Auto Refresh Plus Adware Miner “Virus” – How to Remove It

This article has been created in order to explain what is the Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner and how to remove this potentially unwanted program from your computer.

The Auto Refresh Plus is the type of browser extension you do not want added to your web browser. As soon as it is installed on Mozilla Firefox browsers, the extension runs a JavaScript which aims to utilize a cryptocurrency miner and monetize the web pages your visit by injecting advertisements from third-parties. Since those third-parties may be a direct threat for your computer, recommendations are to remove the Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner from your computer by reading the information on this article.

Threat Summary

Name	Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner
Type	Browser Hijacker/Adware/JavaScript Miner
Short Description	The .
Symptoms	Your web browser begins to display various types of online advertisements, which results in slowing down of your PC. Your computer may slow down as a result of mining operation running in the background.
Distribution Method	Bundled downloads. Web pages which may advertise it.
Detection Tool	See If Your System Has Been Affected by Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner Download Malware Removal Tool
User Experience	Join Our Forum to Discuss Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner.

Auto Refresh Plus PUP and Miner – How Did I Get It

One of the methods of letting the Auto Refresh Plus PUP to slither onto your computer Is by letting the app to be automatically installed alongside other free programs. This technique is often referred to as bundling by malware researchers and many users tend to fall victims of software bundling, even experienced users.

The main method of this extension being added to your computer however is via a scam message that may be directly introduced to Firefox, called “Firefox requires a manual update”. It appears along with a pop-up which claims that your browser needs an update, however the ‘update’ instead is the browser extension Auto Refresh Plus. The pop-up appears like the following:

As soon as the pop-up is clicked on it adds the browser extension and it’s unwanted activities begin.

Auto Refresh Plus PUP – Activity

As soon as this unwanted program has been installed on the victim’s computer, it may immediately utilize various different tracking technologies, like:

• Pixels.
• Cookies.
• LSOs or Flash Cookies.
• Geo Locators.
• Tags.

These technologies may be used on your web browser in order to obtain different information on it, such as;

• Information on the websites you visit (browsing history).
• Information about what you search for online.
• Details on your online clicks on ads.
• IP address, language and country.

These details may be used to target you with advertisements that are inserted directly on the websites you visit. These ads may come in different forms, for instance:

• Banners.
• Pop-ups.
• Highlighted text ads.
• Ad-supported search results.

In addition to those, the Auto Refresh Plus may also advertise the types of adds you are likely to click on, using your language in the ads and even using terms that you may have searched for and are likely interested in to increase the chance of you clicking on those ads. Since these advertisements often lead to unwanted websites that may be a scamming, phishing or even malicious ones, this is one of the main reasons why Auto Refresh Plus is considered to be indirectly harmful for your computer.

Besides adverts, another reason why this program is unwanted is that it may involve various different types of web links that may run a JavaScript code, which has the potential to connect your computer to a cryptocurrency mining pool and use your CPU and GPU of your PC to mine for anonymous tokens, such as Monero (XMR) or BitCoins. This may result in your computer slowing down completely, since the firefox.exe web browser process may run at a 100% of your CPU power. What is more to this than that, is that if this miner remains for longer periods of time on your computer, you risk frying your PC’s components due to overheating them – the main reason why you should consider removing Auto Refresh Plus immediately from your computer system.

Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware Miner you’re your Computer

In order to remove this unwanted software completely from your PC, recommendations are to follow the removal instructions underneath this article. They are divided in manual and automatic removal manuals, since you can choose the one which is best fit for you, based on your malware removal experience. Be advised though, the security experts strongly recommend removing the Auto Refresh Plus extension automatically by scanning your PC with an advanced anti-malware software, which will make sure that your PC is fully secured and remains protected against future infections by malware as well.

Manually delete Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner from Windows and your browser

Note! Substantial notification about the Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner threat: Manual removal of Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner requires interference with system files and registries. Thus, it can cause damage to your PC. Even if your computer skills are not at a professional level, don’t worry. You can do the removal yourself just in 5 minutes, using a malware removal tool.

1. Remove or Uninstall Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner in Windows

Remove or Uninstall Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner in Windows.

Step 1: Remove/Uninstall Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner in Windows

Here is a method in few easy steps to remove that program. No matter if you are using Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP, those steps will get the job done. Dragging the program or its folder to the recycle bin can be a very bad decision. If you do that, bits and pieces of the program get left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, mistakes with the file type associations and other unpleasant activities. The proper way to get a program off your computer is to Uninstall it. To do that:

Hold the Windows Logo Button and “R” on your keyboard. A Pop-up window will appear (fig.1).

