Last Updated on December 13, 2022 by Mathew Diekhake
AdwCleaner is a freeware utility that, for many years, has been an incredible tool for removing adware from computers. In October of 2016, AdwCleaner was acquired by Malwarebytes and subsequently is now solely managed by the Malwarebytes brand.
Malwarebytes AdwCleaner completes what the Malwarebytes brand has set out to do: give you the chance to remove all malware from your computer fast and effectively by downloading their trustworthy tools that will handle the job for you so you don’t have to become a tech expert to solve what malware infection you may have. There are still some times when you may need to take additional steps manually to eradicate some malware completely, but generally speaking, downloading Malwarebytes or Malwarebytes’ AdwCleaner has you covered for all the different types of adware.
Adware is fast becoming a huge problem on the Web. Out of all the malware, it is the largest category that may infect your computer. This is because so much of the Web’s revenue comes from advertising, and thus trying to create malware that takes advantage of advertising opportunities is what many malware developers like to do. So much is the propaganda surrounding adware that you will find many people suggesting that adware shouldn’t be regarded as malware because it gets bundled in with freeware as a means of the developer making some revenue for their work. Such claims are utter nonsense: adware is created to be deceptive, to get access to your computer outwith your permission, and to infect your computer without any regard to your user experience while using the internet. Making matters worse, ads being distributed by adware don’t often come from reliable ad networks because none of the big names in the advertising industry such as Google are going to allow such a thing. That means the while most of the advertisements on the internet are trustworthy, the ads distributed via adware will almost always be of low quality and without security experts monitoring the ads, which allows for potential malware to be distributed via the adware’s ads themselves. To help ensure your computer doesn’t get more malware than it already has, if it does indeed have adware already, you ought to remove the adware from your computer as soon as possible.
Using AdwCleaner
AdwCleaner is developed in such a way that anyone can use it. All you need to do is download the app and run the file which, assuming our Windows computer is on default settings, will download into the Downloads folder. You can find the Downloads folder from File Explorer.
Once open, clicking on the Scan button will result in the AdwCleaner program scanning your computer for any malicious adware files. The scan automatically detects and quarantines the malicious files. All you need to do is follow the guidelines and allow AdwCleaner to restart the computer for the malicious files to be removed so you can get back to using a safe computer that’s adware-free.
Some specific adware programs may install additional programs that alert you to when an application is trying to change some computer settings, such as your web browser’s homepage or search engine. That means some programs that are, in fact, malware may alert you to when AdwCleaner is trying to fix your computer. To avoid confusion, always allow AdwCleaner to make the changes that it needs to make on your computer to solve the infections.
You may wish to uninstall AdwCleaner from your computer once it is done disinfecting your machine. If you aren’t familiar with the Windows operating system, the simplest way to remove the program is by opening it up and accessing its settings from the left menu. There you will find a button included to help you remove the program from the computer entirely without having to access Windows’ settings.
Download Malwarebytes AdwCleaner for Windows
Please visit the link below to download the latest version of the AdwCleaner program that has been distributed by Malwarebytes. The one AdwCleaner file is available to download for each version of the Windows operating system it has been developed for: Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.
Download: AdwCleaner for Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7
Note: AdwCleaner is only available for the Windows operating system today. If it becomes available for Mac, we will include a link to the Mac version. In the meantime, if you have malware on Mac, you can install Malwarebytes for Mac and that should be enough to solve your problem.