How to remove Mail.ru from browsers Chrome, Firefox

Good day everyone!

Quite often I am asked questions about the removal of various game centers, tabs, satellites and other "pieces" from the Mail.ru company.

In general, all these programs -have nothing to do with viruses, and they do not harm in any way (except for the loss of the user's time to fight with them). I will even say more, some of them set them on purpose, tk. do not imagine working on a PC without these programs ... 👌

But there is one a spoon of tar - often these programs are installed on a PC without the knowledge of the user (i.e., in fact, like a virus - it is precisely because of this imposition that such a negative attitude to these products arises)!

Moreover, what is also repulsive is the relatively complicated procedure for removing these applications.

In this article, I want to consider how to remove all these products from Mail.ru from Chrome and Firefox browsers.

So...

Instructions for removing Mail.ru from browsers: step by step

List of products to be removed:

The Amigo browser is basically a normal browser. The only disadvantage in terms of work is that it is imposed by the default browser;
Mail.ru Updater - special a utility for automatic product updates from Mail.ru, usually works stealthily;
Mail.ru Agent - messaging (there is a lot of advertising in the program);
Mail.ru Guard - protects your browser from spam, although it installs itself automatically without asking anyone;
Sputnik Mail.ru is a separate toolbar for finding information.

Step # 1: how Mail.ru products end up on the user's PC ...

At the beginning of this article, I want to say a few words about how all this "good" infiltrates your Windows ...

Usually it happens like this: you install some program (or even, for example, the Amigo browser) - when installing software, the vast majority of users do not even look at the checkboxes and always click "Further" ... And among the ticks - and there was a window about installing the list of products Mail.ru (as in the screenshot below).

The offer will install services from mail.ru

The bottom line isthat when installing unfamiliar software - always select the advanced installation and check all the checkboxes that you see in the installation window.

Programs that do not show "check marks" (ie do not report what products will be installed) are almost always blocked by antivirus programs. Those. in fact, Mail.ru products appear on the user's PC due to his own inattention ...

Step number 2: remove programs from Mail.ru

The first thing I recommend to start getting rid of Mail.ru is to go to the 👉 control panel and open the section with uninstalling programs (see the screen below).

Remove Programs - Control Panel

Next, find all Mail.ru products in the software list, and uninstall them one by one.

Removing Mail.ru from the program and components

An important point! If you cannot uninstall the [email protected] application, leave it for now. After a couple of cleaning steps - we'll come back to it ...

Step number 3: disconnect services from Mail.ru

Along with the software from Mail.ru, services are often added to the system. Accordingly, they also need to be disabled before cleaning the PC.

To open the list of services:

first press the buttons Win + R;
then enter services.msc and press Enter.

Opening services - services.msc (universal method)

Next, find the service [email protected] (Perhaps by the time you read the article - the service will have a slightly different name, just check all the services that are running).

To disable it: right-click on it and select "Properties" .

Then open the tab "General" , and set the startup type "Disabled" , also press the button "Stop" , save the settings.

Search for services

Step # 4: stop processes

In order to be able to remove software from Mail.ru, it is also necessary to stop all processes that were running.

First, log into Task Manager : to do this, press the buttons Ctrl + Alt + Del or Ctrl + Shift + Esc ... Next, find in it all the processes that are associated with Mail.ru (there may be several of them).

In my case, there were 2 such processes:

Mail.Ru Update service (32 bits);
Mail.ru updater (32 bits).

Then, one by one, close each of them: right-click on the process, in the list of tasks, select "Complete" .

Close apps in task manager

Step # 5: repeat step # 2

After stopping all services and processes from Mail.ru, you should be able to remove the same [email protected] through the Windows control panel (as described in step # 2, to which I promised to return 👌).

Advice!

I recommend uninstalling programs not using the Windows Installer, but using specials. software - IObit UnInstaller.

The fact is that programs leave behind them "tails" - entries in the registry, all sorts of files on the disk. A special. the utility can remove these tails, and thus there will be no trace of the previously installed software. Those. prevents garbage from accumulating in your Windows.

👉 To help!

How to uninstall software correctly (even uninstall programs that are not uninstalled).

Step 6: clean the registry

The next step is to clear the system registry from all sorts of lines. First, open registry editor ... For this:

press the buttons Win + R ;
enter regedit and press Enter.

regedit - open the registry editor

👉 To help!

Other ways to open Registry Editor

Further in the editor:

press the button F3 to start searching and enter mail.ru ;
then press the button "Find Next" ;
found lines and folders (sections) from Mail.ru - delete;
search (and delete if any lines are found) until you see a message that "Registry search completed" ... See the example below in the screenshot. 👇

Search and delete mail.ru data from the registry

Step 7: clean up extensions in the Chrome browser

In general, previously "viral" extensions (not only from Mail.ru) were added and included in the browser automatically. Recently, I notice that many browser extensions, although added to it, are not included (which is already good).

In any case, launch the browser and open the settings page (given below). Next, remove any extensions you don't need.

Extension settings page address: chrome: // extensions /

Removing unnecessary extensions

Also, do not forget to look into the settings and change the search engine to the one you need, and the start page (since these parameters are usually always changed by virus software).

Chrome settings page URL: chrome: // settings /

Default search engine

Step # 8: clean up Firefox

In Firefox. usually a similar story: unnecessary extensions are added and activated, the home page and the default search engine change.

First you need to disable and remove all extensions. To do this, open the tab "Add-ons" in the browser settings (see screenshot below).

Extensions in Firefox

Then uninstall all extensions related to Mail.ru one by one. There were 3 of them in my browser: visual bookmarks, home page, and search (screen below).

Removing extensions from Firefox

After removing the extensions, you can go to the settings (addresses are given below) and change the home page and search engine to the one you need.

Main settings page: about: preferences # general

Search page: about: preferences # search

Home page in Firefox

Step 9: check and clean the browser from adware

Also, taking this opportunity, I recommend checking Windows and browsers in particular for the presence of other adware (and of course, remove it).

For some reason, it seems to me that besides Mail.Ru, there may well be a "good" heel of unnecessary good: toolbars, search engines, etc.

One small utility, 👉 AdwCleaner, does the best for this task.

Enjoy the program is madly simple:

first close all browsers and resource-intensive applications;
then press one button "Scan";
then wait until the end of the work: AdwCleaner will scan your system and remove all malicious scripts embedded in browsers;
by the way, all the most popular are supported: Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE, etc.

AdwCleaner - remove adware

Important!

After scanning the computer, it will be restarted automatically, and after that, you will be provided with a scan report.

The utility works completely in auto-mode, so save all documents in advance and close other programs.

Step 10: cleaning and optimizing Windows

Well, and the last thing I want to recommend in this article - clean your Windows OS from "junk" files, optimize it.

You will work much faster and more comfortably on your PC. I have a couple of sensible guides on this topic on my blog, so I will not touch on this extensive topic here.

👉 To help!