FavGenius ads. How to remove? (Uninstall guide)
FavGenius is a browser extension that “allows you to manage your favorite bookmarks and to receive/share bookmarks with other Users/Friends in the FavGenius Community.” In other words, it’s a useful tool that can save all the pages you view and consider to be useful in the future. At the moment of writing, it supports Mozilla Firefox only; however, it’s very likely that it will be updated in the near future. Nevertheless, don’t mind its supposed usefulness because the way it is presented is not accurate, mildly saying. FavGenius can hardly useful for you since it’s classified as ‘adware’ and ‘potentially unwanted program’ (PUP) by security vendors.
Why is FavGenius a PUP?
Although FavGenius is legitimate, it’s deemed as a PUP due to the distribution method that its developers apply. It does have the official website with an active download button. Nevertheless, it is more frequently downloaded via software package. That may be a download manager, media player, PDF creator, game, etc. that is stuffed with third-party installers, including FavGenius virus and its counterpart add-ons, plug-ins, and toolbars. Thus, people who tend to install free programs carelessly, opt for ‘quick’ or ‘express’ installation option and unconsciously agree to install the entire bundle by default. Fortunately, you can easily prevent this from happening just by selecting ‘advanced’ or ‘custom’ installation option and unchecking ticks saying that you agree to install FavGenius extension or another tool that you are not familiar with.
Why is FavGenius PUP labeled as adware?
Questions about FavGenius ads
FavGenius is a kind of a browser extension that once installed may corrupt various settings on a web browser and start generating lots of commercial and non-commercial advertisements. According to our security experts, this adware uses crx, bho, and xpi files for executing the tasks that it’s set to, i.e. to hijack web browsers, drop codes of third-party ads, inject tracking cookies, and use some of PC’s functions. FavGenius ads may be generated as pop-up ads, banner, ads, in-text links, video ads, full page ads, interstitial, and other intrusive forms. Most of the contain textual marks, such as “Ads by FavGenius,” “Powered by FavGenius,” and so on. The problem is that people are not fully aware of the risk that they take clicking on third-party advertisements. Although they may inform about useful deals, coupons, free software updates/installers, news, etc. the exterior may be deceiving. In reality, clicking on third-party ads may cause redirects, FavGenius redirects, to useless or even unsafe domains that seek to spread PUP or earn easy money from advertising/traffic boosting. That’s why we highly recommend people to use Reimage and remove this advertising supported extension without a consideration.
Does this adware uses cookies?
FavGenius redirect virus needs removal due to the fact that it promotes suspicious third parties and displays doubtful ads, but that’s not the end. It has also been found using cookies, what explains the attractiveness of ads that it displays. Once it infiltrates a target computer, it may settle down on each of your web browser and activate tracking cookies. Consequently, advertisers may continuously see what items you are looking for, what websites you prefer visiting, what ads do you click on, what search terms you enter, PC’s IP address, location, and similar information.
FavGenius FAQ:
Question: My Firefox keeps displaying lots of ads. The problem that the ones marked as “Ads by FavGenius” cannot be closed, so I can’t click on the content that is on the page. Why are these so stubborn?
Answer: Such advertisements are generated not by the websites that you are visiting but by an adware-type program. That explains why the ones labeled as “FavGenius Ads” are the most irritating. If you want to prevent yourself from seeing them again, your task is to remove FavGenius adware ASAP. The explanation on how to do that is given down below:
You can remove virus damage automatically with a help of one of these programs: Reimage, Malwarebytes MalwarebytesCombo Cleaner, Plumbytes Anti-MalwareMalwarebytes Malwarebytes. We recommend these applications because they detect potentially unwanted programs and viruses with all their files and registry entries that are related to them.

To remove FavGenius ads, follow these steps:
Uninstall FavGenius 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 FavGenius and related programs
Here, look for FavGenius or any other recently installed suspicious programs. -
Uninstall them and click OK to save these changes.
Get rid of FavGenius 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 FavGenius or any other suspicious programs on it. Now right click on every of such entries and select Move to Trash.
Delete FavGenius 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 FavGenius 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 FavGenius removal.
Eliminate FavGenius ads 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, FavGenius should be removed from your Microsoft Edge browser.
WindowsMac OS XInternet ExplorerMicrosoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle ChromeSafariRemove FavGenius 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 FavGenius 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 FavGenius removal.
Erase FavGenius 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 FavGenius 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 FavGenius removal.
Uninstall FavGenius 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 FavGenius 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 FavGenius removal process.