Remove “Ads by Affinity” virus (Removal Guide)

If you are seeing in-text and pop-up advertisements from Affinity within Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome, then your computer is infected with an adware or a potentially unwanted program.

The Affinity infection is designed specifically to make money. It generates web traffic, collects sales leads for other dubious sites, and will display advertisements and sponsored links within your web browser.
Affinity it’s technically not a virus, but it does exhibit plenty of malicious traits, such as rootkit capabilities to hook deep into the operating system, browser hijacking, and in general just interfering with the user experience. The industry generally refers to it as a “PUP,” or potentially unwanted program.

Affinity is an ad-supported (users may see additional banner, search, pop-up, pop-under, interstitial and in-text link advertisements) cross web browser plugin for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome, and distributed through various monetization platforms during installation.
Affinity is typically added when you install another free software (video recording/streaming, download-managers or PDF creators) that had bundled into their installation this adware program. When you install these free programs, they will also install Affinity as well. Some of the programs that are known to bundle Affinity include 1ClickDownload, Superfish, Yontoo and FBPhotoZoom. Very often users have no idea where did it come from, so it’s not surprising at all that most of them assume that Affinity is a virus.

Once installed, the Affinity browser extension will highlight words on the websites that you are visiting transforming them into hyperlinks. These Affinity links are placed inside your text (hence the name), and they come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links. Once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on the Affinity links the browser extension developer will get an affiliate revenue.
Affinity will also display advertising banners on the webpages that you are visiting, and as you browse Internet, it will show coupons and other deals available on different websites.
These Affinity ads will be shown as boxes containing various coupons that are available or as underlined keywords, which when clicked will display an advertisement that states it is brought to you by “Ads by Affinity”.

You should always pay attention when installing software because often, a software installer includes optional installs, such as this Affinity adware. Be very careful what you agree to install.
Always opt for the custom installation and deselect anything that is not familiar, especially optional software that you never wanted to download and install in the first place. It goes without saying that you should not install software that you don’t trust.

How to remove Affinity pop-up ads (Removal Guide)

This page is a comprehensive guide, which will remove Affinity from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome.
Please perform all the steps in the correct order. If you have any questions or doubt at any point, STOP and ask for our assistance.
STEP 1: Uninstall Affinity program from your computer
STEP 2: Remove Affinity pop-up ads from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome
STEP 3: Remove Affinity adware from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome with AdwCleaner
STEP 4: Remove Affinity virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
STEP 5: Double-check for the Affinity infection with HitmanPro

STEP 1 : Uninstall Affinity program from your computer

In this first step, we will try to identify and remove any malicious program that might be installed on your computer.

1. To uninstall the Affinity program from your computer, click the Start button, then select Control Panel, and click on Uninstall a program.
   If you are using Windows 8, simply drag your mouse pointer to the right edge of the screen, select Search from the list and search for “control panel“. Or you can right-click on a bottom left hot corner (formerly known as the Start button) and select Control Panel from there, then select Uninstall a program.
   
2. When the Add/Remove Programs or the Uninstall a Program screen is displayed, scroll through the list of currently installed programs and uninstall Affinity, LyricsViewer, LyricXeeker, Plus-HD 1.3, LyricsGet, BetterSurf, Downloadkepper, SurfEnchance, Feven 1.7, LyricsWoofer, LyricsFan, SimpleLyrics and any other recently installed or unknown programs from your computer.
   

If you are having issues while trying to uninstall the Affinity program, you can use Revo Uninstaller to completely remove this unwanted program from your machine.

Depending on what program has installed the Affinity adware infection, the above program may have a different name or not be installed on your computer. If you cannot find any unwanted or unknown programs on your machine, then you can proceed with the next step.

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STEP 2 : Remove Affinity pop-up ads from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome

Remove Affinity ads from Internet Explorer

1. Open Internet Explorer, click on the gear icon  (Tools for Windows XP users) at the top (far right), then click again on Internet Options.
   
