How to Remove Paymentnotifyfriends.info (Browser Redirect/PUP)

What is Paymentnotifyfriends.info? And how does it work?

Paymentnotifyfriends.info is a suspicious website that presents a pop-up message asking users to click on the Allow button to get notifications from its site. It lures users into clicking this button by promising to provide a video URL. However, when you click on the Allow button, not only will you get notifications from this shady site, but you will also be bombarded with tons of sponsored content. This is why aside from being categorized as a browser redirect, Paymentnotifyfriends.info is also considered to be a PUP and an adware.
Browser redirects and adware like Paymentnotifyfriends.info are often caused by a potentially unwanted program on your computer or worse a malware. A presence of either a malware or PUP can trigger such redirects to suspicious domains. So you could have installed an unwanted program that caused the redirects or the unwanted program may have sneak its way into your computer without you knowing.
Paymentnotifyfriends.info is being used by anonymous third parties in redirecting users to their websites to increase profit and generate advertising revenue. However, this browser redirect also has the ability to redirect you to suspicious websites that may try to obtain your personal information or make you install some suspicious program or update. Aside from that, it could also harvest your non-personally identifiable information like your IP address, browsing history, search queries, websites you often visit, browser version and so on. The information gathered might be shared with its affiliated third parties and processed to generate more sponsored content.
Even though Paymentnotifyfriends.info is more intrusive than dangerous, it would absolutely ruin your browsing experience and can even cause harm to your sensitive data and computer’s security. Therefore you should not waste your time and erase Paymentnotifyfriends.info from your computer.
How does Paymentnotifyfriends.info spread over the web?
You can get redirected to Paymentnotifyfriends.info when you click an ad online. But if you’re constantly redirected to this site, it could only mean one thing – there is some ad-supported program installed in your PC. Adware programs are often one of the main causes for many browser redirects. So if you always see ads that are promoting Paymentnotifyfriends.info, you need to check your computer for any adware. Usually adware programs travel the web through software bundles where it is hidden among other free programs. Installing these kinds of programs using the Custom or Advanced setup is a must as this is the only way you can avoid adware and other unwanted programs from infiltrating your PC.
Removing this browser redirect isn’t as easy as you think so you need to follow the removal instructions given below to successfully remove it from your browser and computer.
Step 1: Close all the browsers affected by Paymentnotifyfriends.info. 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 Paymentnotifyfriends.info 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 Paymentnotifyfriends.info 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 Paymentnotifyfriends.info.
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 Paymentnotifyfriends.info 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 Paymentnotifyfriends.info 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.