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  • Active
  • Severity: Medium
  • Adware
  • Windows, Mac
  • Verified · Jan 2018

How to remove “You have won(1) Microsoft Gift today” scam

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

Gabriel E. Hall · Passionate web researcher

“You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” – a pop-up scam that seeks to mislead Windows users

Screenshot of “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” scam

“Congratulations user, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” is a popular scam[1] which affects users who have a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) installed on their computer. Typically, users get infected with adware, browser hijackers, and similar PUPs without knowing about it because of bundling.

Once it gets into your machine, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today virus performs the following (and not limited to) activities:

  • causes countless redirects to third party websites;
  • generates various intrusive ads;
  • collects personal data;
  • misuses system’s resources to mine crypto-currencies;
  • installs other unwanted adware and malware.

Typically, “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” popup offers you a tempting prize (like iPhone, iPad, PlayStation or Samsung Galaxy smartphone) for completing a short survey which is designed to be easy to complete.[2] After agreeing to finish it off, you are given two minutes of time. Otherwise, the prize is promised to be given to somebody else.

The “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” alert typically displays the following message:

“Congratulations user, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today!
Every Friday we randomly select 10 lucky visitors to receive an promotional gift from our sponsors. This is our way of saying “Thank you” that you are a faithful user.
Note: 10 randomly selected lucky visitors received this invitation and there are only few prizes.
You only have 0 minutes, 0 seconds to answer the following questions before prizes are awarded to another lucky visitor! Good luck!
Question 1 of 3: Who founded Microsoft?
(97% answered correctly)

  • Bill Gates
  • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Warren Buffett

We highly recommend ignoring them because, as you must have already understood, they aim to swindle your personal information. Instead of revealing it, make “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” pop-up removal your priority.

Visually, “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” scam, and its website themes are identical to Microsoft official website.That is why these sort of scams can be quite deceiving to a user. However, these surveys have nothing in common with Microsoft and are designed to trick you into proceeding with the scam.

Beware that after completing the survey, you can be prompted to enter your phone number and agree to pay $5 a week for a service you certainly don’t need. Hence you should ignore this pop-up, leave the web page you were redirected to and remove “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” scam from your computer immediately. For that, please use FortectIntego because it is almost impossible to detect adware responsible for such notifications manually.

Images of “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” survey scam

PUPs get into users’ systems with bundling

Typically, potentially unwanted programs get into your machine without your consent. There is a deceptive marketing campaign called “bundling” which is often used to infiltrate users computers with malware and adware.

Users who often tend to look for free software on the internet skip the most of installation steps. However, It is highly recommended using “Advanced/Custom” installation mode instead of “Recommended/Quick” because software installer usually hides optional installs there.

Always deselect any software you are not familiar with and unquestionably do not attempt to install software from unreliable sources. Furthermore, security specialists from virusi.hr[3] remind not to click on any suspicious ads and try not to visit websites with questionable content (gambling, pornographic, etc.)

Removing “You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” virus from your computer

You can remove “Congratulations user, You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today” malware from your computer using professional security software. You can also remove this adware manually, by using step-by-step guide written by our experts.

In this case, make sure you carefully follow every step in exact order to ensure a full You have won (1) Microsoft Gift today virus removal. Otherwise, these ads may come back right after rebooting the computer or your web browser.

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.

Reset Internet Explorer

Remove dangerous add-ons:

  1. Open Internet Explorer, click on the Gear icon (IE menu) on the top-right corner of the browser
  2. Pick Manage Add-ons.
  3. You will see a Manage Add-ons window. Here, look for suspicious plugins. Click on these entries and select Disable.Remove add-ons from Internet Explorer

Change your homepage if it was altered:

  1. Open IE and click on the Gear icon.
  2. Select Internet Options.
  3. In the General tab, delete the Home page address and replace it by your preferred one (for example, Google.com).
  4. Click Apply and then select OK.Reset IE homepage

Delete temporary files:

  1. Press on the Gear icon and select Internet Options.
  2. Under Browsing history, click Delete...
  3. Select relevant fields and press Delete.Clear temporary files from Internet Explorer

Reset Internet Explorer:

  1. Click on Gear icon > Internet options and select Advanced tab.
  2. Select Reset.
  3. In the new window, check Delete personal settings and select Reset.Reset Internet Explorer

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

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