How to Erase Free Ride Games Player (Adware/PUP)

What is Free Ride Games Player? And how does it function?

Free Ride Games Player is a shady online gaming platform that offers users free online games. It has a feature where you can still view and play online games even when you’re on a different website. If installed, it will configure the default settings in your Chrome browser. Consequently, you will now see Free Ride Games Player the moment you open your browser. The downside to these changes is that it is done without your permission. Thus security experts dubbed Free Ride Games Player as a browser hijacker as well as a potentially unwanted program.
You wouldn’t really enjoy playing such games since all these ads will just keep on coming which can make it hard for you to focus on the game. Some of these ads can even redirect you to suspicious parts of the web that might contain malicious content. What’s more is that this adware can also track down your browsing activities in order to obtain browsing data which includes the websites you visit often, ads you’ve clicked, search queries, browsing history, IP address, and many more. The harvested data is then used to deliver more personalized and customized ads. It might even be shared with its affiliated sites. Therefore, if you want to keep browsing the web safely, you need to erase Free Ride Games Player.
How does Free Ride Games Player circulate the web?
Just like other ad-supported programs, Free Ride Games Player is distributed using the software bundling technique. This method is commonly utilized by cyber crooks in distributing unwanted programs like Free Ride Games Player. This is why when you install software bundles, you must select the Custom setup instead of the standard one as the former allows you to get rid of any extra components that may have been added in the package before you start the installation.
Follow the removal guide laid out below to remove Free Ride Games Player from your browser and computer as well as the ad-supported program that triggers it.
Step 1: Close all the browsers affected with Free Ride Games Player. 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: Next, go to Processes and look for the process of the browser you’re unable to close as well as other dubious processes that could be related to Free Ride Games Player and then right click on each one of them and select End Process or End Task to kill their processes.
Step 3: Then open the Programs and Features section in Control Panel. To do so, tap the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then click OK or press Enter.
Step 4: From the list of programs installed, look for any suspicious program that could be related to Free Ride Games Player and then Uninstall them.

Step 5: 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 hosts file using Notepad.
Delete all the entries containing Free Ride Games Player.
After that, save the changes you’ve made and close the file.

Step 6: Reset all your browsers to default to their default state.
Mozilla Firefox

Open Firefox and click the icon that looks like a three stacked lines located at the top-right section of the browser.
Next, select the question mark icon from the drop-down menu.
Then select “Troubleshooting information” from the slide-out menu.
After that, click on the “Reset Firefox” button located at the top-right section of the newly opened web page.
Now select “Reset Firefox” in the confirmation pop-up window that appears.

Google Chrome

Open Google Chrome, then tap the Alt + F keys.
After that, click on Settings.
Next, scroll down until you see the Advanced option, once you see it, click on it.
After clicking the Advanced option, go to the “Restore and clean up option and click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” option to reset Google Chrome.
Now restart Google Chrome.

Internet Explorer

Launch Internet Explorer.
Next, click the wrench icon for Settings.
Then click Internet Options.
After that, go to the Advanced tab.
From there, click the Reset button. This will reset Internet Explorer’s settings to their default condition.
Now click OK to save the changes made.

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 to Free Ride Games Player as well as the adware program that’s behind it and delete it/them.

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

Step 9: Close the File Explorer.
Step 10: Empty the Recycle Bin and afterwards, you have to flush the DNS cache. To do that, just, right click on the Start button and click on Command Prompt (administrator). From there, type the “ipconfig /flushdns” command and hit Enter to flush the DNS.
Follow the advanced instructions below to ensure the removal of Free Ride Games Player using [product-name] as well as all the file residues it left behind.
Perform a full system scan using [product-code]. To do so, follow these steps:

Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot it.
After that, the BIOS screen will 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 Safe Mode with Networking.
Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
Type in the URL address, [product-url] in the Run dialog box and then tap Enter or click OK.
After that, it will download the program. Wait for the download to finish and then open the launcher to install the program.
Once the installation process is completed, run [product-code] to perform a full system scan.