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

How to remove “Ads by KeyPlayer” virus

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

Ugnius Kiguolis · The mastermind

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.

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 FortectIntego. It will help you to remove suspicious files of this program.

Ads caused by KeyPlayer adware on shopping website

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.

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?

3 comments

  1. tyrian3

    I keep on seeing "Ads by KeyPlayer" around my screen, do these instructions help?

  2. Jamal

    KeyPlayer virus is still bothering me! Please, help me to remove it..

  3. 2spyware

    Please, opt for automatic removal of KeyPlayer adware to fix your computer completely. It seems that you are dealing with an updated its version.

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