I wrote this article to help you remove GubZL. This GubZL removal guide works for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

GubZL is a rogue program which security experts have placed under the adware umbrella. The shady tool performs unauthorized tasks. You may believe that GubZL is a reliable program, as it shows bargain shopping offers. This is not the case, though. The adware does not display ads to assist people in their shopping ventures. The advertisements serve a monetary purpose. They lead to supported websites.

Many domain owners enlist agencies to advertise their platforms. Sponsoring third party content is a standard service, provided by many entities. Of course, the platforms need to be scanned for security purposes. GubZL does not take the necessary precautions. This is one of the two reasons why the program is considered to be adware. The other issue with GubZL is that it monitors users’ browsing sessions and collects information on them.

The owners of the adware use the pay-per-click system to make proceeds. Every hit adds a certain amount to their commissions. This payment method is based on the activity of the targeted user which explains why GubZL generates a high amount of advertisements. The covert program needs you to follow the ads. Producing them uses up a lot of CPU. The same goes for the tracking activity. Your system will suffer from the adware’s activity. It will become sluggish and often crash.

To attract people’s attention, GubZL makes the ads colorful and situates them in strategic places. The pop-ups appear on top of all browser windows and tabs. You are sure to notice them. A more subtle approach to online advertising is embedding pop-unders into the web pages users visit. There are multiple variations of this format, including banners, in-text links, floating, interstitial, contextual, transitional, and inline ads. In some cases, the pop-unders are related to the contents of the host site. You could get the impression that they are brought by the platform, rather than an external source.

GubZL uses a lot of marketing tricks to make the advertisements enticing. The main focus is on the pricing strategies. The listed items are available at bargain prices. Discounts, coupons, freebies, and other special deals are often featured. The adware chooses the offers with a purpose. You will notice that a lot of the listings match your recent searches and online purchases. This is no coincidence. The furtive program has been set to track your browsing sessions and analyze your activity. The adware selects targeted offers for different users.

The proposed deals may be good, but you need to keep in mind that GubZL is a risky application. It does not scan the websites it links to. Any of them could be dangerous. Since the developers of the program are undisclosed, the burden of the risk falls entirely on the end user. While the ads pose a threat to your computer, the monitoring activity puts your personal security at risk.

The adware can record different kinds of input from the web browser, including the user’s browsing history, tracking cookies, keystrokes, IP address, email, telephone number, geographic location, zip code, user names, and passwords. The owners of the adware can sell your private information on dark markets without asking for your permission or notifying you.

The best form of combat against cyber infections is prevention. A little caution can go a long way. GubZL is spread through a couple of underhanded techniques, also called dark patterns. The most common way to get infected with the adware is through another application. Unlicensed tools, like freeware, shareware, and pirated program copies, are often responsible for spreading malware. The adware will try to get permission to enter your PC. It will be offered as a bonus with the download client. If you skip through the installation steps in haste, you will permit GubZL on your computer without realizing it. Make sure you read through the end user license agreement (EULA).

The other propagation vector the adware uses is spam emails. The executable of GubZL gets merged with an attachment. The carrier can be a regular text document, a spreadsheet, a .pdf, an image, or a compressed archive. Be advised that opening the file can be enough to transfer the rogue program to your hard disk drive. When tending to your in-box messages, check who the sender behind them is. Note that spammers often write on behalf of existing companies and entities to make the fake letters seem legitimate. To confirm that a given message is genuine, check the sender’s email address.

GubZL Uninstall

Before starting the real removal process, you must reboot in Safe Mode. If you are familiar with this task, skip the instructions below and proceed to Step 2. If you do not know how to do it, here is how to reboot in Safe mode:

For Windows 98, XP, Millenium and 7:
Reboot your computer. When the first screen of information appears, start repeatedly pressing F8 key. Then choose Safe Mode With Networking from the options.

For Windows 8/8.1
Click the Start button, next click Control Panel —> System and Security —> Administrative Tools —> System Configuration.‌

Check the Safe Boot option and click OK. Click Restart when asked.
For Windows 10
Open the Start menu and click or tap on the Power button.

While keeping the Shift key pressed, click or tap on Restart.

Here are the steps you must follow to permanently remove from the browser:

Remove From Mozilla Firefox:

Open Firefox, click on top-right corner , click Add-ons, hit Extensions next.

Look for suspicious or unknown extensions, remove them all.

Remove From Chrome:

Open Chrome, click chrome menu icon at the top-right corner —>More Tools —> Extensions. There, identify the malware and select chrome-trash-icon(Remove).

Remove From Internet Explorer:
Open IE, then click IE gear icon on the top-right corner —> Manage Add-ons.

Find the malicious add-on. Remove it by pressing Disable.

Right click on the browser’s shortcut, then click Properties. Remove everything after the .exe” in the Target box.

Open Control Panel by holding the Win Key and R together. Write appwiz.cpl in the field, then click OK.

Here, find any program you had no intention to install and uninstall it.

Run the Task Manager by right clicking on the Taskbar and choosing Start Task Manager.

Look carefully at the file names and descriptions of the running processes. If you find any suspicious one, search on Google for its name, or contact me directly to identify it. If you find a malware process, right-click on it and choose End task.

Open MS Config by holding the Win Key and R together. Type msconfig and hit Enter.

Go in the Startup tab and Uncheck entries that have “Unknown” as Manufacturer.

Still can not remove GubZL from your browser? Please, leave a comment below, describing what steps you performed. I will answer promptly.