How to Stop Pop-Up Ads on Windows 11

Check if the pop-ups are coming from your browser or from Windows itself, because the fixes are completely different. Browser pop-ups appear inside Chrome or Edge — ads when you open new tabs, redirects to sketchy sites, “You have a virus!” warnings. Windows pop-ups appear on the desktop, in the system tray, or as notification toasts in the bottom-right corner.

For browser pop-ups: open Chrome settings, Privacy and security, Site Settings, Notifications. Scroll through the “Allowed to send notifications” list. If you see any website listed there that you don’t recognize — and there’s usually several — click the three dots next to it and Remove. At some point you clicked “Allow” on a notification permission popup without realizing you were subscribing to push ads. Every single one of those sites will spam you until you revoke the permission. This is the number one source of “pop-up virus” complaints I get and it’s not a virus at all.

If the pop-ups are actual ads injected into every page, or your search engine keeps changing, or you see a “Managed by your organization” message in Chrome — that’s a browser hijacker and it needs the full removal process. Revoking notification permissions won’t fix it because the hijacker is a Chrome policy or extension with elevated access.

Windows Notifications

Microsoft itself sends pop-up ads through Windows 11. Not malware — built-in promotions for OneDrive, Microsoft 365, Copilot, and other Microsoft products. They show up as toast notifications and in the notification center.

Turn them off: Settings, System, Notifications. Uncheck “Get tips and suggestions when using Windows” and “Show me the Windows welcome experience” and “Suggest ways I can finish setting up my device.” Those three checkboxes control most of the Microsoft promotional notifications. While you’re there, scroll down through the per-app notification list and turn off anything you don’t want popping up — Feedback Hub, Get Help, Microsoft Store, Widgets.

Settings, Privacy & security, General — turn off “Show me suggested content in the Settings app” and “Let apps show me personalized ads.” Settings, Personalization, Lock screen — change the status dropdown and turn off “Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen.” While you’re in Personalization, the Background settings sometimes reset after these changes too. Microsoft hides ad toggles across four different settings pages and none of them are obviously named.

Actual Adware

If pop-ups appear on the desktop — not in a browser, on the actual Windows desktop — or if the notification area has programs you’ve never seen showing balloon tips, you have adware installed. Common ones in 2026: Web Companion, PC Accelerate Pro, OneClick Updater, and a dozen variants that install themselves bundled with free software.

Open Settings, Apps, Installed apps. Sort by install date. Anything installed the same day the pop-ups started is suspect. Uninstall it. If it doesn’t show up in the app list, it might be running as a service — check Task Manager, Startup tab for anything unfamiliar, and open services.msc for services with random-looking names.

After removing what you can find manually, run Malwarebytes free version — it catches PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) that Windows Defender deliberately ignores because the vendors pay Microsoft to whitelist them. Malwarebytes has no such deals. Our full adware removal guide covers the deep clean when the standard uninstall doesn’t get everything.

If the pop-ups are specifically fake virus warnings telling you to call a phone number or download a “security scanner” — do not call the number, do not download anything. Those are tech support scams and the phone number connects to someone who will charge you $200-500 to “fix” a problem that doesn’t exist. Close the browser tab. If it won’t close, Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, find the browser, End Task. If any of this sounds like what you’re dealing with and you can’t get rid of it, we handle this daily and it takes about twenty minutes remotely.