“Ads by KeyPlayer” virus. How to remove? (Uninstall guide)
Key Player is a potentially unwanted program (PUP), which is widely-spread all over the internet. This questionable program may initiate irritating and annoying ads and other unwanted activities. If you are about to install this program on your computer, make sure you read this post very carefully. We hope that it will help you to understand why we don’t recommend installing KeyPlayer adware on your computer.
The main facts that are known about Key Player and its latest version KeyPlayer 1.4:
As you have already understood, KeyPlayer is considered a potentially unwanted program capable of causing various unwanted activities. As soon as you install this program, it drops its executable files (KeyPlayer_wd.exe and other ones) and adds its extensions to each of web browsers. As a result, you may notice unwanted activity on your Chrome, Mozilla, and other web browsers. Typically, it is related to continuous pop-up ads, in-text links, search ads and other commercial messages that are typically displayed as soon as victim starts his/hers browsing session. You should take into account that sometimes these sponsored ads can lead you to unsafe websites seeking to increase their popularity with the help of questionable techniques. There is no guarantee that they are free of viruses, trojans, and other potentially unwanted programs.
Questions about “Ads by KeyPlayer” virus
Also, as soon as KeyPlayer infiltrates the system, it may intentionally hijack your browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari) and start tracking your browsing on the web. Such activity is initiated for trying to manipulate the user and show him/her interesting pop-up ads. Such browser add-ons are typically set to collect such non-personally identifiable information: search terms, mostly visited websites, information that is entered by the user on his/hers favorite websites, computer IP address, its location, etc. Please, do NOT reveal such data because its loss may lead you to such problems as an increased amount of spam in your email inbox and so on. That’s why we strongly recommend ignoring these Key Player ads before any further harm is done to your computer. If you think that this adware has already hijacked your browser, scan your PC with the reliable anti-spyware tool, such as Reimage. It will help you to remove suspicious files of this program.
How can KeyPlayer hijack my computer?
This potentially unwanted program can be added to your computer after installation of the freeware, shareware, and other third-party programs. This distribution method is called bundling, and it is very popular these days. People who are downloading free programs are not attentive enough and similar adware-type programs and potentially unwanted programs, such as Key Player virus, may infiltrate the system unnoticed. In fact, it happens quite often but you shouldn’t worry. You can avoid this and similar unwanted program with a help of a couple of tips. First of all, you should read Terms of Agreement, Privacy Policy, and similar sections before any questionable installation. Secondly, if you decided that this program is safe enough, select advanced or custom installation method and track every installation step to get the ability to unmark all extra “gifts”. If you noticed “Ads by KeyPlayer” and similar pop-up notifications during each of your search sessions, it means that you have already been tricked into downloading this adware on your computer. In this case, we recommend you checking the next page of this post and removing this PUP from your computer.
KeyPlayer virus removal:
To remove “Ads by Key Player”, “brought to you by Key Player”, “powered by KeyPlayer” and similar notifications, you should carefully read a guide given below. It is divided into two categories – automatic removal method and manual removal method. If you are an experienced PC user, you can use manual removal of KeyPlayer adware. However, you should still try to be very careful when following each of steps that are given in it. If you don’t feel like a very experienced user, you should waste no time and install one of these reliable anti-spyware tools that are given below. We recommend you to update each of these programs right after installation. This will help you to avoid continuous reappearance of adware-type programs in the future.
You can remove “Ads by KeyPlayer” automatically with a help of one of these programs: Reimage, Plumbytes Anti-MalwareWebroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, Malwarebytes Anti Malware. We recommend these applications because they can easily delete potentially unwanted programs and viruses with all their files and registry entries that are related to them.
“Ads by KeyPlayer” virus manual removal:
KeyPlayer_up.exe
KeyPlayer_wd.exe
KeyPl.exe
KeyPlayer152.exe
KeyPlayer152_wd.exe
KeyPlayer154.exe
KeyPlayer155.exe
KeyPlayer157.exe
Uninstall.exe
Unregister DLLs:
Sqlite3.dll
Delete files:
Sqlite3.dll
KeyPlayer_up.exe
KeyPlayer_wd.exe
KeyPl.exe
KeyPlayer152.exe
KeyPlayer152_wd.exe
KeyPlayer154.exe
KeyPlayer155.exe
KeyPlayer157.exe
Uninstall.exe
Manual “Ads by KeyPlayer” virus Removal Guide:
Delete “Ads by KeyPlayer” from Windows systems
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Click Start → Control Panel → Programs and Features (if you are Windows XP user, click on Add/Remove Programs).
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If you are Windows 10 / Windows 8 user, then right-click in the lower left corner of the screen. Once Quick Access Menu shows up, select Control Panel and Uninstall a Program.
