How to remove Ad Squasher

What is Ad Squasher

Ad Squasher is a malicious browser extension designed to disrupt users’ online experience by injecting unwanted advertisements into web pages. This extension primarily infects popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge, exploiting their open ecosystems to gain access to users’ browsing activities. Once installed, Ad Squasher can track user behavior and serve intrusive ads that may redirect users to dubious websites, often leading to further malware infections or phishing attempts. In addition to bombardment with ads, it can significantly slow down browser performance, making it frustrating for users to navigate the internet. Moreover, the extension often collects sensitive information without user consent, raising privacy concerns. To protect against such threats, it’s essential to use trusted sources for browser extensions and regularly monitor installed add-ons for any suspicious activity.

How Ad Squasher infects computers

Ad Squasher is a type of adware that primarily infiltrates computers through deceptive methods such as bundled software installations and malicious downloads. Often, users unknowingly install Ad Squasher when they opt for quick or default installation settings, allowing the adware to slip through without their consent. Once inside, it modifies browser settings to redirect traffic to unwanted websites and displays intrusive advertisements, significantly degrading the user experience. Additionally, Ad Squasher can track user behavior to serve targeted ads, raising privacy concerns. Its persistence is often enhanced by creating entries in the system registry, making manual removal challenging. Users are advised to employ reputable anti-malware tools to effectively detect and eliminate this adware, restoring their system’s integrity and performance.

1. Download Ad Squasher Removal Tool
2. Remove Ad Squasher from Control Panel and Applications
3. Remove Ad Squasher extensions from browsers
4. Reset browser search and homepage settings
5. Alternative way to remove Ad Squasher search redirects
6. Clean browser shortcuts from Ad Squasher
7. How to protect from threats like Ad Squasher

Remove Ad Squasher manually for free

Here is a manual step-by-step tutorial for full Ad Squasher removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of the Ad Squasher an installer on operating systems with the latest updates and browser versions.

Note: Ad Squasher can be installed as Google Chrome extension as Administrator (you may see Installed by enterprise policy or Your browser is managed by your organization inscription near it), and this will not allow removal. Therefore, before starting removal process, perform these actions:

1. Start the Command Prompt by clicking the Start menu button and typing command prompt (or just searching for “command prompt” in Windows 10 search field). Right click on the Command Prompt result and choose Run as Administrator.



2. Type in and execute the following commands:

   
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers"
rd /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy"
gpupdate /force

Remove Ad Squasher from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Ad Squasher you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Ad Squasher”. It should uninstall correctly, however, we recommend you to use IObit Uninstaller to clean leftover items after uninstalling. Here are instructions for Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, or Mac.

Remove Ad Squasher from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find Ad Squasher-related or other suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Ad Squasher from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find Ad Squasher-related or other suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Ad Squasher from Windows 8:

1. Hover mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner to see Menu.
2. Click Search.
3. After that click Apps.
4. Then Control Panel.
5. Click Uninstall a Program under Programs.
6. Find Ad Squasher-related or other suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Ad Squasher from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Ad Squasher from Windows 10

Way one

1. Click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the System tile.
4. Click Apps & features and locate Ad Squasher-related or other suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on it and then click Uninstall button near it.

Way two (classic)

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Programs and Features.
3. Locate Ad Squasher-related or other suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Remove Ad Squasher from Windows 11:

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the Apps tab on the left side.
4. Click Apps & features and locate Ad Squasher-related or other recently installed suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on 3-dots icon near it and then click Uninstall button near it.
6. Depending on the type of application (Windows Store app or classic Win32 app) it will be removed immediately or you will need to confirm the action and go through standard uninstall procedure.

