"Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads - How to remove

There are some ads online that use the phrase “Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required to Play the Game.” These ads, which I refer to as “Free Game Emulator” ads, advertise items ranging from real apps to notification hijackers and suspicious installers.

Many different websites use the “Free Game Emulator” format and, sometimes, it’s good to be careful of these ads to avoid security problems.

About the “Free Game Emulator” ads:

Type of threat	Adware.
What the “Free Game Emulator” ads look like	They’re pages that advertise games and feature a button that says to “Play Now” or “Start Game”, upon clicking the button, a new page is opened with the content of the ad.
Problems and dangers	Some of the “Free Game Emulator” ads promote risky content, such as ad spammers and suspicious installers.
How to stop the “Free Game Emulator” ads	Find and remove suspicious apps and browser add-ons manually and with antivirus tools (Spyhunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac), if needed, block malicious websites.

What are the “Free Game Emulator” ads?

Ads for playing games

There are some websites that offer to let you play certain games for free. They play a promotional video for the game and show a “Start Game” or “Play Now” button, as though you can play these games right away, in your browser window.

Besides the big bright buttons, these sites also display quotes like these in small text:

Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required to Play the Game. It will deliver ads while you are on the web.

As well as this line at the bottom of the page:

We offer the best Free PC game emulator and have the most updated games library.

All sorts of popular mobile games are promoted by these “Free Game Emulator” ads: Fortnite, Candy Crush, The Sims FreePlay, Among Us, Call of Duty, Counterstrike, GTA 5, TABS, etc. These games are already free, so the fact that the “Free Game Emulator” ads promote them is just puzzling.

Unsurprisingly, pressing the “Play” or “Start” buttons on the “Free Game Emulator” ads does not let you play the advertised games. So, what do these ads do?

What do the “Free Game Emulator” ads advertise?

These ads look pretty suspicious at first glance, and not just to me. I’ve seen malicious sites use video game ads to spread scams and malware (Epingi.com, Gamefabrique.com). So, I wanted to figure out what sites use them and how.

Although the “Free Game Emulator” ad format always looks the same, many different websites use it.

Many of the sites that show “Free Game Emulator” ads are mobile/browser game sites: Playerstudiopro.com, Gameveranda.com, Duskrage.com, etc. These sites host browser games monetized with advertisements.

But the “Free Game Emulator” ads don’t usually open these sites. What they open varies from site to site:

• Browser extensions on the Chrome Web Store.
• App pages on the Play Store.
• File download sites for executables and APKs (Why you shouldn’t install apps from unknown sources).
• Notification hijackers and other low-quality ads.

Some of the items that “Free Game Emulator” ads advertise are genuine apps that are safe to use. But not all of them.

Some of the “Free Game Emulator” ads specify that they will install adware – a program or browser extension whose purpose is to display ads. And according to the privacy policies of some of these websites, they collect user data, including “browsing actions and patterns”. It’s common for adware viruses to log user data – it’s not good for privacy.

In addition to that, some of the “Free Game Emulator” sites that I saw ask visitors to enable notifications, which can easily be misused for advertisement spam.

How to stop “Free Game Emulator” ads

First, if you downloaded a file or an application from a “Free Game Emulator” ad, I suggest that you find it and delete it. You can use an antivirus program, such as Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and others. These programs can find and remove suspicious files for you.

Next, if you allowed notifications on a “Free Game Emulator” site, it’s a good idea to revoke this permission in browser settings:

• Chrome – open Settings, scroll down to Site settings (under Privacy and security), click on Notifications.
• Edge – open Settings, click Site Permissions, Notifications.
• Safari – in the Safari menu, choose Preferences, Websites, Notifications.
• Firefox – open Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll down to Permissions, and click on Settings next to Notifications.

Don’t be surprised if you see unfamiliar websites among those that are allowed to send you notifications. It’s too easy to accidentally click that “Allow” button.

If you see the “Free Game Emulator” ads only occasionally, there’s probably nothing to worry about. Maybe you frequent sites that show low-quality ads – in which case, you right want to get an ad blocker for those sites.

But if you see “Free Game Emulator” and other dishonest ads often, then you might have an adware problem. A good antivirus program should take care of it, you can also disable all of your browser extensions to try and find the cause.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted programs and extensions

How to remove "Free Game Emulator" Ads using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads from macOS

Delete "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the "Free Game Emulator" Ads 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 "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads, 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 "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads. Click on the trash bin icon next to "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads, 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 "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads 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 "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads, 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 "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads. Click on the "Remove" icon next to "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the "Download of This Free Game Emulator is Required" Ads. 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 "Free Game Emulator" Ads, 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.