notice that these ads appear repeatedly, typically right after you open new sites or click on links. Now, where do they think these ads appear from? This questionable adware-type program has its remote ad server, to which it connects using your Internet connection. To load its ads, it uses your system memory data, which is needed for other programs to function.

Ads by Soso Desk

It is obvious that this application slows down the computer to carry out its disturbing activities, and we doubt that you want to keep such unpleasant application on your PC. Hence, you need to start thinking about Soso Desk removal. Judging from our experience, the simplest way to delete it is to run a good spyware removal tool (for instance, FortectIntego) and let it examine the computer system for you. Automatic system scan helps to identify and eliminate dangerous programs without hassle. Nonetheless, if you wish, you can try and remove Soso Desk manually using instructions suggested below this article.

How does this program spread?

According to our analysis, you can install this ad-supported application in two different ways. First of all, you can experience Soso Desk hijack after installing another free program carelessly. By saying carelessly, we mean installing a program using auto-selected setup settings (Default, Basic, or Standard ones). These settings help developers of PUPs conceal suggestions to install various potentially unwanted programs, so be aware of that. Typically, the vast of free programs provide suggestions to install additional third-party software alongside them, so look for these proposals in Advanced or Custom installation settings and make sure you deselect them. The second way to install this program is to download it directly from its official Internet site, but it seems that users do not come across that site very frequently.

How to remove SosoDesk?

We recommend you to remove Soso Desk virus without a hesitation because it is unlikely that this program improves the browsing experience or helps to save time and money by displaying third-party ads. It appears that this piece of software can only cause annoyance and disturb you. If you want to delete it automatically, a proper spyware removal tool is required. You can find names of programs that we recommend using below, as well as manual Soso Desk removal instructions (in case you choose to delete this PUP manually).

Uninstall from Windows

Uninstall from Windows 10/8:

  1. Type Control Panel into the Windows search box and open the result.
  2. Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.Uninstall from Windows 10/8

Uninstall from Windows 7/XP:

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

Remove the unwanted program:

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

Delete from macOS

Remove the unwanted application:

  1. From the menu bar, select Go > Applications.
  2. In the Applications folder, look for any suspicious entries, then drag them to Trash (or right-click and pick Move to Trash).Uninstall from Mac

Delete leftover files and folders:

  1. Select Go > Go to Folder.
  2. Enter /Library/Application Support and remove any suspicious folders related to the unwanted program.
  3. Repeat the same check in the /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons folders, deleting any suspicious entries.Delete leftover files from Mac
  4. Finally, empty the Trash to permanently remove the leftovers.

Remove from Microsoft Edge

Delete unwanted extensions from MS Edge:

  1. Select Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and pick Extensions.
  2. From the list, pick the extension and click on the Gear icon.
  3. Click Remove.Remove extensions from Edge

Clear cookies and other browser data:

  1. Click on the Menu (three horizontal dots at the top-right of the browser window) and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services..
  2. Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
  3. 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.Clear Edge browsing data

Restore new tab and homepage settings:

  1. Click the menu icon and choose Settings.
  2. Then find On startup section.
  3. Click Remove next to any suspicious startup page.

Reset MS Edge if the above steps did not work:

  1. Press on Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
  2. Click on More details arrow at the bottom of the window.
  3. Select Details tab.
  4. 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.Reset MS Edge

Instructions for Chromium-based Edge

Delete extensions from MS Edge (Chromium):

  1. Open Edge and click select Settings > Extensions.
  2. Delete unwanted extensions by clicking Remove.Remove extensions from Chromium Edge

Clear cache and site data:

  1. Click on Menu and go to Settings.
  2. Select Privacy, search and services.
  3. Under Clear browsing data, pick Choose what to clear.
  4. Under Time range, pick All time.
  5. Select Clear now.Clear browser data from Chroum Edge

Reset Chromium-based MS Edge:

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

Remove from Mozilla Firefox (FF)

Remove dangerous extensions:

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

Reset the homepage:

  1. Click three horizontal lines at the top right corner to open the menu.
  2. Choose Settings.
  3. Under Home, set your preferred homepage and new tab settings.

Clear cookies and site data:

  1. Click Menu and pick Settings.
  2. Go to Privacy & Security section.
  3. Scroll down to locate Cookies and Site Data.
  4. Click on Clear Data...
  5. Select Cookies and Site Data and Temporary cached files and pages, then click Clear.Clear cookies and site data from Firefox

Reset Mozilla Firefox

If clearing the browser as explained above did not help, reset Mozilla Firefox:

  1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser and click the Menu.
  2. Go to Help and then choose Troubleshooting Information.Reset Firefox 1
  3. Under Give Firefox a tune up section, click on Refresh Firefox...
  4. Once the pop-up shows up, confirm the action by pressing on Refresh Firefox.Reset Firefox 2

Remove from Google Chrome

Delete malicious extensions from Google Chrome:

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

Clear cache and web data from Chrome:

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

Change your homepage:

  1. Click menu and choose Settings.
  2. Look for a suspicious site in the On startup section.
  3. 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:

  1. Click on Menu and select Settings.
  2. In the Settings, scroll down and click Advanced.
  3. Scroll down and locate Reset and clean up section.
  4. Now click Restore settings to their original defaults.
  5. Confirm with Reset settings.Reset Chrome 2

Delete from Safari

Remove dangerous extensions:

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

Clear history and website data:

  1. Click Safari in the menu and pick Clear History.
  2. Set Clear to all history and confirm with Clear History.Clear history from Safari

Reset Safari:

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

Did this guide help?

4 comments

  1. Rihi

    Thank you for explaining! I thought i will never get rid of these annoying ads!

  2. whoshe

    Good job. I have learned a lot from this article.

  3. Genewa

    Soso Desk is not a good program - I dont think anyone should use it... It can trick you and make you visit shady internet places!

  4. Lilian

    Ive done what needs to be done - eliminated this piece of bad software.

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