Remove PriceFountain virus (Removal Guide)

What is PriceFountain?

PriceFountain virus is yet another questionable application that is labeled as an adware or a potentially unwanted program due to several undesirable activities that are initiated by it once it enters the system. Officially, this application should enhance your online shopping experience by displaying relevant coupons, comparisons, latest deals, offers and so on. However, this is just what the developers of this application claim. In contrast, once inside the system, PriceFountain starts generating commercial offers as frequently as it wants. They may show up in a form of pop-ups, pop-unders, banners and so on. Moreover, it doesn’t matter which browser you use, you will be flooded by those ads while using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and others.

Unfortunately, but this is not the worst part. Since this browser add-on is a free program, you should think how its developers earn money. To tell the truth, third parties pay money for them because they are allowed to start showing third party ads and redirecting people to the required websites. Beware that this questionable program is available for everyone who wants to display any kind of ads, including cyber criminals. That’s why you should be very careful with “Ads by PriceFountain”, “PriceFountain ads” and similar notifications. In addition, if this dubious program has already got inside your computer, you should this about your private data and its security. This adware is able to accumulate such information as IP addresses, search queries, visited websites, ads that were clicked and so on. No matter that it’s just personally non-identifiable information, you can never be sure that your personally identifiable data isn’t monitored as well. To prevent unwanted activities caused by this adware behind your back, you must remove PriceFountain from the system. For that, we recommend Fortect Intego.

How can this PUP hijack my computer?

The Internet is full of free and “useful” software, so you have to be very careful with each of them. Keep in mind that there are hundreds of legitimate programs that can easily start initiating problems on your computer as soon as you install them. Such adware as PriceFountain, Ultra Coupon, Salus, etc. are among such programs. If you want to avoid them, you have to remember that they are mostly spread using freeware and shareware. When installing such programs on your computer, you should keep in mind that they are supported by third parties, so they may be filled with various “free additions”. This distribution technique is called “bundling”. If you decided to download any kind of free program on your computer, for example music player, a game, PDF converter, download manager and so on, you should beware that it may carry additional attachments. That’s why you need to be extremely attentive while installing free programs. Otherwise, you will have to deal with PriceFountain removal.

We do not recommend choosing Quick/Basic/Recommended installation options and skip other details when installing the program. Such installation options hide notifications about browser extensions, add-ons, plug-ins and toolbars that may be bundled with the program you want. Choosing Advanced or Custom installation option may help in this case. This installation option requires more time because it discloses all details, such as propositions to change your home page, search engine and so on. If you have already been tricked into downloading PriceFountain virus or similar adware on your system, do not waist time and remove it immediately. The sooner you get rid of it, the lower is the chance that other adware or even malware will get inside your PC.

How to remove PriceFountain virus?

You can get rid of PriceFountain redirect issue, constant pop-up ads and similar unwanted activities automatically or manually. No matter that manual removal method seems like an easy task for you, we have to warn you that you must be very careful when following steps that are listed below. To make sure that everything went according to the plan and PriceFountain removal is finished, we highly recommend scanning your computer with a trustworthy anti-spyware. It will detect and remove every component of this adware automatically as well as protect your system from similar programs in the future. If you prefer to remove this application manually, follow our step-by-step removal guide that is given below.

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.