Remove Ad Squasher from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Ad Squasher might have an Uninstaller.
3. Otherwise, drag Ad Squasher from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Cannot uninstall Ad Squasher in Windows

In some cases, Ad Squasher won’t uninstall and gives you the message, that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Ad Squasher. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Ad Squasher folder and files. This happens because the process or service does not allow you to do it. In this case, I will recommend you to use SpyHunter 5 or Malwarebytes or uninstall Ad Squasher in Safe Mode. To boot in Safe Mode do the following:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. While it starts booting press F8 button.
3. This will open Advanced Boot Options menu.
4. Choose Safe Mode and wait until Windows loads.
5. Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program and remove Ad Squasher or other suspicious program

>> See detailed instructions and video tutorial on how to boot in Safe Mode

Cannot uninstall Ad Squasher in MacOS

If you can’t uninstall Ad Squasher using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Ad Squasher. Follow instructions below:

1. Download free AppCleaner.
2. Drag Ad Squasher from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Ad Squasher.
4. Click Delete button.

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Ad Squasher from Control Panel or Applications often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has a browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Ad Squasher extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Ad Squasher extension.
4. Click the Remove button to remove them.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
3. Find Ad Squasher extension.
4. Click three-dots icon near it and choose Remove in the menu.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Click Extensions tab.
3. Find Ad Squasher extension.
4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) edge://extensions.
3. Find Ad Squasher extension.
4. Click Remove link under the name of extension.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

Note: There is no feature to remove browser extensions from browser in latest version of Internet Explorer. To remove Ad Squasher from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Ad Squasher, please, do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu Manage Add-ons.
4. Select Toolbars and Extensions.
5. Click Disable Ad Squasher or other suspicious extensions.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Ad Squasher does not install in Opera browser however you can always double check. Do the following:

1. Start Opera browser.
2. Go to Tools > Extensions > Manage Extensions.
3. Find Ad Squasher or other suspicious extensions.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Ad Squasher installs a search engine, that hijacks your browsers. Here is the instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. On the left panel expand Advanced options.
4. Choose Reset and clean up.
5. Click on Restore settings to their original defaults link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Google Chrome > Settings > Advanced

Reset and clean up

Reset Google Chrome

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:support.
3. Click Refresh Firefox… button.
4. Click Refresh Firefox button in opened dialog window to confirm.

Reset Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Go to the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.
3. Click Remove All Website Data button.
4. In opened window click Remove Now button to remove data stored by websites in Safari.
5. Go to the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences.
6. Click the Show Develop menu in menu bar option.
7. In the menu click Develop and select Empty Caches from this menu.
8. Again, go to Safari menu and choose Clear History….
9. Choose to clear all history and click Clear History button.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser
2. Click on 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
3. On the left panel find and click Reset settings option.
4. Click on Restore settings to their default values link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu choose Internet options.
4. Click Advanced tab.
5. Click Reset button.
6. Choose Delete personal settings and click Reset.

Opera Browser:

1. Start Opera browser and click on Opera icon in the top-left corner.
2. Choose Settings and click Advanced on the left side and choose Browser.
3. Scroll down to the very bottom and click on Restore settings to their original defaults link.
4. Confirm by clicking Reset button.

How to block ads and pop-ups, promoting Ad Squasher


AdGuard main window

AdGuard general settings

AdGuard browser assistant

Ad Squasher, in most cases, is promoted by ads and pop-ups on doubtful websites. These sites can redirect users’ browsers to Ad Squasher ads, generating advertising revenue for the attackers. The malware is often offered through these ads, leaving users puzzled about the origin of the software. In some cases, users may unknowingly install the Ad Squasher extension, which then injects advertisements into the websites they visit and redirects their search queries. Additionally, the malware can be distributed through other channels such as peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, misleading ads, and compromised or shady websites that trigger automatic downloads To protect your PC and browsers from phishing websites, pop-up ads, banners, malicious scripts it is recommended to use AdGuard. Download free trial here:

Download AdGuard for Windows

Download AdGuard for Mac

How to protect from threats, like Ad Squasher, in future


SpyHunter 5 Dashboard

SpyHunter 5 Results

SpyHunter 5 System Guard

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Ad Squasher may become a real headache as they are hard to remove and break your privacy. To keep safe from such threats we recommend you always use antivirus and one of the anti-malware programs available on the market. One of the best anti-virus programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats like Ad Squasher.

Download SpyHunter for Windows

Download SpyHunter for Mac