New laptop infected with popups

rmk9785e · May 16, 2026

My less than a month old Dell XPS laptop is infected with some virus. The laptop came with McAfee bundled but it says the license expired two days ago. That software by itself acts like a virus and prompts with upselling their other services. I never had a problem using Windows Defender on my Windows 10 laptop.
The popup boxes say things like "Unauthorized download detected. Is it you? Via Microsoft Edge. reatintelits.co.in" "5 Viruses detected. Your computer has been infected by suspicious programs.", "Renew your Norton AV subscription" , "Trojan Found", Critical Error. Found harmful viruses (03)." and so on. No matter how many times I close, they pop back up.
Please point me to a link for disinfecting my computer. Thank you.

TraderGary · May 16, 2026

Windows + X
Choose "Installed Apps"
Choose McAfee and uninstall it.

I also have a Dell XPS less than a month old. Click on ":My Computers".
The first thing I did was uninstall McAfee.

antspants · May 16, 2026

https://www.mcafee.com/support/s/article/000001616?language=en_US

or

Guide for completely removing McAfee - Microsoft Q&A

Look no further if you are like me and have been stuck with leftover McAfee processes after running the uninstallers. There are plenty of guides with canned answers from Microsoft that have done nothing but frustrate you; this is what you need to…

learn.microsoft.com

echo2446 · May 16, 2026

Once you uninstall McAfee, you may want to clear Edge's notification permissions (search "Allowed to send notifications"); if unsure, clear everything and start over. Also clear the browser's data, i.e.:

NormanF · May 16, 2026

Adobe bundles unwanted software with Adobe DC Reader and you cannot deselect it. Its infuriating.

Jacee · May 16, 2026

Some of these 'pop-ups' are scareware ads ... download Free Adware Cleaner from here: AdwCleaner 2026 - Free Adware Cleaner & Removal Tool | Malwarebytes

idgat · May 17, 2026

TraderGary said:
The first thing I did was uninstall McAfee.

The first thing I do with a new computer is image the installation, then do a wipe and Windows clean install.

And if I'm dealing with someone else's computer, that the terms of my involvement to continue. Otherwise, yer on yer own.

rmk9785e · May 17, 2026

echo2446 said:
Once you uninstall McAfee, you may want to clear Edge's notification permissions (search "Allowed to send notifications"); if unsure, clear everything and start over. Also clear the browser's data, i.e.:

View attachment 171740

Thank you. That website and a couple of others ending in. co.in had decided to add themselves to "Allowed to send notifications". I've removed these but that tells me the system did not ship with basic malware protections set up correctly.
There is one that won't let me uninstall it even if I block it.
"chrome-extension://bjkfoedollekgbhcbcoahefnbanhhlh/"

rmk9785e · May 17, 2026

Jacee said:
Some of these 'pop-ups' are scareware ads ... download Free Adware Cleaner from here: AdwCleaner 2026 - Free Adware Cleaner & Removal Tool | Malwarebytes

Tried that. It suggests removing two preinstalled apps. When I select to quarantine either, "preinstalled.Dellupdatefor wIndows10", or "Preinstalled.DellSupportAssistAgent", the system crashes. "Your device ran into a problem and must restart.
Why would a manufacturer preload their system with junk?
BTW, Microsoft Support had already reinstalled Windows 11 afresh.

idgat · May 17, 2026

rmk9785e said:
Why would a manufacturer preload their system with junk?

It's called marketing

rmk9785e said:
BTW, Microsoft Support had already reinstalled Windows 11 afresh.

What do you mean by this? If it was MS Support help, I doubt whether it was a clean in stall, rather probably a reset (which is not a clean install)

echo2446 · May 17, 2026

rmk9785e said:
There is one that won't let me uninstall it even if I block it.
"chrome-extension://bjkfoedollekgbhcbcoahefnbanhhlh/"

If you mean the ID "jbkfoedolllekgbhcbcoahefnbanhhlh" (the first two letters swapped), that's the ID for Bitwarden, which is most likely okay; you DON'T want to block it!

