Hello,
First of all, a big thank you for the "Remove Ad.directrev.com pop-up ads (Virus Removal Guide)" page. It helped solve my problem with this particularly annoying piece of malware/adware. It once again shows that a 100% up to date full security suite (in my case KIS 2015) is no guarantee that you won't get infected by something. What particularly bugs me is the fact that this was installed through the latest version of Filehippo Update Checker (1.041), a software utility have been using for many years and never had any problems with before. This was downloaded through their official website. Very disappointing and I certainly won't use this tool anymore nor visit their website anymore.
But enough background information. I followed your instructions to the letter and went through the different removal tools. All tools no longer detect anything and I no longer experience the annoying popup/tab problems anymore either. However, there's still something that keeps bugging me and just doesn't put my conscience at rest yet. There's an anime sharing site nihonomaru (I'm not posting the full URL in order to comply with the forum rules) which I've visited many times in the past. Basically, it's an anime/manga related forum as there are so many. At the top of the site, there's a search field which allows you to search through the site and forums (just as there's one on this site as well). If you type something there, it will open a new tab to ad-directrev-com. Now, at first, I thought that some remaining piece of malware was still present on my machine and I was at the point to completely reinstall it. But as I was getting tired of messing with my PC, I did a couple more tests. I opened the same webpage on a different PC (also running windows 7) and a virtual machine (running good old Windows XP) on which I never installed any suspicious programs. I even opened it on my mobile phone. And guess what, they all show the same behavior and will open the extra tab to ad-directrev-com. Now, it's almost impossible that all these hosts would be infected, especially the mobile phone running android on which I didn't install any crap. It's also the only website where I encounter this phenomenon. So, I was wondering if it's possible that the adware/malware functionality is present on the website itself and not on my machines? Was this website infected or was this search field put there deliberately? The fact that there are some weird (bullshit) advertisements at the top of the site don't give me a good feeling either. Is this a possibility? In that case I know the problem is not with me and it would put my mind at rest. I'll simply have to look for my anime elsewhere.
Once again, thanks for your excellent guide. It sure helped me!
Kind regards,
Erwin
First of all, a big thank you for the "Remove Ad.directrev.com pop-up ads (Virus Removal Guide)" page. It helped solve my problem with this particularly annoying piece of malware/adware. It once again shows that a 100% up to date full security suite (in my case KIS 2015) is no guarantee that you won't get infected by something. What particularly bugs me is the fact that this was installed through the latest version of Filehippo Update Checker (1.041), a software utility have been using for many years and never had any problems with before. This was downloaded through their official website. Very disappointing and I certainly won't use this tool anymore nor visit their website anymore.
But enough background information. I followed your instructions to the letter and went through the different removal tools. All tools no longer detect anything and I no longer experience the annoying popup/tab problems anymore either. However, there's still something that keeps bugging me and just doesn't put my conscience at rest yet. There's an anime sharing site nihonomaru (I'm not posting the full URL in order to comply with the forum rules) which I've visited many times in the past. Basically, it's an anime/manga related forum as there are so many. At the top of the site, there's a search field which allows you to search through the site and forums (just as there's one on this site as well). If you type something there, it will open a new tab to ad-directrev-com. Now, at first, I thought that some remaining piece of malware was still present on my machine and I was at the point to completely reinstall it. But as I was getting tired of messing with my PC, I did a couple more tests. I opened the same webpage on a different PC (also running windows 7) and a virtual machine (running good old Windows XP) on which I never installed any suspicious programs. I even opened it on my mobile phone. And guess what, they all show the same behavior and will open the extra tab to ad-directrev-com. Now, it's almost impossible that all these hosts would be infected, especially the mobile phone running android on which I didn't install any crap. It's also the only website where I encounter this phenomenon. So, I was wondering if it's possible that the adware/malware functionality is present on the website itself and not on my machines? Was this website infected or was this search field put there deliberately? The fact that there are some weird (bullshit) advertisements at the top of the site don't give me a good feeling either. Is this a possibility? In that case I know the problem is not with me and it would put my mind at rest. I'll simply have to look for my anime elsewhere.
Once again, thanks for your excellent guide. It sure helped me!
Kind regards,
Erwin