2. In the Internet Options dialog box, click on the Advanced tab, then click on the Reset button.
   
3. In the Reset Internet Explorer settings section, check the Delete personal settings box, then click on Reset.
   
4. When Internet Explorer finishes resetting, click Close in the confirmation dialogue box and then click OK.
5. Close and open Internet Explorer.

Remove “Ads by Affinity” from Mozilla Firefox

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click the Firefox button, go over to the Help sub-menu (on Windows XP, click the Help menu at the top of the Firefox window), and select Troubleshooting Information.
   
2. Click the Reset Firefox button in the upper-right corner of the Troubleshooting Information page.
   
3. To continue, click Reset Firefox in the confirmation window that opens.
4. Firefox will close and be reset. When it’s done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click Finish

Remove “Ads by Affinity” from Google Chrome

1. To remove the Affinity extensions from this web browser, click the Chrome menu   button on the browser toolbar, select Tools and then click on Extensions.
   
2. In the Extensions tab, remove Affinity, LyricsViewer, LyricXeeker, Plus-HD 1.3, LyricsGet, BetterSurf, Downloadkepper, SurfEnchance, Feven 1.7, LyricsWoofer, LyricsFan, SimpleLyrics and any other unknown extensions by clicking the trash can icon.
   Basically, if you have not installed an extension, you should remove it from your web browser.
   

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STEP 3: Remove Affinity adware from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome with AdwCleaner

The AdwCleaner utility will scan your computer for Affinity malicious files and registry keys, that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.

1. You can download AdwCleaner utility from the below link.
   ADWCLEANER DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will automatically download AdwCleaner on your computer)
2. Before starting AdwCleaner, close all open programs and internet browsers, then double-click on the AdwCleaner icon.
   
   If Windows prompts you as to whether or not you wish to run AdwCleaner, please allow it to run.
3. When the AdwCleaner program will open, click on the Scan button as shown below.
   
   AdwCleaner will now start to search for Affinity malicious files that may be installed on your computer.
4. To remove the Affinity malicious files that were detected in the previous step, please click on the Clean button.
   
   AdwCleaner will now prompt you to save any open files or data as the program will need to reboot the computer. Please do so and then click on the OK button.

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STEP 5: Remove Affinity virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free utilizes Malwarebytes powerful technology to detect and remove all traces of malware including worms, trojans, rootkits, rogues, dialers, spyware and more.

1. You can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free from the below link, then double-click on the icon named mbam-setup.exe to install this program.
   MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE DOWNLOAD LINK(This link will open a download page in a new window from where you can download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free)
2. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the setup process, then at the last screen click on the Finish button.
   
3. On the Scanner tab, select Perform quick scan, and then click on the Scan button to start searching for the Affinity malicious files.
   
4. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware will now start scanning your computer for Affinity as shown below.
   
5. When the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware scan has finished, click on the Show Results button.
   
6. You will now be presented with a screen showing you the computer infections that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has detected. Make sure that everything is Checked (ticked), then click on the Remove Selected button.
   

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STEP 6: Double-check for the Affinity infection with HitmanPro

HitmanPro is a second opinion scanner, designed to rescue your computer from malware (viruses, trojans, rootkits, etc.) that have infected your computer despite all the security measures you have taken (such as anti virus software, firewalls, etc.).

1. You can download HitmanPro from the below link:
   HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a web page from where you can download HitmanPro)
2. Double-click on the file named HitmanPro.exe (for 32-bit versions of Windows) or HitmanPro_x64.exe (for 64-bit versions of Windows). When the program starts you will be presented with the start screen as shown below.
   
   Click on the Next button, to install HitmanPro on your computer.
   
3. HitmanPro will now begin to scan your computer for Affinity malicious files.
   
4. When it has finished it will display a list of all the malware that the program found as shown in the image below. Click on the Next button, to remove Affinity adware.
   
5. Click on the Activate free license button to begin the free 30 days trial, and remove all the malicious files from your computer.
   

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Your computer should now be free of the Affinity infection. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future, and perform regular computer scans with HitmanPro.
If you are still experiencing problems while trying to remove Affinity from your machine, please start a new thread in our Malware Removal Assistance forum.