Pronto.com Search Ads - How to remove

Pronto.com is a shopping-themed search engine that looks very normal and safe at first sight. But when looking at browser hijackers and adware viruses, checking their web analytics, I kept seeing links to Pronto.com out of the corner of my eye. What’s going on? Why do people whose computers are infected or whose browsers are hijacked have a history of visiting Pronto.com? It’s not a malicious site, after all. But it does advertise browser hijackers and shady ad-filled spam sites.

In short about Pronto.com:

What it is	Search engine.
The problem	Unexpected ads to Pronto.com in search results, ads for unsafe sites and browser hijackers.
The cause	Unreliable browser extensions.
How to stop Pronto.com ads	Check your browser extensions and remove the malicious ones, scan your device for malware (Combo Cleaner for macOS, Spyhunter for Windows, Malwarebytes, etc.).

What is Pronto.com

Origins

Pronto.com (not related to ProntoApp Mac malware) is an alternative search engine owned by Ask. It used to be a price comparison service, but, from looking at the Wayback Machine, it stopped being that in 2014. Afterward, in 2015, Pronto.com was redesigned to be a shopping-themed search engine, using the slogan “When you shop here, you shop everywhere.”, later redirecting to Shopping.net. Shopping.net still exists and is also owned by Ask. Finally, in 2018, Pronto.com reached its current form: a sleek search engine.

Pronto.com hasn’t forgotten its roots and it categorizes results to Shopping and Reviews. The result sources are not very varied, making me wonder if very few sites are being searched. Not sure how useful Pronto.com really is. Especially when it shows so many ads.

Dubious ads

At the top and bottom of each Pronto.com result page are ads. Often, those ads are by eBay and Amazon – big online marketplaces, which is on-brand for a shopping-themed site like Pronto. But there are more ads, and some of them are really dubious.

Like Izito, which advertises on adware sites regularly. And, too often, Pronto.com promotes various Mindspark extensions, which are known for being little more than hijackers. A lot of reputable anti-malware programs detect Mindspark’s extensions as unwanted. Oh well, Mindspark is a sister company to Ask and its hijackers regularly install Search Extension by Ask (another hijacker), so it’s not a surprise that Pronto promotes Mindspark back.

Life123.com, Simpli.com, Homeandgardenideas.com, and a few more sites that are in the same Ask Media family as Pronto.com concern me because they seem to get a bit of traffic from Hidemysearches.com, Info.com, Searchincognito.com, and similar sites. You see, these sites spread via browser hijackers and, most of the time, get installed by people unintentionally, without their explicit consent, though deceptive ads and infected installers.

Unexpected Pronto.com ads

Are you seeing Pronto.com ads among your search results? Do they appear a couple of seconds after the normal results are shown? That’s not normal. If these ads appear in Google.com, these are probably not Google ads. As far as I know, because Pronto.com’s main goal is to show ads, it cannot advertise with Google according to Google’s ad policy.

A few years ago, Ask.com was accused of advertising their search sites on Google, basically showing ads for ads, despite Google supposedly being against this practice. So it may be possible that Pronto.com ads were genuine.

But it’s more likely that, if you see ads for Pronto.com in your web search results, they were caused by a malicious browser extension. If so, the Pronto.com ads should disappear when you use an incognito/private browser window.

Of course, if you’re on Cse.google, that’s a bit different. That’s a hijacked search engine. Probably still caused by a bad browser extension, though.

How to stop unwanted Pronto.com ads

If the cause is a browser extension, even if you trust all of your browser add-ons, I strongly advise that you disable ALL of them. Then enable the extensions one-by-one and check your search. Do this till you find the bad extensions – there could be more than one extension doing this, too.

It might be faster to scan your device with an anti-malware program. They don’t always successfully recognize bad browser extensions, but they can help you. For one, it’s a good idea to check if there’s any malware or a bundler or something similar on your computer. Good anti-malware programs include Combo Cleaner for Mac, Spyhunter for PC, Malwarebytes, and others.

Browser extensions shouldn’t be underestimated – they can be pretty powerful. They can get permission to read and change your data on all sites, or just the search sites, and that’s good enough to start messing with your search. Fake ad-blockers, extensions that are sold to ad-companies, and even innocent extensions that get infected with malware. Be careful when installing them.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove Pronto.com Search Ads using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search Ads . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search Ads from macOS

Delete Pronto.com Search Ads from your applications.

1. Open Finder.
2. In the menu bar, click Go.
3. Select Applications from the dropdown.
4. Find the Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search Ads. Click on the trash bin icon next to Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search Ads. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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 Pronto.com Search 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.