Excellent Coupons is an adware program that displays coupons, advertisements and sponsored links within Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.
Excellent Coupons pop-up 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 Excellent Coupons.
The Excellent Coupons adware 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.
Excellent Coupons 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.
Excellent Coupons 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. Excellent Coupons is developed by Innovative Apps and 215Apps.
Excellent Coupons 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 Excellent Coupons as well. Some of the programs that are known to bundle Excellent Coupons 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 Excellent Coupons is a virus.
Once installed, whenever you will visit Expedia, Best Buy, Facebook or any other similar websites, Excellent Coupons will display on product images a See Similar button, which when clicked will show you ads by Excellent Coupons.
Excellent Coupons 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.
You should always pay attention when installing software because often, a software installer includes optional installs, such as this Excellent Coupons 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 did Excellent Coupons got on my computer?
Excellent Coupons is an adware program that is commonly bundled with other free programs that you download off of the Internet.
Unfortunately, some free downloads do not adequately disclose that other software will also be installed and you may find that you have installed Excellent Coupons without your knowledge. Most commonly Excellent Coupons is bundled within the installers from Cnet, Softonic or other similar custom third-party installers.
You should always pay attention when installing software because often, a software installer includes optional installs, such as this Excellent Coupons 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.
Excellent Coupons Overview:
- Excellent Coupons will inject pop-up ads, advertising banners and in-text ads within your web browser
- Adware detected in the Excellent Coupons program (Excellent Coupons.exe, Excellent Coupons-bg.exe, Excellent Coupons-bho64.dll, Excellent Coupons-nova.exe)
- Integrates into the web browser via the Excellent Coupons browser extension
- Typically distributed through a pay-per-install bundle or with third-party software (example: CNET installer, Softonic Installer, InstallRex installer and many more)
- Excellent Coupons has a poor reputation within the MalwareTips Community
How to remove “Excellent Coupons” (Virus Removal Guide)
This page is a comprehensive guide, which will remove “Excellent Coupons” virus from your computer, and any other adware program that may have been installed during the setup process.
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 Excellent Coupons from Windows
STEP 2: Remove “Ads by Excellent Coupons” adware with AdwCleaner
STEP 3: Remove “Ads by Excellent Coupons” virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
STEP 4: Double-check for the “Ads by Excellent Coupons” malware with HitmanPro
(Optional) STEP 5: Reset Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome settings to remove “Excellent Coupons” Ads
STEP 1 : Uninstall Excellent Coupons from Windows
In this first step, we will try to identify and remove any malicious program that might be installed on your computer.
- To uninstall program from Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, click the “Start” button, then click on the “Control Panel” menu option.
If you are using Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, right-click in the screen’s bottom-left corner and choose “Control Panel” from the pop-up menu. Or simply drag your mouse pointer to the right edge of the screen, select Search from the list and search for “control panel”
- When the “Control Panel” window opens click on the “Uninstall a program” option under “Programs” category.
- When the “Programs and Features” or the “Uninstall a Program” screen is displayed, scroll through the list of currently installed programs and uninstall Excellent Coupons.
The malicious program may have a different name on your computer. To view the most recently installed programs, you can click on the “Installed On” column to sort your program by the installation date. Scroll through the list, and uninstall any unwanted or unknown programs.If you are having issues while trying to uninstall the Excellent Coupons program, you can use Revo Uninstaller to completely remove this unwanted program from your machine.
If you cannot find any unwanted or unknown programs on your machine, then you can proceed with the next step.
STEP 2: Remove “Ads by Excellent Coupons” adware with AdwCleaner
The AdwCleaner utility will scan your computer and web browser for the “Excellent Coupons” malicious files, browser extensions and registry keys, that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.
- You can download AdwCleaner from the below link.
ADWCLEANER DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will download “AdwCleaner” on your computer) - 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. - When the AdwCleaner program will open, click on the “Scan” button as shown below.
AdwCleaner will now start to search for the “Ads by Excellent Coupons” malicious files that may be installed on your computer. - To remove the “Ads by Excellent Coupons” malicious files that were detected in the previous step, please click on the “Clean” button.
