How to remove Ads by Coupon Alert

What is Coupon Alert?

Coupon Alert (also known as CouponAlert) is a suspicious browser add-on, which promises to help for its users save the money. Unfortunately, but it can hardly be true because this application is one of those tools that are used for affiliate marketing. To be more precise, we should say that we haven’t been capable of finding a person who managed to save the money with a help of this program. That’s because each of its alerts is filled with predetermined links that are mostly used to redirect people to affiliate websites. For catching people’s attention, this program starts tracking people’s browsing activity. Beware that Coupon Alert may start collecting information about your mostly visited websites, data that you enter on each of these sites, search terms that you use. your PC’s IP address, location, etc. Yes, this information is not considered ‘personally identifiable’ but you should still be very careful with those programs that are capable of collecting it. If Coupon Alert redirects and predetermined pop-up ads have been bothering you for a while, you should double check your computer for this program that has already been labeled as ‘potentially unwanted program’ and adware. For its removal we recommend you to use Fortect Intego, which will help you to make sure that all potentially unwanted programs and even viruses are gone.

How can Coupon Alert hijack my computer?

No matter how hard you may try, such programs like this one may show up on your computer out of nowhere. That’s because they are actively spread using ‘bundling’. ‘Bundling’ is a distribution method, which relies on freeware and shareware, so if you have been actively downloading such programs to your computer, there is no surprise that Coupon Alert has already infiltrated your computer behind your back. For staying safe, you should try to be very careful when downloading such programs as download managers, PDF creators, video streaming software, etc. to your computer. Please, don’t be inattentive when installing such programs because they may be filled with various ‘optional components’ that you don’t need. In order to see what is hiding in the application, you should always select Custom or Advanced installation method that reveals this. In addition, you should uncheck all suspicious check marks that claim that you want to download browser add-ons, browser plugins, extensions and toolbars. Otherwise, you may fall for downloading Coupon Alert virus to your computer. If you think that it has already infiltrated it, you have two options – you can either ignore its continuous pop-up notifications and deal with them or you can remove this program and get rid of its ads. For that we recommend using Automatic removal option that will help you to see all suspicious programs that may be hiding together with this PUP.

How to remove Coupon Alert virus?

No matter that Coupon Alert is technically not considered malware, it may be used for various questionable and sometimes even dangerous activities. In order to avoid them, you should follow this guide and get rid of this application.

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.