{"id":1952,"date":"2014-10-04T16:30:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T16:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2018-05-29T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-29T12:02:00","slug":"remove-protectedbrowsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/remove-protectedbrowsing\/","title":{"rendered":"How to remove ProtectedBrowsing adware"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just wanted to write a short post before going back to coding on <a title=\"The freeware FreeFixer removal tool\" href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/about-freefixer\/\">FreeFixer<\/a>. Found another <strong>adware<\/strong> called <strong>ProtectedBrowsing<\/strong> right now.<\/p>\n<p>If ProtectedBrowsing is installed on your machine, you will find ads labeled <strong>Ad by ProtectedBrowsing<\/strong> and\u00a0green links inserted into web pages saying <strong>Click to Continue by ProtectedBrowsing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing-3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1956 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing-3.png\" alt=\"Ad by ProtectedBrowsing pop-up\" width=\"331\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing-3.png 331w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing-3-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 331px) 100vw, 331px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ad-by-protectedbrowsing-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1955 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ad-by-protectedbrowsing-2.png\" alt=\"Ad by ProtectedBrowsing\" width=\"228\" height=\"128\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1954 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing.png\" alt=\"ad by ProtectedBrowsing banner\" width=\"405\" height=\"126\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing.png 405w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ad-by-ProtectedBrowsing-300x93.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/click-to-continue-by-ProtectedBrowsing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1962 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/click-to-continue-by-ProtectedBrowsing.png\" alt=\"Click to Continue by ProtectedBrowsing links are inserted into web pages\" width=\"310\" height=\"83\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/click-to-continue-by-ProtectedBrowsing.png 310w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/click-to-continue-by-ProtectedBrowsing-300x80.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 310px) 100vw, 310px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You will also see a notification message from the system tray saying\u00a0<strong>Proxy Protection Enabled<\/strong> and an icon in the system tray. New processes will appear in the Windows Task Manager:\u00a0bservice.exe, bservice64.exe, wd.exe, pwdg.exe and proc.exe. ProtectedBrowsing also adds a new entry &#8220;<strong>54.204.28.26 baefoldjnepdncjikpmjiamfbjgicfol&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0 in the HOSTS file. I&#8217;ll show how to remove ProtectedBrowsing in this blog post with the FreeFixer removal tool.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/proxy-protection-enabled.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1971 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/proxy-protection-enabled.png\" alt=\"Pproxy Protection Enabled message from system tray\" width=\"560\" height=\"133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/proxy-protection-enabled.png 560w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/proxy-protection-enabled-300x71.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-in-SystemTray.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1970 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-in-SystemTray.png\" alt=\"ProtectedBrowsing in the System Tray\" width=\"306\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-in-SystemTray.png 306w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-in-SystemTray-300x191.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 306px) 100vw, 306px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/oops-something-changed-in-your-proxy-settings.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1963 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/oops-something-changed-in-your-proxy-settings.png\" alt=\"oops, something changed in your proxy settings - ProtectedBrowsing Auto-Protect\" width=\"506\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/oops-something-changed-in-your-proxy-settings.png 506w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/oops-something-changed-in-your-proxy-settings-300x133.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-task-manager.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1961 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-task-manager.png\" alt=\"bservice.exe and bservice64.exe int the task manager\" width=\"667\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-task-manager.png 667w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-task-manager-300x80.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>ProtectedBrowsing also installs add-ons in your browsers. Here&#8217;s two\u00a0screenshots showing the adware in <strong>Chrome<\/strong> and <strong>Firefox<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-1.0-in-Chrome.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1966 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-1.0-in-Chrome.png\" alt=\"ProtectedBrowsing 1.0 in Chrome\" width=\"622\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-1.0-in-Chrome.png 622w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-1.0-in-Chrome-300x181.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowsing-1.0-firefox-add-on.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1965 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowsing-1.0-firefox-add-on.png\" alt=\"ProtectedBrowsing 1.0 Firefox add-on\" width=\"638\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowsing-1.0-firefox-add-on.png 638w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowsing-1.0-firefox-add-on-300x140.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>ProtectedBrowsing is <strong>bundled<\/strong> with a number of downloads. Bundling means that software is included in other software&#8217;s installers.<\/p>\n<p>Generally, you can avoid bundled software such as ProtectedBrowsing by being careful when installing software and declining the bundled offers in the installer.