What is FriendsBrowser?
If you respect your Facebook friends, you should never install apps, such as FriendsBrowser. Such and similar apps are supposed to inform you while some of the friends change the status of your friendship, profile picture or deactivate the account. However, before installing this tool, consider the fact that it may access your account, log-ins, and data that you enter on Facebook, most of which, e.g. photos, date of birth, location, etc. may be personally identifiable. Even more, using such an app is considered unfair looking from the point of view of other Facebook users because FriendsBrowser add-on may monitor them as well. For emphasizing the fact that this tool can cause privacy-related issues, we want to add that it may install tracking cookies on each of your web browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, internet Explorer, Safari) and start collecting information related to your browsing habits. Besides, it has been found that it may not only display alerts while you are visiting the social network site, but may also deliver third-party content while you are visiting other websites. Most of the users have reported about an excessive amount of ‘FriendsBrowser Ads’ that usually show up in such intrusive forms as pop-ups, banners, and in-text links. It goes without saying that third-party advertising campaigns may appear to be really annoying since they are used for promoting third-party websites or generating income via the pay-per-click system. However, some of the ‘Ads by FriendsBrowser’ may also be linked to unsafe websites; thus, ignore each of them. Therefore, in order to keep information stored on your computer for yourself and and your Facebook friends only and prevent FriendsBrowser redirects, we recommend you to run a full system scan with FortectIntego (compatible with Windows OS) or FortectIntego (Mac OS X) and remove the tool from the system right away.

How can FriendsBrowser hijack my computer?
Due to the facts listed in the previous section, Friends Browser has been attributed to the ‘adware’ category of programs and is considered to be equal to Unfriend Alert, Unfriend Checker, and UnfriendTool. Besides, it is also known as a potentially unwanted program (PUP) because it has been detected attached to various freewares as an ‘additional attachment’. Even though such distribution method (‘bundling’) is not illegal, it’s deceptive enough to make people install unwanted programs without being noticed. The only way to prevent installing software bundles is to check every freeware before installing it and unmark ‘optional downloads’ if it promotes any. For getting the ability to do that, it’s a MUST to select Advanced or Custom installation. Besides, bear in mind that third-party websites, such as download.com, cnet.com, softonic.com, soft32.com, and many others are the main sources that are promoting software packages. Have you already started receiving Friends Browser ads and alerts during your browsing? Then follow these steps:
How to remove FriendsBrowser virus?
Despite the fact that FriendsBrowser is not a virus, we do not recommend removing it manually because you can remove the wrong files and leave other PUPs installed on your machine. To fix your computer completely, run a full system scan with 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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