Sam Boyd
Updated on: December 31, 2024
Fact-checked by Hazel Shaw
Short on time? Here’s how to secure your system after visiting Y2mate:
- 1. Scan Device. Run a full system scan with an antivirus (Norton is a trusted antivirus).
- 2. Remove Any Viruses. After the scan is complete, let the antivirus remove all instances of viruses, malware, or adware you may have accidentally downloaded from Y2mate.
- 3. Stay Protected. Protect yourself from other online threats using a trusted internet security program (Norton offers great online protections).
Y2mate is a website that lets you download videos and audio from YouTube. However, Y2mate also contains a lot of malware downloads, ads, links, and pop-ups, all of which can redirect you to unsafe sites. These unsafe websites will often prompt you to install potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) or contain drive-by download attacks (malware that downloads automatically).
If your system is running poorly, you see pop-ups on your desktop, have new toolbars in your browser, or aren’t sure what you downloaded from Y2mate — your device is probably infected with malware.
Luckily, if you accidentally download any viruses or PUPs from Y2mate, you can easily remove them and protect your system from future threats by following my guide. While I recommend avoiding Y2mate altogether, if you are using it, you should certainly have a secure antivirus suite with decent real-time protection running in the background (Norton is the best).
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Step 1. Run a Full System Scan With Your Antivirus
REMEMBER: Never connect any of your other devices or external drives to your computer if you think it’s infected. If you do, you run the risk of the malware replicating onto your other devices as well.
Once you’ve downloaded a secure antivirus program, run a full disk scan on your computer. This scan will find and quarantine viruses (and PUPs) on your computer, so you can safely remove them. It will also pick up on rootkits, spyware, and worms that can often run on your device undetected.
A full disk scan will detect, quarantine, and remove every virus (and PUP) it finds on your system, including spyware, rootkits, or worms that can often run undetected.
Run the full system scan until it’s finished. Don’t cancel the scan when you see a virus appear on the infected file list. There’s no way of knowing how many other copies of it exist in your system.
The full scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to 1 hour or more because your antivirus needs to analyze every single file and process on your computer. Once it’s complete, the antivirus will let you know. Now every instance of malware on your system has been identified and quarantined, it’s time for step 2.
Step 2. Delete Any Infected Files
After the full disk scan, your antivirus gives you the option to delete all the compromised files it has placed into quarantine. If you’re a technical user, you could take a look at all the quarantined files to check for any false positives. However, non-technical users can just trust their antivirus to do its job. When a reliable antivirus like Norton flags a file as malware, it’s probably best to get rid of it.
After you’ve removed any compromised files from your system, it’s a good idea to restart your computer.
After you restart your device, run a second full disk scan to ensure your antivirus has removed all traces of malware. The second scan usually won’t take as long — top antiviruses like Norton can remember which files have already been scanned, meaning the analysis is much quicker in subsequent scans.
Once again, it’s important to let the scan run to completion. When the scan is finished and you’ve reviewed and deleted any compromised files in your quarantine, you can be satisfied that your device is 100% malware-free! But you need to keep it that way. Move on to Step 3 to learn how.
Step 3. Keep Your Device Protected Against Future Infections
New malware is released every day, making it easy to accidentally install infected applications. There’s also the risk of online data harvesting, identity theft, and public Wi-Fi hackers.
How can you keep your devices and data safe? There are several things you can do:
- Use an Ad Blocker: Using an ad blocker when visiting Y2mate and similar websites will not only make your browsing experience more pleasant, it will ensure you don’t even see most of the potentially malicious pop-ups that can endanger your system if you click on them. I recommend the one bundled with Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN because it worked the best for me, blocking the most ads, but there are pretty good standalone and even free ones you can try out as well.
- Keep Your Software, OS, and Drivers Up-to-Date: If you’re running outdated software, your chances of getting hacked are really high. This is because hackers can easily exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software to gain access to your device. Software updates work by patching up identified vulnerabilities, so keeping your software, OS, and drivers up-to-date is vital.
- Don’t Download Suspicious Files: If you’re not totally sure what a file is or where it came from, don’t download it. Often malware gets onto your computer through emails and websites that are cleverly designed to look legitimate but are really anything but. A good antivirus will keep you and your device safe by scanning your emails and downloads, and alerting you to anything suspicious before it can do any damage.
- Secure Your Wireless Network and IoT Devices: Make sure your wireless network is secure before you go online. You can do this by using a firewall, but you should also ensure your home Wi-Fi connection and internet of things (IoT) devices are password-protected too. Unsecured networks and devices are far more vulnerable since anyone can connect to them, but hackers can even infiltrate a secured device that is password-protected.
- Download a Secure Antivirus Program: There are a ton of antivirus packages on the market. However, only a few provide all of the security protections you need to stay safe online.
Editors’ Note: Private Internet Access and this site are in the same ownership group.
Best Antivirus Programs for Removing the Y2mate Virus
Quick summary of the best antiviruses for removing the Y2mate Virus:
- 🥇1. Norton — Best overall antivirus for removing all traces of the Y2mate virus.
- 🥈2. Bitdefender — Lightweight anti-malware engine with no performance impact.
- 🥉3. TotalAV — Reliable, easy-to-use antivirus with heaps of extras.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I trust Y2mate?
No, you shouldn’t trust Y2mate. Many pop-ups and sponsored links on the site lead to dangerous downloads, adult content, and traps to steal your personally identifiable information (PII).
If you do visit Y2mate, make sure you have a comprehensive antivirus installed on your system (Norton is best), don’t allow Y2mate’s notifications, and don’t click on any links or pop-ups.
Is Y2mate illegal?
Downloading any content from YouTube — including downloads from Y2mate — is not allowed and is considered a breach of copyright. The only videos and audio you can legally download from the internet are those in the public domain or under Creative Commons licensing.
If you want to download videos and music, it’s better to use a legal and trusted website that has paid for the proper licensing — allowing it to legally distribute its videos via download.
How to block Y2mate ads?
There’s no way to remove Y2mate’s ads and pop-ups when you’re on the site. An ad blocker can reduce their number quite substantially, but you won’t be able to stop them entirely. Keep in mind that even if you do block its ads, Y2mate can still infect your device with malware.
As a result, I highly recommend two things — avoiding Y2mate altogether and using a good antivirus app to run a full system scan if you do decide to use it.
How to remove Y2mate ads and notifications on Chrome?
If you’re receiving ads and push notifications when you’re not on Y2mate’s website, then you probably clicked Allow Notifications when you previously visited the site. Here’s how you can fix this on Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, like Edge and Brave:
- Click on the padlock symbol to the left of the site URL.
- In the “Notifications” drop-down list, change the setting to “Block.” This will stop Y2mate from displaying push notifications.
How to remove Y2mate ads and notifications on Firefox?
If you’re receiving ads and push notifications when you’re not on Y2mate’s website, then you probably clicked Allow Notifications when you previously visited the site. Here’s how you can fix this on Firefox:
- Click the padlock icon to the left of the URL, and click the arrow that reads “Show Connection Details” when you highlight it.
- Click “More Information.” Then in the window that displays, click the “Permissions” tab.
- Check that all permissions on Y2mate are set to “Block.”