Shambles Bank · May 17, 2026

I had a similar issue with my MSI laptop when I bought that. Stupidly, I activated the bundled Norton security and it caused me an untold amount of problems. I resolved the issue by doing a reset of the laptop with a cloud copy of Windows and making sure that none of the pre-installed apps were re-installed. Never had an issue with it since.

cheaterslick · May 17, 2026

rmk9785e said:
The popup boxes say things like "Unauthorized download detected. Is it you? Via Microsoft Edge. reatintelits.co.in" "5 Viruses detected. Your computer has been infected by suspicious programs.", "Renew your Norton AV subscription" , "Trojan Found", Critical Error. Found harmful viruses (03)." and so on. No matter how many times I close, they pop back up.
Please point me to a link for disinfecting my computer. Thank you.

Start by uninstalling McAfee (I'd use Revo to do that and also clean up any of McAfee's leftover garbage), and use something else besides Edge, since Edge is nothing but one big form of Adware.

TraderGary · May 17, 2026

cheaterslick said:
Start by uninstalling McAfee (I'd use Revo to do that and also clean up any of McAfee's leftover garbage), and use something else besides Edge, since Edge is nothing but one big form of Adware.

I've used Microsoft Edge (Chromium) for over 5 years and for me that's not true.

cheaterslick · May 17, 2026

TraderGary said:
I've used Microsoft Edge (Chromium) for over 5 years and for me that's not true.

To each his own. I deleted off it of one machine and am getting ready to do it to another.

Time to nuke Edge

WHOOOSHHHHH.....

Shambles Bank · May 17, 2026

Same for me, I don't and won't use Edge, I use Brave with Startpage search engine and I definitely don't use my ISP DNS resolvers preferring Quad9. Adware is not a problem in my life.

hsehestedt · May 17, 2026

idgat said:
The first thing I do with a new computer is image the installation, then do a wipe and Windows clean install.

And if I'm dealing with someone else's computer, that the terms of my involvement to continue. Otherwise, yer on yer own.

I'm with you 100% on that. I'll simply add that prior to wiping and reinstalling Windows on a system, I'll make a backup of all my drivers with just two commands. That will allow me to reinstall all drivers after the clean install with just a few clicks. Here is how:

Open a command prompt and run this command:

NOTE: D: is the letter of a thumb drive for me. Specify any location that you wish in place of this.

MD D:\DriversBackup
pnputil /export-driver * D:\DriversBackup

You now have a backup of all system drivers.

After reinstalling Windows, open Device Manager. At the top of the device list is your computer name. Right-click it and choose to add drivers. Point it to your backed up drivers.

Congratulations, you have just reinstalled all your system drivers.

Helmut · May 17, 2026

rmk9785e said:
Tried that. It suggests removing two preinstalled apps. When I select to quarantine either, "preinstalled.Dellupdatefor wIndows10", or "Preinstalled.DellSupportAssistAgent", the system crashes. "Your device ran into a problem and must restart.
Why would a manufacturer preload their system with junk?
BTW, Microsoft Support had already reinstalled Windows 11 afresh.

It's not junk, those Dell apps are elements of their Apps that do useful things like BIOS/UEFI updates and system updates, diagnostics scans and whatever.

You put such stuff on AdwCleaner exclusion list. Right click item on Quarantine list > put in exclusion list.
You should not blindly accept what AdwCleaner says.

Adjust your Web Browser settings, do a search for "notifications" and "cookies" and "pop-up" and take some action.

Clearing out temporary files may only be a temporary solution if you do not.

Don't visit dubious websites.

McAfee - configure it as regards notifications, if you do not want it then uninstall and use the uninstall tool MCPR.exe

TraderGary · May 17, 2026

This forum is quite interesting in its general hatred of anything Microsoft.

gunrunnerjohn · May 17, 2026

TraderGary said:
This forum is quite interesting in its general hatred of anything Microsoft.

Especially considering it's a Windows forum!

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