WebCake Ads and WebCake Deals – Virus Removal Guide

WebCake is an adware program that displays advertisements and sponsored links related to your web browsing habits.This infection also injects unrelated advertisements into the webpages that you visit.

The WebCake 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.
WebCake 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.

WebCake is an extension for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome that 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 WebCake as well. Some of the programs that are known to bundle WebCake Ads include 1ClickDownload, Superfish, Yontoo and FBPhotoZoom.

Once installed, the WebCake will display a see similar button on the product images of the shopping websites such as Amazon, Expedia, Best Buy, Facebook and so on. As long as you click the see similar button, the WebCake will pop up ads.
The WebCake 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 WebCake Deals.

This particular adware also displays inline ads saying “WebCake Ads” or “Not affiliated with [sitename], WebCake ads” even on the most visited websites like Youtube or Yahoo.

You should always pay attention when installing software because often, a software installer includes optional installs, such as this WebCake 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 WebCake Ads and WebCake Deals (Removal Guide)

This page is a comprehensive guide, which will remove WebCake 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 WebCake programs from your computer
STEP 2: Remove WebCake extensions from your web browser
STEP 3: Remove WebCake Ads and WebCake Deals with AdwCleaner
STEP 4: Remove WebCake virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
STEP 5: Double-check for the WebCake infection with HitmanPro

STEP 1 : Uninstall WebCake malicious programs from Windows

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

1. To uninstall WebCake 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 WebCake 3.0.0 and any other recently installed or unknown programs from your computer.
   

Depending on what program has installed the WebCake Deals 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 the WebCake ads from your web browser

Remove WebCake 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 WebCake Ads from Mozilla Firefox

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click the orange Firefox button, then select Add-ons.
   
2. Select the Extensions tab, then remove WebCake and any other unknown extensions from Mozilla Firefox.
   

Remove WebCake Ads from Google Chrome

1. Click the Chrome menu   button on the browser toolbar, select Tools and then click on Extensions.
   
2. In the Extensions tab,remove WebCake 1.0, DefaultTab, MixiDJ Toolbar 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 WebCake Ads and WebCake Deals with AdwCleaner

The AdwCleaner utility will scan your computer for the WebCake 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.
   Download AdwCleanerFree official download. Nothing to install.
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 WebCake malicious files that may be installed on your computer.
4. To remove the WebCake 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 4: Remove WebCake virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free

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.
   Download MalwarebytesFree official installer. Your download starts right away.
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 WebCake malicious files.
   
4. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware will now start scanning your computer for WebCake 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 5: Double-check for the WebCake infection with HitmanPro

1. You can download HitmanPro from the below link:
   Download HitmanProOfficial Sophos download. Free scan, free 30-day trial to remove threats.
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 WebCake 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 WebCake 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 WebCake 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 WebCake virus from your machine, please start a new thread in our Malware Removal Assistance forum.