Power App Virus - How to remove

Power App Virus is a blatant browser hijacker that gets installed by people into thinking that it’s required to download files or watch videos online. Power App Virus is advertised on filesharing and free streaming sites, its false and obnoxious ads interrupt your browsing. Once installed, this virus changes your search settings, tracks your searching habits, and shows you targeted ads in search results.

To be clear, Power App Virus is not in any way related to Microsoft PowerApps or any other legitimate product. This Power App is very similar to ImSearch, MSrch, and other Search Dimension creations.

Power App Virus problems and removal:

Classification	Browser hijacker, adware.
How Power App Virus gets installed	Advertised on pirating sites, promoted under the pretense that it’s required to be installed.
Problems and issues	Dishonest installation, browsing habits and some demographic data about you are collected, your data is used to show you targeted ads.
Removing Power App Virus	Manually uninstall unwanted programs and browser extensions, use an antivirus program, like SpyHunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for MacOS, or another good tool.

How does it get installed?

Power App Virus is one of a few browser hijackers distributed on the App Required pages. These pages advertise a lot of various browser hijackers and they always show a message that a particular extension is “required to proceed”. Seeing that page should always be an immediate red flag. Power App Virus gets installed on the Powerapp.download site that includes this text:

Download Ready

FREE

Power App required

Below this text, two buttons are placed: Download and Final Step. Clicking on them takes you to the Chrome Web Store, Power App Virus’ installation page.

Powerapp.download might appear pretty random in isolation. But it is quite convincing in context. This Power App Virus-pushing page appears as a pop-up ad on various semi-legal (or just illegal) media-sharing websites:

• monetized URL shorteners and other links used by pirating sites,
• online video and audio converters,
• free streaming sites,
• advertising websites (notification spammers).

These pages are infamous for asking visitors to jump through hoops to actually get to their content. It might not be surprising at all if any of them require you to install some browser extension to work correctly.

Consider this example: you’re trying to download a video that you converted on an online video converter site. It finished the process and you click on the Download button. Powerapp.download opens in your browser as a new tab. It says that your download is ready but that Power App is required for you to download it. Makes sense.

Except it doesn’t. Powerapp.download is an advertising page like any other. It’s published on sites where it looks like a part of the flow, but really, it’s just a lying ad for Power App Virus. And the sites that publish this ad are in on it – they get paid for people clicking on these ads.

What does Power App Virus do?

Power App Virus is a simple browser search hijacker: it replaces your search settings, reads your search queries, and observes which ads and results you click on. There’s no other function that Power App Virus even pretends to do. It’s one of many browser hijackers that use the Searchpowerapp.com site to deliver the search results. It can also read and change all the data on it.

Once Power App Virus is installed, it just changes your default search engine, which controls the site that delivers the results for queries typed into the omnibar. With Power App Virus, your privacy suffers because this random extension allows the Search Dimension company to collect data about you and your browsing habits and share it with advertisers. This data includes:

• your location,
• gender,
• what sites you visit,
• which ads you click on.

The point of this is to make money off of ads shown to you.

We’re surrounded by advertisements. Google, the most popular search engine, is an advertising giant. So, if we were to ask Power App Virus’ creators about their behavior, they might insist that they’re no worse than any big ad-tech company. But Power App Virus is uniquely predatory with its blatantly lying ads and low-quality service.

How to get rid of Power App Virus

You may not have installed Power App Virus intentionally, but you should be able to remove it pretty easily: just open your settings and get rid of all the unwanted browser extensions. Not just Power App – check all of the extensions and, if you find one that you don’t remember installing and that isn’t a first-party extension, feel free to remove or disable it.

In case you can’t remove Power App Virus because the option is grayed-out, check this article on fake Enterprise Policy.

It’s also possible that Power App Virus came bundled with freeware. You can catch malicious and unwanted programs with an anti-malware scanner, such as SpyHunter for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, or other good-quality security tools.

Below are the manual instructions for removing browser extensions. Power App Virus and similar add-ons often have transparent icons, which don’t make it clear that a browser extension is installed at all, so going to browser settings is the right way to do things.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove Power App Virus extension manually

TopRemoving Power App Virus 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 Power App Virus. Click on the trash bin icon next to Power App Virus 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 Power App Virus, 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.

How to remove Power App Virus 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 Power App Virus. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Power App Virus 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.