- AdwCleaner will prompt you to save any open files or documents, as the program will need to reboot the computer. Please do so and then click on the OK button.
STEP 3: Remove “Ads by Excellent Coupons” virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free uses industry-leading technology to detect and remove all traces of malware, including worms, Trojans, rootkits, rogues, dialers, spyware, and more.
It is important to note that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware works well and should run alongside antivirus software without conflicts.
- You can download download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from the below link.
MALWAREBYTES ANTI-MALWARE DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a new web page from where you can download “Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free”) - Once downloaded, close all programs, then double-click on the icon on your desktop named “mbam-setup” to start the installation of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
You may be presented with a User Account Control dialog asking you if you want to run this file. If this happens, you should click “Yes” to continue with the installation. - When the installation begins, you will see the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Setup Wizard which will guide you through the installation process.
To install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware on your machine, keep following the prompts by clicking the “Next” button.
- Once installed, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program, and that a scan has never been run on your system. To start a system scan you can click on the “Scan Now” button.
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will now start scanning your computer for the Ads by Excellent Coupons virus. When Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is scanning it will look like the image below.
- When the scan has completed, you will now be presented with a screen showing you the malware infections that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has detected. To remove the malicious programs that Malwarebytes Anti-malware has found, click on the “Remove Seletected” button.
Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image. - Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will now quarantine all the malicious files and registry keys that it has found. When removing the files, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot your computer, please allow it to do so.
After your computer will restart, you should open Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and perform another “Threat Scan” scan to verify that there are no remaining threats
STEP 4: Double-check for the “Ads by Excellent Coupons” malware 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.). HitmanPro is designed to work alongside existing security programs without any conflicts. It scans the computer quickly (less than 5 minutes) and does not slow down the computer.
- You can download HitmanPro from the below link:
HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a new web page from where you can download “HitmanPro”) - 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.
- HitmanPro will now begin to scan your computer for Ads by Excellent Coupons malicious files.
- 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 Ads by Excellent Coupons virus.
- Click on the “Activate free license” button to begin the free 30 days trial, and remove all the malicious files from your computer.
(Optional) STEP 5: Reset Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome settings to remove “Excellent Coupons” Ads
If you are still experiencing issues with the Excellent Coupons ads in Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, we will need to reset your browser to its default settings. This step needs to be performed only if your issues have not been solved by the previous steps.
Reset Internet Explorer
- Open Internet Explorer, click on the “gear icon” in the upper right part of your browser, then click again on Internet Options.
- In the “Internet Options” dialog box, click on the “Advanced” tab, then click on the “Reset” button.
- In the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” section, select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click on “Reset” button.
- When Internet Explorer has completed its task, click on the “Close” button in the confirmation dialogue box. You will now need to close your browser, and then you can open Internet Explorer again.
Reset Mozilla Firefox
- In the upper-right corner of the Firefox window, click the Firefox menu button (), the click on the “Help” () button.
- From the Help menu, choose Troubleshooting Information.
- Click the “Reset Firefox” button in the upper-right corner of the “Troubleshooting Information” page.
- To continue, click on the “Reset Firefox” button in the new confirmation window that opens.
- Firefox will close itself and will revert to its default settings. When it’s done, a window will list the information that was imported. Click on the “Finish“.
Note: Your old Firefox profile will be placed on your desktop in a folder named “Old Firefox Data“. If the reset didn’t fix your problem you can restore some of the information not saved by copying files to the new profile that was created. If you don’t need this folder any longer, you should delete it as it contains sensitive information.
Reset Google Chrome
- Click on the “Chrome menu button” () on the browser toolbar, select “Settings“, and then click on “Extensions“.
- In the “Extensions” tab, remove Excellent Coupons and any other unknown extensions, by clicking the trash can icon.
Basically, if you have not installed an extension then you should remove it from Google Chrome.
If you are still experiencing problems while trying to remove “Ads By Excellent Coupons” pop-ups from your machine, please do one of the following:
- Run a system scan with Emsisoft Emergency Kit.
- Start a new thread in our Malware Removal Assistance forum.