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

If you constantly see pop-up windows, flagged as “Shmoki Ads”, then your machine is probably infected with Shmokiads adware. It’s important to make it clear that Shmokiads.com is a legit website. There is an adware program that uses the name of the website and generates traffic through adverts. The website is shady, as the registrant behind it is undisclosed. In any event, the real threat is the adware tool behind it. Thus, you need to get rid of the app in order to stop seeing the ads. The Shmokiads adware infects all installed web browsers and changes their settings. It is capable of collecting data about the users. It uses aggressive marketing in order to lure them into impulsive purchases.

The Shmokiads adware is spying on you. That’s right. It follows your every move and keeps a record of your online habits. With the collected data, it can choose ads that will appeal to you. This doesn’t sound very dangerous, but it is very hazardous. If you forget that you’ve been monitored, you may log in to some website. The adware can steal your user names and passwords, so it is extremely dangerous to use banking services and even social media.

Once the Shmokiads adware has sufficient data on you, it will send it to its owners. They, in turn, can sell it to third parties. Imagine your user names and passwords ending up in the hands of a hacker. The future looks dark. You may lose money or you name may get involved in all kinds of questionable transactions.

All this aside, there’s one more potential danger you should keep in mind.. All ads displayed by the Shmokiads adware are potential threats. Some of them may lead to malicious websites. It only takes a second for a drive-by download to be executed. This type of download doesn’t require any user interaction and it is almost completely undetectable. Many dangerous viruses are known to be distributed via such a download. Be extremely careful and don’t click on any ads while your computer remains infected.

Not clicking on ads may become an impossible task. The Shmokiads adware will start an ad bombardment. The longer it stays on board, the more ads you will see. The program will open pop-up windows on unexpected places, usually under your mouse’s cursor, and thus, try to trick you into clicking on some advert unintentionally. All sorts of ad banners will appear on websites that used to be ad-free. This deceptive mechanism is known as cross-layer or virtual-layer. The installed adware is creating an unnoticeable ad layer which is forcing ads on the opened websites. It also blocks competitor advertisements.

After all that talk about the Shmokiads adware, you must be wondering how did your computer get infected. The answer is simple. You installed the program. Yes, you did it. Don’t be harsh on yourself, it tricked you. It probably arrived as a bundled tool to some freeware or shareware you downloaded. To make some money, developers often hide additional software under custom installation tabs. If the user chooses the suggested fast installation method, all extra software will be automatically installed without any delay. Never rush through an installation. Look for an advanced tab and deselect any unwanted software.

Of course, there are many other adware distribution methods. Spam emails written on behalf of the local police department are very common recently. Be extra careful if you receive such an email. Authorities will use an official method to contact you, not an email. Make sure you know who the sender is before opening a given letter. Download attached files only if you are sure it is safe to do so. Delete all suspicious emails immediately.

Shmokiads Removal

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 perform to remove the hijacker 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 Shmokiads from your browser? Please, leave a comment below, describing what steps you performed. I will answer promptly.