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  • Active
  • Severity: Medium
  • Adware
  • Windows, Mac
  • Verified · Oct 2015

How to remove Ads by Faster Light

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

Lucia Danes · Virus researcher

What is Faster Light?

Faster Light is yet another adware that pretends to be a useful tool but in reality seeks to drive visitors’ traffic to sponsored websites and increase income for third-parties. It is compatible with all web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer, so, as soon as you accept to install Faster Light program, you may discover it on each of these browsers. In addition, you may start seeing Faster Light ads out of nowhere that are labelled as ‘ads by Faster Light’, ‘brought to you by Faster Light’, etc. If you are seeing them at the moment, don’t worry. In this case, you need to ignore them and take needed actions to remove Faster Light virus from your computer.

This misleading app is supposed to create a path to sponsored websites, so you can never be sure if Faster Light redirects reroute you to safe websites or not. Another important fact is that this adware seeks to collect personally non-identifiable information, such as what websites do you prefer visiting, search queries that you often type, data entered, pages viewed, and so on. The problem is that such and similar adwares are known to be very vulnerable to cyber criminals. This way Faster Light cookies may be reused in order to collect sensitive data about you and you may even experience identity theft. Finally, you should hurry up to remove this plug-in because it may cause infiltration of other potentially unwanted programs by redirecting you to unsafe websites and by connecting to the Internet behind your back. If you don’t want this to happen, you should take needed actions to eliminate this potential threat from your computer. For that, we recommend using a reputable anti-spyware, such as FortectIntego.

Faster Light

How can Faster Light hijack my computer?

Faster Light is a typical adware that spreads around using ‘bundling’. Bundling is a legitimate distribution method that is not impossible without freewares. Fortunately, developers of free software have left us a chance to opt out of additional components. For that, you have to dedicate a little bit of time and attention to the installation process of a freeware. We highly recommend reading End-User’s License Agreement of the program that you need and ensure that it’s safe to use. Later, make sure that you select Advanced or Custom installation option and deselect all ‘optional downloads’, such as browser plug-ins, add-ons, toolbars or extensions. If it’s too late for the prevention of this program because Faster Light redirects and ads have already been bothering you for some time, follow the guidelines that are given down below.

Faster Light FAQ:

Question: I think I was infected by Faster Light virus because each of my search sessions is interrupted by its ads. They are very annoying and they are following me no matter what website I decide to visit. Even the reputable pages are covered by Faster Light ads. Could you help me to get rid of them?

Answer: Faster Light is not a virus. It’s just a potentially unwanted program that can be eliminated quite easily. You can select either manual removal or automatic removal option. If you are not an advanced computer user, we highly recommend using a reputable anti-spyware to remove Faster Light adware from your computer. If you still want to select manual removal method, make sure that you carefully follow every removal step to avoid additional issues.

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

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