<\/p>\n<p>When I test some new bundled software I always upload it to VirusTotal to test if the anti-virus scanners there find something fishy. I uploaded <strong>FrameworkBHO.dll<\/strong> which is digitally signed by <strong>Gratifying Apps<\/strong>. The detection rate is very low. Only 1 of the scanners detected the file. AVG names ProtectedBrowsing as <strong>Generic.D4C<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowser-virustotal.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1964\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowser-virustotal.png\" alt=\"protectedbrowser virustotal\" width=\"602\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowser-virustotal.png 602w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/protectedbrowser-virustotal-300x193.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Removing ProtectedBrowsing<\/strong> is pretty easy with <a title=\"About FreeFixer\" href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/about-freefixer\/\">FreeFixer<\/a>. Here&#8217;s a few screenshots from the removal that should help you: A restart of your system may be required to complete the removal. Problem fixed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/wd.exe-pwdg.exe-cl.exe-startups.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1972\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/wd.exe-pwdg.exe-cl.exe-startups.png\" alt=\"wd.exe pwdg.exe cl.exe startups\" width=\"785\" height=\"380\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/wd.exe-pwdg.exe-cl.exe-startups.png 785w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/wd.exe-pwdg.exe-cl.exe-startups-300x145.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-firefox-freefixer.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1969\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-firefox-freefixer.png\" alt=\"ProtectedBrowsing firefox freefixer\" width=\"785\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-firefox-freefixer.png 785w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-firefox-freefixer-300x89.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-Chrome-Extension.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1968\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-Chrome-Extension.png\" alt=\"ProtectedBrowsing Chrome Extension\" width=\"786\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-Chrome-Extension.png 786w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-Chrome-Extension-300x99.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 786px) 100vw, 786px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-BHOs.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1967\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-BHOs.png\" alt=\"ProtectedBrowsing BHOs\" width=\"788\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-BHOs.png 788w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ProtectedBrowsing-BHOs-300x97.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 788px) 100vw, 788px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-process.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1960\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-process.png\" alt=\"bservice.exe bservice64.exe process\" width=\"787\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-process.png 787w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bservice.exe-bservice64.exe-process-300x137.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 787px) 100vw, 787px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-internet-explorer.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1959\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-internet-explorer.png\" alt=\"bhelper64.dll internet explorer\" width=\"784\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-internet-explorer.png 784w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-internet-explorer-300x79.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 784px) 100vw, 784px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-in-explorer.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1958\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-in-explorer.png\" alt=\"bhelper64.dll in explorer\" width=\"783\" height=\"192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-in-explorer.png 783w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bhelper64.dll-in-explorer-300x73.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 783px) 100vw, 783px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bench-updater.exe-task.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1957\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bench-updater.exe-task.png\" alt=\"bench updater.exe task\" width=\"784\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bench-updater.exe-task.png 784w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bench-updater.exe-task-300x104.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 784px) 100vw, 784px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/54.204.28.26-baefoldjnepdncjikpmjiamfbjgicfol-in-HOSTS-file.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1953\" src=\"http:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/54.204.28.26-baefoldjnepdncjikpmjiamfbjgicfol-in-HOSTS-file.png\" alt=\"54.204.28.26 baefoldjnepdncjikpmjiamfbjgicfol in HOSTS file\" width=\"787\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/54.204.28.26-baefoldjnepdncjikpmjiamfbjgicfol-in-HOSTS-file.png 787w, https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/54.204.28.26-baefoldjnepdncjikpmjiamfbjgicfol-in-HOSTS-file-300x63.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 787px) 100vw, 787px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To remove the ProtectedBrowsing Chrome extension, open up the Settings menu in Chrome and click on Extensions in the left pane.<\/p>\n<p>Hope this helped you remove the ProtectedBrowsing adware.<\/p>\n<p>Do you also have ProtectedBrowsing on your machine? Any idea how it installed? Please share your story the comments below. Thanks!<\/p>\n<p>Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just wanted to write a short post before going back to coding on FreeFixer. Found another adware called ProtectedBrowsing right now. If ProtectedBrowsing is installed on your machine, you will find ads labeled Ad by ProtectedBrowsing and\u00a0green links inserted into web pages saying Click to Continue by ProtectedBrowsing. You will also see a notification message &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/remove-protectedbrowsing\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to remove ProtectedBrowsing adware<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,16],"tags":[174],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1976,"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions\/1976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freefixer.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}