Ad Guardian - How to remove

Ad Guardian is an extension for common web browsers. It is advertised as an ad blocker that helps you browse the web safely.

The developers of the extension claim that Ad Guardian improves the user’s browsing experience by helping them block unwanted ads and providing additional privacy features. The extension promises to make web surfing much faster and more user-friendly. The description on its official page mentions that when ads are blocked and not loaded, pages will be displayed faster, plus the extension says that it is able to protect users from tracking scripts that may be concealed in advertisements.

About Ad Guardian and Ad Guardian Plus:

Threat type	Adware, potentially unwanted program.
How it’s installed	Advertised online, bundled with other programs.
Problems and issues	Unwanted, unexpected installation, privacy issues, ads injected in the browser.
How to remove Ad Guardian, Ad Guardian Pro	Uninstall it manually, use an antivirus program (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, others) to remove it.

Definitely, the review of the Ad Guardian extension by its authors mentions only positive information. There is no indication that many anti-virus programs identify Ad Guardian as a PUP (potentially unwanted program). Instead of blocking the ads, the extension additionally integrates its promoted content practically into all the websites you visit, thus preventing you from properly reading the important information. Ad Guardian is often installed by people accidentally, without the definite intention to use it. There are many other valid reasons why Ad Guardian is not the software you should keep in your system.

In addition, there is a similarly named program – Ad Guardian Plus – which is likewise a potentially unwanted application. It may get installed without you realizing it, which is a little problematic.

Problems with Ad Guardian

The impact of Ad Guardian on your browsing.

As soon as Ad Guardian is installed and enabled, it will immediately begin distracting its users by placing tons of unwanted advertisement banners on the decent pages they visit. The ads will cover the important parts of the websites and will not let people perceive the content in a proper way.

This may seem strange – why would an ad blocker do this? But there’s no shortage of fake ad blockers out there. They inject ads into browsers, redirect search queries, spy on their users, or perform advertising fraud.

According to the analysis of the Ad Guardian extension, it displays ads of the following categories:

• ads promoting fake Adobe Flash Player updates integrated with malicious programs;
• coupons and discounts leading to commercial sites;
• surveys, questionnaires, online games, etc.;
• landing pages of other third-party browser extensions.

The list above does not cover all other possible redirections that you may experience as long as the Ad Guardian extension is active. The danger of Ad Guardian is in its interconnection with many other malicious websites. Redirections to these resources by Ad Guardian may result in the installation of other untrustworthy programs or rogue security applications designed to swindle users into wasting their money for nothing.

How does Ad Guardian affect your privacy?

Ad Guardian regularly spies over your browsing activities. It may access your browsing history to analyze your previously submitted search queries. This is done in order to display more relevant ads that would suit your interests, however, collecting these important details is a violation of your privacy. Your personal and even financial details are gathered without your consent or permission.

Ad Guardian is related to many other ad-supported programs and developers that aim to obtain all sensitive information about your searches, IP address, geographic locations, visited URLs, and other private details. Possibly, this information may be shared with third-party companies or even sold to online frauds in an absolutely illegal manner. Considering the behavior of Ad Guardian and its performance in contradiction to its principles, we recommend you immediately remove the Ad Guardian extension.

Problems with Ad Guardian Plus

Ad Guardian Plus is a Windows program rather than a browser extension. It may be a good ad blocker, but as it was being bundled with Quick Driver Updater and Bit Driver Updater, some people may have installed it by accident.

This may also be why a few antivirus tools flag Ad Guardian Plus as Malicious (Virustotal.com). Unexpected installation and association with formerly-unwanted programs are concerning enough for some antivirus vendors that they choose to warn their users.

How to remove Ad Guardian?

Ad Guardian

The good news is that Ad Guardian’s extension has been removed from the official online stores.

Ad Guardian will perform its adware and spyware functions as long as its extension is active. To stop its activity, remove it from your extensions. You can find your browser extensions in the extension area in the upper right corner or in browser settings as described below.

However, keep in mind that the initial installation of Ad Guardian could be the evidence of some other hidden adware active on your device and redirecting your browser to dubious pages. We recommend scanning your computer with Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and other antivirus tools to detect the concealed threats and to neutralize their damaging impact on your system.

Ad Guardian Plus

If you choose to remove Ad Guardian Plus, you can do that by using the Control Panel. You can also use antivirus programs, however, Ad Guardian Plus is not widely detected, so your scanners may not pick it up.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove Ad Guardian using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Ad Guardian install some of their components as regular Windows programs as well as additional software. This part of malware can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. To access it, do the following.

• Start→Control Panel (older Windows) or press Windows Key→Search and enter Control Panel and then press Enter (Windows 8, Windows 10).
• Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category).
• Go through the list of programs and select entries related to Ad Guardian . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Ad Guardian easier to find.
• Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes.
• In many cases anti-malware programs are better at detecting related parasites, thus I recommend installing Spyhunter to identify other programs that might be a part of this infection.

How to remove Ad Guardian from macOS

Delete Ad Guardian from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Ad Guardian app.
5. Select it and right-click it (or hold the Ctrl and click the left mouse button).
6. In the dropdown, click Move to Bin/Trash. You might be asked to provide your login password.

TopRemove malicious extensions from Internet Explorer

• Press on the Gear icon→Manage Add-ons.
  
• Go through Toolbars and extensions. Remove everything related to Ad Guardian and items you do not know that are made not by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle or Adobe.
  
• Close the Options.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Ad Guardian, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Press on the Gear icon->Internet Options.
  
• Choose the Advanced tab and click on the Reset button.
  
• Select a “Delete personal settings” checkbox and click on the Reset button.
  
• Click on the Close button on the confirmation box, then close your browser.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemoving Ad Guardian from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Ad Guardian. Click on the trash bin icon next to Ad Guardian or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Ad Guardian, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
  
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemoving Ad Guardian from Firefox

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything Ad Guardian related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Ad Guardian, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Ad Guardian from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Ad Guardian. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Ad Guardian or other add-ons you want to remove.

• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.

• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.

• Restart Microsoft Edge.

TopRemoving Ad Guardian from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the Ad Guardian. Remove all other unknown or suspicious entries too. If you are not sure whether you need the extension or not, you can simply uncheck the Enable check-box to disable the extension temporarily.
  
• Restart Safari.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Ad Guardian, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari.
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.