Removing Pluto TV (Adware/PUP)

What is Pluto TV? And how does it function?

Pluto TV is offered as a legitimate online television service that allows users access to 75 live channels and streams hundreds of popular TV series and movies. This program might sound useful and appealing to you because of the features it offers, however you should consider the fact that this program is actually categorized as an ad-supported program or adware and a potentially unwanted program (PUP) since it is not safe to use.
You might wonder why Pluto TV is considered to be an adware – well mainly because it has a tendency of displaying excessive ads to its users. The moment it is installed into your computer, it is quick to alter the settings of your browsers so that the next time you open a browser, you will be forced to use Pluto TV as you browse the web.
If you take time to read reviews about Pluto TV, you will see that many users consider this program as a virus even though it’s really not one because of it keeps on delivering intrusive ads to users. Aside from this, you should also consider the following reasons why you should remove Pluto TV from your PC:

It has not HTPPS protocol
Frequent appearance of intrusive and annoying ads
It collects and shares its users’ personal information with its affiliated business partners

To elaborate on the last part, it simply means that this program has the ability to monitor all your browsing activities so it can collect your non-personally identifiable information. The information gathered includes your IP address, browsing history, search queries, ads clicked, websites you frequently go to and so on. Here’s some excerpt from Pluto TV’s Privacy Policy that only proves it is a threat to your privacy:
“We gather various types of Personal Information from our users, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services(…). In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described below.”
Thus, Pluto TV, despite its seemingly useful features, can’t be trusted – which is why you should remove it from your PC as soon as you can.
How is Pluto TV distributed online?
Pluto TV has its own official website at Pluto.tv where it is being distributed. Its latest version is 0.0.9 at the time of writing. However, you should know that when you install or when you let this program stay on your computer, you risk of getting additional suspicious plug-ins or programs so you must not delay its removal.
For the removal of Pluto TV, simply follow the removal guide below.
Step 1: Close all the browsers infected with Pluto TV. If you’re having a hard time closing them, you can close them using the Task Manager just tap on Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
Step 2: After you open the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for the infected browser’s process and end it.
Step 3: Edit your Hosts File

Tap the Win + R keys to open then type in %WinDir% and then click OK.
Go to System32/drivers/etc.
Open the host’s file using Notepad.
Delete all the entries containing Pluto TV.
After that, save the changes you’ve made and close the file.

Step 4: Reset all your browsers to default to their default state.
Google Chrome

Launch Google Chrome, press Alt + F, move to More tools, and click Extensions.
Look for Pluto TV or any other unwanted add-ons, click the Recycle Bin button, and choose Remove.
Restart Google Chrome, then tap Alt + F, and select Settings.
Navigate to the On Startup section at the bottom.
Select “Open a specific page or set of pages”.
Click the More actions button next to the hijacker and click Remove.

Mozilla Firefox

Open the browser and tap Ctrl + Shift + A to access the Add-ons Manager.
In the Extensions menu Remove the unwanted extension.
Restart the browser and tap keys Alt + T.
Select Options and then move to the General menu.
Overwrite the URL in the Home Page section and then restart the browser.

Internet Explorer

Launch Internet Explorer.
Tap Alt + T and select Internet options.
Click the General tab and then overwrite the URL under the homepage section.
Click OK to save the changes.

Step 5: Open Control Panel by pressing the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then click OK or press Enter.

Step 6: Look for any suspicious program that is affiliated with Pluto TV and then Uninstalls it.

Step 7: Hold down Windows + E keys simultaneously to open File Explorer.
Step 8: Navigate to the following directories and look for suspicious files associated with Pluto TV and delete it/them.

%USERPROFILE%\Downloads
%USERPROFILE%\Desktop
%TEMP%

Step 9: Close the File Explorer.
Step 10: Empty the Recycle Bin.
Follow the advanced instructions below to ensure the removal of Pluto TV as well as all the file residues it left behind.
Perform a full system scan using SpyRemover Pro. To do so, follow these steps:

Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot
After that, the BIOS screen wll be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.

To navigate the Advanced Option use the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
Windows will now load the SafeMode with Networking.
Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
Type in explorer http://www.fixmypcfree.com/install/spyremoverpro

A single space must be in between explorer and http. Click OK.

A dialog box will be displayed by Internet Explorer. Click Run to begin downloading the program. The installation will start automatically once a download is done.