How to remove notifications from Google Chrome

If spammy Google Chrome notifications are deluging your experience, here is an easy guide to stop these popup ads and remove malware that may be causing them.

1. What is the Chrome notifications virus?
2. Automated removal of malware causing unwanted Chrome notification popups
3. Block popup notifications from Google Chrome
4. Restore Chrome settings to their original defaults

What is the Chrome notifications virus?

Ideally, web push notifications generated by Google Chrome are an amazingly effective marketing instrument that allows businesses to extend their reach and engage customers. Furthermore, lots of regular users don’t mind receiving such popup messages that help them stay on top of what’s new in their areas of interest. In other words, people often allow their favorite Internet services to let them know whenever some breaking news or a potentially worthwhile update is out. This permission is granted in a fairly straightforward way. When visited, a website displays a popup request to show notifications. The user, in their turn, chooses whether or not to opt in by clicking on the Allow or Block button on this dialog. At this point, it’s worth emphasizing that this interaction is benign and officially supported by Chrome. However, malicious actors are increasingly exploiting this mechanism to serve unwanted ads.

The dubious side of the matter is that cybercriminals can deploy what’s called malvertising campaigns that heavily rely on push notifications from Google Chrome. All it takes to set such a ruse in motion is launching a booby-trapped website and luring as many users as possible to visit it. Unfortunately, the crooks needn’t reinvent the wheel to execute such a traffic-driving plot. Its pivot point can be a piece of malware referred to as a browser hijacker. This sketchy application gains a foothold in Chrome browser and gets privileges broad enough to modify custom web surfing settings specified by the victim. For example, the pest may be able to replace the default search engine, homepage, and new tab page with a rogue URL.

As a result, Chrome will be incessantly redirected to a landing page that mimics a human verification site or a streaming video resource. In either case, the entrapped user cannot properly view any materials on that page unless they permit it to send notifications. The trick is that perpetrators camouflage this permission-giving process as something else. It’s either a script that supposedly checks if the visitor is a bot or a human, or a dialog that simply serves as a “pass” to access some intriguing content such as an adult video purportedly rendered in the background. This is a classic ambush steadily gearing up for a rise these days. Here are a few examples of misleading sites the fraudulently ask for permission to trigger notifications under the guise of innocuous requests: personal-video.live, bigdater.me, rednews7.com, and fres-news.com (see table above for more domains currently in rotation). We have described these hoaxes in detail previously.

What’s the felons’ motivation? It’s a no-brainer. They want users to unknowingly authorize an endless flood of spam. The victims will be receiving shady ads in the form of Chrome notifications. These popups cover a vast range of subjects, from suspicious site sign-up recommendations and fake pharmacy e-stores promotion – to pushing X-rated and gambling services swarming with scams. A particularly nasty type of these push adverts is intended to promote web pages hosting malware such as info-stealing Trojans, backdoors, cryptomining viruses, and ransomware. All in all, notifications from Chrome are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they are a useful means for legit promotion of ecommerce resources, news outlets, and social media services. On the other hand, they can be weaponized to inundate Chrome users’ computing routine with spammy objects splashing out of the system tray area. The good news is, it’s quite easy to get rid of annoying notifications in Chrome if they are causing trouble. Keep reading to learn how.

Use Combo Cleaner for Windows to remove Chrome notification popup

When faced with malware like Chrome notification, one of the best shortcuts in terms of removal is to use Combo Cleaner, a lightweight and incredibly effective application with PC security and optimization features under the hood. It detects and thoroughly deletes threats while giving you insights into the overall health of your computer.

This program’s protection power spans modules that forestall all known types of malware, including ransomware and browser hijackers, and take your online security to the next level by blocking phishing sites and other suspicious web pages. Follow these simple steps to eliminate the infection for good:

1. Download Combo Cleaner installer.

Download Chrome notification popup remover

^{Combo Cleaner scans your PC with no strings attached, but you’ll have to buy its fully functional version to remove the threats it detects. The disk optimization tools that find large files and duplicates are free to use.}

2. Open the CCSetup.exe file to get started. Several subsequent screens will allow you to make initial customizations so that the program works exactly as you need from the get-go.

3. The installation will be followed by an update of malware signatures. Once this process is through, click the Start Scan button in the left-hand sidebar.

4. Combo Cleaner will then check system locations that are most often polluted by Windows malware. The first scan can take a while to finish.

5. Combo Cleaner will display a system tray notification as soon as the scan is over. Click the Resolve found threats button to view the results.

6. The scan summary shows the names and types of the detected threats as well as their statuses and locations. Click the Remove all threats button and follow further on-screen prompts to get rid of these items.

Use Control Panel to get rid of the Chrome notification virus

• Open up the Control Panel from your Start menu in Windows. Depending on the OS build, select Uninstall a program (Windows 10, 7 and Vista) or Add or Remove Programs (Windows 8).

• To facilitate the process of locating the threat, sort the programs list by date to get the latest ones displayed at the very top. Find an unfamiliar, suspicious entry under the Name column, click Uninstall and follow further directions to get the removal done.

Block popup notifications from Google Chrome

If Chrome notifications spam is generated by a specific site, the following steps will help you unsubscribe from these sketchy popups. Be advised that the walkthrough below applies to scenarios that don’t involve malware interference.

• Open the Chrome browser, click on the Customize and control Google Chrome (⁝) menu, and select Settings
• Scroll down to Privacy and Security and click Site Settings
• Click Pop-ups and redirects
• Under the Allow subsection, look for the website sending you unwanted notifications. If it’s listed there, click More (⁝) button next to it and select the Block option
• If you want to prevent all sites from asking you to send notifications in Chrome, go back to Site Settings and select Notifications
• Slide the toggle saying “Sites can ask to send notifications” to the left (Off position)

Restore Chrome settings to their original defaults

In case the browser hijack is too stubborn to fix by reconfiguring the site settings, executing a reset makes the most sense despite a few obvious downsides. Customizations such as saved passwords, bookmarked pages etc. will be gone, but so will all the changes made by the potentially unwanted program. The instructions below address the workflow for Chrome browser.

Reset Google Chrome

• Open Chrome, expand the Customize and control Google Chrome menu and choose Settings

• Scroll down the settings screen and click Advanced down at the bottom

• Move on to the Reset and clean up sub-section and select the option that says Restore settings to their original defaults

• Finally, confirm the restoration by clicking Reset settings on the warning message

• Restart Chrome.

Revise your security status

Post-factum assessment of the accuracy component in malware removal scenarios is a great habit that prevents the comeback of harmful code or replication of its unattended fractions. Make sure you are good to go by running an additional safety checkup.

Download Chrome notification popup removal tool