In the field type in “appwiz.cpl” and press ENTER (fig.2).

This will open a window with all the programs installed on the PC.
Select the program that you want to remove, and press “Uninstall” (fig.3).

Follow the instructions above and you will successfully uninstall Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner.

2. Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner from Your Browser and Your Registry Editor

Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner from Your Browser.

Remove a toolbar from Mozilla FirefoxRemove a toolbar from Google Chrome Remove a toolbar from Internet Explorer Remove a toolbar from Safari Fix registry entries created by Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner on your PC.

Start Mozilla Firefox Open the menu window

Select the “Add-ons” icon from the menu

Select Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner and click “Remove”

After Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red “X” in the top right corner and start it again.

Start Google Chrome and Open the drop menu

Move the cursor over “Tools” and then from the extended menu choose “Extensions“

From the opened “Extensions” menu locate Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner and click on the garbage bin icon on the right of it.

After Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red “X” in the top right corner and start it again.

Start Internet Explorer:

Click “‘Tools’ to open the drop menu and select ‘Manage Add-ons’

In the ‘Manage Add-ons’ window, make sure that in the first window ‘Add-on Types’, the drop menu ‘Show’ is on ‘All add-ons’

Select Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner to remove, and then click ‘Disable’. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected toolbar, and some additional toolbars might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click ‘Disable’.

After Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red ‘X’ in the top right corner and start it again.

Start Safari

Open the drop menu by clicking on the sprocket icon in the top right corner.

From the drop menu select ‘Preferences’
In the new window select ‘Extensions’
Click once on Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner
Click ‘Uninstall’

A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner. Select ‘Uninstall’ again, and the Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner will be removed.

Some malicious scripts may modify the registry entries of your computer to change different settings. This is why manual clean up of your Windows Registry Database is strongly recommended. Since the tutorial on how to do this is a bit lenghty, we recommend following our instructive article about fixing registry entries.

Automatically remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner by downloading an advanced anti-malware program

1. Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool and back up your data

Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner with SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool

1. Install SpyHunter to scan for and remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner.2. Scan with SpyHunter to Detect and Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner. Back up your data to secure it against infections and file encryption by Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner in the future.

Step 1:Click on the “Download” button to proceed to SpyHunter’s download page.

Download

Malware Removal Tool

It is highly recommended to run a scan before purchasing the full version of the software to make sure that the current version of the malware can be detected by SpyHunter.

Step 2: Guide yourself by the download instructions provided for each browser.
Step 3: After you have installed SpyHunter, wait for it to automatically update.

Step1: After the update process has finished, click on the ‘Scan Computer Now’ button.

Step2: After SpyHunter has finished scanning your PC for any Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner files, click on the ‘Fix Threats’ button to remove them automatically and permanently.

Step3: Once the intrusions on your PC have been removed, it is highly recommended to restart it.

Back up your data to secure it against attacks in the future

IMPORTANT! Before reading the Windows backup instructions, we highly recommend to back up your data automatically with cloud backup and insure it against any type of data loss on your device, even the most severe. We recommend reading more about and downloading SOS Online Backup .

SOS Online Backup

Optional: Using Alternative Anti-Malware Tools

Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner Using Other Alternative Tools

STOPZilla Anti Malware

1. Download and Install STOPZilla Anti-malware to Scan for And Remove Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner.
Step 1: Download STOPZilla by clicking here.
Step 2: A pop-up window will appear. Click on the ‘Save File’ button. If it does not, click on the Download button and save it afterwards.

Step 3: After you have downloaded the setup, simply open it.
Step 4: The installer should appear. Click on the ‘Next’ button.

Step 5: Check the ‘I accept the agreement’ check circle if not checked if you accept it and click the ‘Next’ button once again.

Step 6: Review and click on the ‘Install’ button.

Step 7: After the installation process has completed click on the ‘Finish’ button.

2. Scan your PC with STOPZilla Anti Malware to remove all Auto Refresh Plus Adware and Miner associated files completely.
Step 1: Launch STOPZilla if you haven’t launched it after install.
Step 2: Wait for the software to automatically scan and then click on the ‘Repair Now’ button. If it does not scan automatically, click on the ‘Scan Now’ button.

Step 3: After the removal of all threats and associated objects, you should Restart your PC.

Vencislav Krustev

Ventsislav has been covering the latest malware, software and newest tech developments at SensorsTechForum for 3 years now. He started out as a network administrator. Having graduated Marketing as well, Ventsislav also has passion for discovery of new shifts and innovations in cybersecurity that become game changers. After studying Value Chain Management and then Network Administration, he found his passion within cybersecrurity and is a strong believer in basic education of every user towards online safety.

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