How to remove Adf.ly ads (Windows and Mac)

What is Adf.ly

Adf.ly is a legitimate advertising service providing a URL-shortening feature. It is known for redirecting users to websites in order to display some paid advertisements before entering the actual page. However, by doing so, it can also provoke pop-ups appearing above the website and force you into pages that include lots of unwanted resources. Basically, push notifications offered by pop-ups can be pretty useful on such informative resources like blogs, online newspapers, and so on. Nonetheless, browser hackers managed to penetrate Adf.ly and put tricky pop-ups to make you receive deceptive ads in the right bottom of your screen, that are often used to promote adware, browser hijackers, and potentially malicious applications. This may eventually fool you into clicking on these ads that may lead to intrusive advertisements, cause unwanted redirects, modify browser settings, and record sensitive data. As a result, this may drive to cynical implications if not taken necessary actions to hinder yourself from this atrocious action beforehand.

How Adf.ly infected your PC

According to what mentioned above, there are various ways Adf.ly can inflict your computer. First of all, by clicking on the “Allow” button in a pop-up window protruding out of the upper corner of the page in case it contains malicious tone which it normally does especially when misunderstood what kind of notifications are you going to get. Usually, it is just a flow of scam, but if you do not take required actions in time it may cause some real security issues and put you into the hot sit immediately. Secondly, is by visiting pages that contain a multitude of unwanted stuff and obtrusive ads that you should not be willing to download in case you do not want yourself to be straddling about your personal data. To block ads and pop-ups use special ad-blocking utilities, for example, AdGuard (AdGuard for Mac). If you somehow managed to fall into the claws of frauds follow the steps below to remove Adf.ly ads from your computer.

1. Download Adf.ly Removal Tool
2. Stop Adf.ly notifications in browsers
3. Remove/Uninstall Adf.ly from Control Panel and Applications
4. Remove Adf.ly extensions from browsers
5. Reset browser search and homepage settings
6. Block Adf.ly search redirects
7. How to protect from threats like Adf.ly

Remove Adf.ly manually for free

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

Disable push notifications from Adf.ly in browsers

Remove Adf.ly from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Google Chrome

1. Go to Google Chrome settings, by clicking 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choosing Settings.
2. On a Mac you can also go to Chrome and choose Preferences.
3. Under opened Privacy and security tab, choose Content settings.
4. Click on Notifications menu (with the bell icon).
5. Set up preferred overall settings for push notifications and click Manage exceptions… button.
6. Find Adf.ly in the list and click cross icon to remove it. Click Done button to confirm the action.

Remove Adf.ly from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Mozilla Firefox

1. Go to Mozilla Firefox options, by clicking 3-bars icon in the top-right corner and choosing Options.
2. Choose Content tab on the left side.
3. Under Notifications, set up preferred overall settings for push-notifications and click Choose… button.
4. Find Adf.ly in the list and click Remove site to remove it.
5. Click Save Changes button to confirm the action.

Remove Adf.ly from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Safari

1. Open Safari, and in the top menu click Safari, choose Preferences.
2. In the Preferences window, click on Websites tab.
3. On the left side, choose Notifications. You will see the list of websites and their settings for showing notifications.
4. Find Adf.ly in the list and click Remove button.

Remove Adf.ly from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Android (Chrome)

1. Open Google Chrome app on Android, and tap on three dots to open main menu.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, scroll down and under Advanced section tap on Site Settings.
3. In the Site Settings menu tap on Notifications.
4. In the Allowed list of websites allowed to show notifications find Adf.ly, tap on it and in the bottom of the window tap on Clean & Reset button.
5. Confirm your action by tapping on Clean & Reset again in opened dialog box.

Remove Adf.ly from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Microsoft Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge, and click on the three-dots menu, in the top-right corner.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, and in the left part click Advanced.
3. Under Website permissions section, click Manage permissions button.
4. Find Adf.ly in the list and click on the cross sign to remove the setting and disable its notifications.

Remove Adf.ly from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Adf.ly you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Adf.ly”. 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 and Mac.

Remove Adf.ly from Mac:

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

Remove Adf.ly from Windows XP:

1. Click on Start button.
2. Choose Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Find recently installed suspicious program.
5. Click Uninstall.

Remove Adf.ly from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find recently installed suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Adf.ly 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 recently installed suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Adf.ly from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Adf.ly 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 recently installed 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 recently installed suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Cannot uninstall Adf.ly

In some cases, Adf.ly won’t uninstall and gives you a message that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Adf.ly. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Adf.ly 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 Adf.ly 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 recently installed suspicious program

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

and for Mac:

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

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Adf.ly from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has browser extension and it may still be active in Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Adf.ly related extension from your browsers manually.

Safari:

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

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Adf.ly related extension.
4. Click the trash can icon 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. Choose Adf.ly related extension.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.
5. 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 Adf.ly from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Adf.ly, 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 or Adf.ly related extension.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Adf.ly 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 Adf.ly extension.
4. Click Uninstall button.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

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

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.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. Scroll down and find Show advanced settings link.
4. Click on it and scroll down to the bottom again.
5. Click Reset browser settings button and click Reset to confirm.

Mozilla Firefox:

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

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. Close Opera and open command prompt from the start menu.
2. Type following command del %AppData%\Opera\Opera\operaprefs.ini
3. Start Opera.

How to block ads and pop-ups from Adf.ly

Adf.ly push notifications, in most cases, are caused by a program installed on your PC or add-on installed in browsers. However, sometimes it can appear on a clean computer when visiting a malicious website, using an advertising script. Also, apps that generate “Adf.ly” ads and banners are themselves installed from pop-ups. 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

Final tips

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs like Adf.ly 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-spyware and anti-malware programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats like Adf.ly.