Social Extras ads. How to remove? (Uninstall guide)
Social Extras may attract the attention of PC users who are highly engaged in the usage of Facebook. This extension should provide users with the access to over 50,000 Facebook skin sites. In other words, it is supposed to customize Facebook account and make it more personal to each user. However, security experts have found that Social Extras (seems to be related to FBSkins software) is classified as ‘adware.’ Besides, it belongs to the group of potentially unwanted programs (PUP) as it tends to spread in one pack with other free programs. This extension is infamous due to the following purposes:
- It may infect random computers without being recognized;
- It can corrupt DNS settings of all types of web browsers;
- Social Extras adware may exhibit sponsored advertisements;
- It may use tracking software and spread personally and non-personally identifiable information related to user’s web browsing activities;
- This software is not digitally signed, what means that it may be tempered by suspicious third parties.
How can Social Extras hijack IE, Chrome or Firefox?
Social Extras by Buzzbox Media LLC, which is also known as FBSkins, is distributed as a cross-browser extension. To make it compatible with the most popular types of web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE, Safari, and others, it may be found spread in diverse versions like crx, xpi, or exe.
From the first sight, you may find this application engaging, or it may even fill your must have list. However, it’s worth mentioning that it is not only ad-supported, meaning that it can display tons of sponsored ads, but, according to malware analysts, it may display corrupt skins or most of them may appear to be incorrectly programmed.
Questions about Social Extras ads
This application has the official website that allows free download of Social Extras adware. However, you may not desire to install such a tool, but it may infect your web browser without being noticed and start presenting “Ads by Social Extras” to you no matter if you want to see them or not. Usually, it does so by misusing free programs. Freeware developers monetize their free products by filling them with third party apps like Social Extras virus while developers of such apps seek to spread apps via software packages with an intention to increase the number of downloads. If you are not willing to end up with a software bundle on your PC’s system, do not checking Advanced or Custom installation option and rejecting installation of potentially unwanted programs.
How to recognize Social Extras PUP if it is already hiding in the system?
There are several signs that may immediately reveal the fact that Social Extras malware has already infected the system. First of all, web browser’s performance may start raising your doubts. It may run in a sluggish manner, crash quite often, video/audio streaming programs may be corrupted, which is why you may not be allowed to view online videos simply. In addition to that, the web browser may be stuffed with commercial and non-commercial advertisements (pop-up ads, banner ads, interstitial ads, in-text links, etc.). If they are caused by this adware, you should notice tags like “Ads by Social Extras,” “Social Extras Ads,” “Powered by Social Extras,” “Brought by Social Extras,” etc. on each of them. These ads are beyond annoyance. Most of them may be injected into your Facebook account, which may become an annoying issue as you may become unable to browser sufficiently due to Social Extras redirects to unsafe web pages. Last, but certainly not least, removal of this adware is highly recommended to keep browsing data safe. It seems that this adware is using cookies and may be programmed to collect search queries, pages viewed, IP address, and other information, which may later be transmitted to affiliate parties and used for affiliate marketing.
In a nutshell, remove Social Extras virus from your PC if you want to minimize the risk of redirects to unsafe web pages or want to maintain convenient web browsing. For this purpose, you can use Reimage or another professional anti-malware.
Can I remove this adware software manually?
As any other adware, this misleading app can also be removed from the system without the help of anti-malware. If you prefer manual Social Extras removal, you can use the guide given down below. Nevertheless, it is recommended to use a professional anti-malware anyway because adware infection informs about PC’s vulnerability and the possibility of other PC’s infections. Therefore, remove Social Extras virus using one of the programs given 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 Social Extras ads, follow these steps:
Remove Social Extras 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 Social Extras and related programs
Here, look for Social Extras or any other recently installed suspicious programs. -
Uninstall them and click OK to save these changes.
Uninstall Social Extras 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 Social Extras or any other suspicious programs on it. Now right click on every of such entries and select Move to Trash.
Delete Social Extras 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 Social Extras 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 Social Extras removal.
Get rid of Social Extras 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, Social Extras should be removed from your Microsoft Edge browser.
WindowsMac OS XInternet ExplorerMicrosoft EdgeFirefoxGoogle ChromeSafariEliminate Social Extras 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 Social Extras 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 Social Extras removal.
Erase Social Extras 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 Social Extras 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 Social Extras removal.
Remove Social Extras 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 Social Extras 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 Social Extras removal process.