Name | Cool Popular Games |
Type | PUP, Toolbar |
Short Description | Cool Popular Games is an application developed by Mindspark Interactive Network – famous for developing ad-supported software. It offers numerous Flash games. |
Symptoms | The app generates advertisements that may be pop-ups, banners, in-text ads. |
Distribution Method | Via freeware packages (bundling). It may also be promoted on various freeware websites. |
Detection tool | Download SpyHunter, to See If Your System Has Been Affected By Cool Popular Games |
Cool Popular Games is a legitimate toolbar promising to help you find a vast variety of Flash games, but malware experts classify it as a browser hijacker and a PUP (potentially unwanted program) due to some malicious traits it exhibits.
What Is Cool Popular Games?
Cool Popular Games has an official website and is a legitimate browser toolbar claiming to be “the best Chrome New Tab for gaming”. It offers a variety of 500 popular games that are “cool” and “free”. The games include puzzles and mystery games, card games, shooting games and much more.
The toolbar may sound quite useful especially to those keen on online gaming. Cool Popular Games, however, does act intrusive at times and you may find it quite disturbing, and here’s why:
Cool Popular Games is compatible with the most commonly used browsers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, and it may infiltrate your system without your permission. Once inside, it will alter your Internet browser settings and change your home page to ask.com to track your browsing routine. In addition, the browser hijacker is capable of collecting sensitive data from you in order to share it with third parties to generate revenue.
Please note that Mindspark Interactive Network (the developers behind Cool Popular Games) has released many other browser toolbars that exhibit the same irritating traits including DailyRecipeGuide, WebmailWorld, AutoPCBackup, and ConvertAnyFile. They all act pretty much the same – they enter your system unnoticed, change your browser home page to ask.com, monitor your browsing activities and collect personal data. As much as they claim to be useful, their negatives outweigh their advertised features.
How Does Cool Popular Games Enter Your PC?
If you have not personally installed Cool Popular Games from its official website, but it is present on your computer, then the browser hijacker has entered your system via other free program you have downloaded. Luckily, the bundling option can be disabled at the beginning of the installation process so be alert and make sure you uncheck the bundling method along with other features you are not familiar with.
How to Remove Cool Popular Games?
As explained above, although you may find some of the Cool Popular Games’ features useful, the toolbar is likely to cause more harm than good. It may not be malicious by nature, but it may enter your computer without permission, redirect you to unwanted websites, make changes to your browser settings and share your personal data and browsing activities with unknown third parties. As much as this is annoying, it does expose your system and identity to additional threats from the Web. Its removal is then highly recommended.
In order to remove Cool Popular Games, you can either follow the manual instructions below or install a powerful anti-virus tool that will scan your system and remove all malicious components.
Spy Hunter scanner will only detect the threat. If you want the threat to be automatically removed, you need to purchase the full version of the anti-malware tool.Find Out More About SpyHunter Anti-Malware Tool / How to Uninstall SpyHunter
- Guide 1: How to Remove Cool Popular Games from Windows.
- Guide 2: Get rid of Cool Popular Games from Mac OS X.
- Guide 3: Remove Cool Popular Games from Google Chrome.
- Guide 4: Erase Cool Popular Games from Mozilla Firefox.
- Guide 5: Uninstall Cool Popular Games from Microsoft Edge.
- Guide 6: Remove Cool Popular Games from Safari.
- Guide 7: Eliminate Cool Popular Games from Internet Explorer.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
How to Remove Cool Popular Games from Windows.
Step 1: Boot Your PC In Safe Mode to isolate and remove Cool Popular Games





Step 2: Uninstall Cool Popular Games and related software from Windows
Here is a method in few easy steps that should be able to uninstall most programs. No matter if you are using Windows 10, 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 are left behind, and that can lead to unstable work of your PC, errors 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:



Step 3: Clean any registries, created by Cool Popular Games on your computer.
The usually targeted registries of Windows machines are the following:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
You can access them by opening the Windows registry editor and deleting any values, created by Cool Popular Games there. This can happen by following the steps underneath:



Before starting "Step 4", please boot back into Normal mode, in case you are currently in Safe Mode.
This will enable you to install and use SpyHunter 5 successfully.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Get rid of Cool Popular Games from Mac OS X.
Step 1: Uninstall Cool Popular Games and remove related files and objects
1. Hit the ⇧+⌘+U keys to open Utilities. Another way is to click on “Go” and then click “Utilities”, like the image below shows:
- Go to Finder.
- In the search bar type the name of the app that you want to remove.
- Above the search bar change the two drop down menus to “System Files” and “Are Included” so that you can see all of the files associated with the application you want to remove. Bear in mind that some of the files may not be related to the app so be very careful which files you delete.
- If all of the files are related, hold the ⌘+A buttons to select them and then drive them to “Trash”.
In case you cannot remove Cool Popular Games via Step 1 above:
In case you cannot find the virus files and objects in your Applications or other places we have shown above, you can manually look for them in the Libraries of your Mac. But before doing this, please read the disclaimer below:
You can repeat the same procedure with the following other Library directories:
→ ~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
Tip: ~ is there on purpose, because it leads to more LaunchAgents.
Step 2: Scan for and remove Cool Popular Games files from your Mac
When you are facing problems on your Mac as a result of unwanted scripts and programs such as Cool Popular Games, the recommended way of eliminating the threat is by using an anti-malware program. SpyHunter for Mac offers advanced security features along with other modules that will improve your Mac’s security and protect it in the future.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Cool Popular Games from Google Chrome.
Step 1: Start Google Chrome and open the drop menu
Step 2: Move the cursor over "Tools" and then from the extended menu choose "Extensions"
Step 3: From the opened "Extensions" menu locate the unwanted extension and click on its "Remove" button.
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Google Chrome by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Erase Cool Popular Games from Mozilla Firefox.
Step 1: Start Mozilla Firefox. Open the menu window
Step 2: Select the "Add-ons" icon from the menu.
Step 3: Select the unwanted extension and click "Remove"
Step 4: After the extension is removed, restart Mozilla Firefox by closing it from the red "X" button at the top right corner and start it again.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Uninstall Cool Popular Games from Microsoft Edge.
Step 1: Start Edge browser.
Step 2: Open the drop menu by clicking on the icon at the top right corner.
Step 3: From the drop menu select "Extensions".
Step 4: Choose the suspected malicious extension you want to remove and then click on the gear icon.
Step 5: Remove the malicious extension by scrolling down and then clicking on Uninstall.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Remove Cool Popular Games from Safari.
Step 1: Start the Safari app.
Step 2: After hovering your mouse cursor to the top of the screen, click on the Safari text to open its drop down menu.
Step 3: From the menu, click on "Preferences".
Step 4: After that, select the 'Extensions' Tab.
Step 5: Click once on the extension you want to remove.
Step 6: Click 'Uninstall'.
A pop-up window will appear asking for confirmation to uninstall the extension. Select 'Uninstall' again, and the Cool Popular Games will be removed.
Windows Mac OS X Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Safari Internet Explorer
Eliminate Cool Popular Games from Internet Explorer.
Step 1: Start Internet Explorer.
Step 2: Click on the gear icon labeled 'Tools' to open the drop menu and select 'Manage Add-ons'
Step 3: In the 'Manage Add-ons' window.
Step 4: Select the extension you want to remove and then click 'Disable'. A pop-up window will appear to inform you that you are about to disable the selected extension, and some more add-ons might be disabled as well. Leave all the boxes checked, and click 'Disable'.
Step 5: After the unwanted extension has been removed, restart Internet Explorer by closing it from the red 'X' button located at the top right corner and start it again.