ShopAtHome.com is an adware program that displays coupons, advertisements and sponsored links via a pop-up box on Google, Youtube, Amazon, Facebook and other websites that you are visiting.
The ShopAtHome.com 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 ShopAtHome.com.
The ShopAtHome.com toolbar 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.
ShopAtHome.com 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.
ShopAtHome 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 ShopAtHome as well. Some of the programs that are known to bundle ShopAtHome include 1ClickDownload, Superfish, Yontoo and FBPhotoZoom.
When installed, whenever you will visit Expedia, Best Buy, Facebook or any other similar websites, ShopAtHome.com will display on product images a See Similar button, which when clicked will show you ads by ShopAtHome.
The ShopAtHome.com toolbar 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.
ShopAtHome assigns a customer ID, which may be used to monitor your browsing activities. To receive a cash back rebate, merchants transmit information about the total cost of your order as well as the customer ID to ShopAtHome servers.
According to the license agreement (EULA), ShopAtHome monitors browsing activities, redirection to merchant Web sites, keyword searches, and the cookies on your computer; this information is sent back to ShopAtHome and may possibly be shared with Internet behavior monitoring companies. These companies may also monitor the cookies on your computer. ShopAtHome may update itself and may install other programs or files in the background without a user interface.
You should always pay attention when installing software because often, a software installer includes optional installs, such as this ShopAtHome.com 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 ShopAtHome pop-up ads (Removal Guide)
This page is a comprehensive guide, which will remove ShopAtHome.com 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 ShopAtHome.com toolbar programs from your computer
STEP 2: Remove ShopAtHome.com toolbar from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome
STEP 3: Remove ShopAtHome.com adware with AdwCleaner
STEP 4: Remove ShopAtHome.com virus with Malwarebytes
STEP 5: Double-check for the ShopAtHome.com infection with HitmanPro
STEP 1 : Uninstall ShopAtHome.com toolbar programs from your computer
In this first step, we will try to identify and remove any malicious program that might be installed on your computer.
- To uninstall ShopAtHome 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.
- When the Add/Remove Programs or the Uninstall a Program screen is displayed, scroll through the list of currently installed programs and uninstall ShopAtHome.com Toolbar and any other recently installed or unknown programs from your computer.
Depending on what program has installed the ShopAtHome.com toolbar 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.
STEP 2 : Remove ShopAtHome.com toolbar from Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome
Remove ShopAtHome.com toolbar from Internet Explorer
- Open Internet Explorer, click on the gear icon (Tools for Windows XP users) at the top (far right), 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, check the Delete personal settings box, then click on Reset.
- When Internet Explorer finishes resetting, click Close in the confirmation dialogue box and then click OK.
- Close and open Internet Explorer.
Remove ShopAtHome.com toolbar from Mozilla Firefox
- At the top of the Firefox window, click the orange Firefox button, then select Add-ons.
- Select the Extensions tab, then remove ShopAtHome.com Toolbar 7.1.1.0 and any other unknown extensions from Mozilla Firefox.
Remove ShopAtHome.com toolbar from Google Chrome
- Click the Chrome menu button on the browser toolbar, select Tools and then click on Extensions.
- In the Extensions tab,remove ShopAtHome.com extension 7.1.0.11 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.
STEP 3: Remove ShopAtHome.com adware with AdwCleaner
The AdwCleaner utility will scan your computer for the ShopAtHome.com malicious files and registry keys that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.
- You can download AdwCleaner utility from the below link.
ADWCLEANER DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will automatically 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 ShopAtHome.com malicious files that may be installed on your computer. - To remove the ShopAtHome.com 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.
STEP 4: Remove ShopAtHome.com virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free
- 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) - 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.
- On the Scanner tab, select Perform quick scan, and then click on the Scan button to start searching for the ShopAtHome.com malicious files.
- Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware will now start scanning your computer for ShopAtHome.com as shown below.
- When the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware scan has finished, click on the Show Results button.
- 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.
STEP 5: Double-check for the ShopAtHome.com infection with HitmanPro
- You can download HitmanPro from the below link:
HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a 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 ShopAtHome.com 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 ShopAtHome.com adware.
- Click on the Activate free license button to begin the free 30 days trial, and remove all the malicious files from your computer.
Your computer should now be free of the ShopAtHome.com 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 ShopAtHome.com toolbar virus from your machine, please start a new thread in our Malware Removal Assistance forum.
You saved my computer! Thank you so much! You saved me a fortune at the computer shop, it would have cost as much as buying a new computer! My gratitude!