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Uninstall “Ads by KeyPlayer” and related programs
Here, look for “Ads by KeyPlayer” or any other recently installed suspicious programs. -
Uninstall them and click OK to save these changes.
Remove “Ads by KeyPlayer” from Mac OS X system
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If you are using OS X, click Go button at the top left of the screen and select Applications.
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Wait until you see Applications folder and look for “Ads by KeyPlayer” or any other suspicious programs on it. Now right click on every of such entries and select Move to Trash.
Uninstall “Ads by KeyPlayer” from Internet Explorer (IE)
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Remove dangerous add-ons
Open Internet Explorer, click on the Gear icon (IE menu) on the top right corner of the browser and choose Manage Add-ons. -
You will see a Manage Add-ons window. Here, look for “Ads by KeyPlayer” and other suspicious plugins. Disable these entries by clicking Disable:
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Change your homepage if it was altered by virus:
Click on the gear icon (menu) on the top right corner of the browser and select Internet Options. Stay in General tab. -
Here, remove malicious URL and enter preferable domain name. Click Apply to save changes.
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Reset Internet Explorer
Click on the gear icon (menu) again and select Internet options. Go to Advanced tab. - Here, select Reset.
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When in the new window, check Delete personal settings and select Reset again to complete “Ads by KeyPlayer” removal.
Eliminate “Ads by KeyPlayer” virus from Microsoft Edge
Reset Microsoft Edge settings (Method 1):
- Launch Microsoft Edge app and click More (three dots at the top right corner of the screen).
- Click Settings to open more options.
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Once Settings window shows up, click Choose what to clear button under Clear browsing data option.
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Here, select all what you want to remove and click Clear.
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Now you should right-click on the Start button (Windows logo). Here, select Task Manager.
- When in Processes tab, search for Microsoft Edge.
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Right-click on it and choose Go to details option. If can’t see Go to details option, click More details and repeat previous steps.
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When Details tab shows up, find every entry with Microsoft Edge name in it. Right click on each of them and select End Task to end these entries.
Resetting Microsoft Edge browser (Method 2):
If Method 1 failed to help you, you need to use an advanced Edge reset method.
- Note: you need to backup your data before using this method.
- Find this folder on your computer:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe.
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Select every entry which is saved on it and right click with your mouse. Then Delete option.
- Click the Start button (Windows logo) and type in window power in Search my stuff line.
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Right-click the Windows PowerShell entry and choose Run as administrator.
- Once Administrator: Windows PowerShell window shows up, paste this command line after PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> and press Enter:
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml -Verbose}
Once these steps are finished, “Ads by KeyPlayer” should be removed from your Microsoft Edge browser.
WindowsMac OS XInternet ExplorerMicrosoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle ChromeSafariGet rid of “Ads by KeyPlayer” from Mozilla Firefox (FF)
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Remove dangerous extensions
Open Mozilla Firefox, click on the menu icon (top right corner) and select Add-ons → Extensions. -
Here, select “Ads by KeyPlayer” and other questionable plugins. Click Remove to delete these entries.
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Reset Mozilla Firefox
Click on the Firefox menu on the top left and click on the question mark. Here, choose Troubleshooting Information. -
Now you will see Reset Firefox to its default state message with Reset Firefox button. Click this button for several times and complete “Ads by KeyPlayer” removal.
Erase “Ads by KeyPlayer” from Google Chrome
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Delete malicious plugins
Open Google Chrome, click on the menu icon (top right corner) and select Tools → Extensions. -
Here, select “Ads by KeyPlayer” and other malicious plugins and select trash icon to delete these entries.
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Click on menu icon again and choose Settings → Manage Search engines under the Search section.
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When in Search Engines..., remove malicious search sites. You should leave only Google or your preferred domain name.
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Reset Google Chrome
Click on menu icon on the top right of your Google Chrome and select Settings. -
Scroll down to the end of the page and click on Reset browser settings.
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Click Reset to confirm this action and complete “Ads by KeyPlayer” removal.
Delete “Ads by KeyPlayer” from Safari
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Remove dangerous extensions
Open Safari web browser and click on Safari in menu at the top left of the screen. Once you do this, select Preferences. -
Here, select Extensions and look for “Ads by KeyPlayer” or other suspicious entries. Click on the Uninstall button to get rid each of them.
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Reset Safari
Open Safari browser and click on Safari in menu section at the top left of the screen. Here, select Reset Safari.... -
Now you will see a detailed dialog window filled with reset options. All of those options are usually checked, but you can specify which of them you want to reset. Click the Reset button to complete “Ads by KeyPlayer” removal process.