Flexible Family Removal Guide

Flexible Family is yet another low-grade adware-type program set to annoy you with its intrusive promotions. On top of that, these promotions can pose a significant threat to your computer’s security. Therefore, we advise that you remove it as soon as you can because otherwise your computer might become infected with malware or you might get scammed by some fake website. This program comes from an unknown bunch of developers, so there is no telling what content they may try to endorse to make more money. So if your computer has been infected with this adware, then we kindly invite you to read this short article as it contains everything you need to know about it.

We have recently experienced a wave of new adware releases from a particular secretive malware developer that apart from Flexible Family has also developed Diet Interactive, Diet Bright, MultiSurveys, and several other similar programs. Thus, we have come to refer to all of these programs as clones since their core code is the same. The only things that set them apart are their rather uncreative names and promoted content. However, in this article we will focus only on Flexible Family only, but if you want to find out more about its clones, then you can do it here at 411-spyware.com.

Our research has revealed that this particular ad-supported program is currently being promoted via various browser hijackers that inject the link to this program’s main website (Flexiblefamily.com) in their search results. Therefore, there is a high chance to install this adware unintentionally. So we recommend that you scan your computer for malicious software using our featured anti-malware tool since browser hijackers are the only medium that promotes Flexible Family. Of course, you can go directly to its website and download it at your own will, but very few users do that and we definitely do not recommend that.

The purpose of adware is to promote and advertise certain content such as services or software. However, online advertising is nowadays dominated by shady advertisers that strive to make as much money as possible by promoting illicit content such as fake online shopping websites, fake antimalware tools, and so on.

When you download this program’s InstallCore-based installer named FlexibleFamily_Setup.exe and run it, it will install not only Flexible Family but additional potentially unwanted software and a browser hijacker named Yoursearching.com. This browser hijacker will replace your browser’s homepage with its own address and then subject you to shady promotional links. On a more technical side of things, the InstallCore installer will drop Flexible Family’s files to several locations. The list of file directories is provided below.

• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\FlexibleFamily
• %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\FlexibleFamily
• %USERPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\FlexibleFamily
• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\FlexibleFamily
• %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\FlexibleFamily
• %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\FlexibleFamily
• %PROGRAMFILES%\FlexibleFamily

In addition to dropping its malicious files, this installer will inject three registry keys whose job is to modify Internet Explorer to load promoted websites. However, it will open the browser each time you boot up your computer. So the injected keys include the following:

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMStorage\flexiblefamily.com
• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMStorage\www.flexiblefamily.com
• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{7005CDC3-58BA-487B-9052-CB3A8FA16AF6}_is1.

While testing this adware we found that it currently promotes two websites using Internet Explorer. These sites include Freebiesfrenzy.com/lp-d4m and Redtag-specials.com/?agent_ID=201735&campaign_ID=6089. The first site promotes free samples of various programs, but requires you to provide personal information such as you name and email address, and then your home address, birth date, phone number and other information, but you get nothing in return. We are of the opinion that this website is used to collect personal information that can be used for illicit purposes, so do not provide it under any circumstances.

In addition to promoting websites via Internet Explorer, Flexible Family will do the same on its dedicated adverting window that will also force open randomly during your computing session. This dedicated adverting window can be closed like a regular window. It is set to promote websites different from those that are advertised via Internet Explorer, but in any case, they can also be malicious. So all in all, this adware is annoying, intrusive, and malicious. Thus, we recommend that you uninstall it as soon as possible.

The good news is that getting rid of this infection is just matter of going to Control Panel and clicking the Uninstall button. However, the uninstaller will leave two of the three registry keys, and we recommend that you delete them manually, because if they remain, then Internet Explorer will continue to force open at random and load the promoted websites. So please consult the instructions below to remove Flexible Family in its entirety.

How to uninstall the adware

Windows 10/8.1/8

1. Press Windows Key+R.
2. Type Control Panel in the resulting dialog box and click OK.
3. Select Uninstall a program and locate the malicious program.
4. Click the Uninstall button.

Windows 7/Vista

1. Open the Start menu and click Control Panel.
2. Select Uninstall a program.
3. Find the program, right-click on it and click Uninstall.

Windows XP

1. Open the Start menu located on the bottom left side of the screen.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Select Add or Remove Programs and find the application.
4. Click Remove.

Delete the remaining registry keys

1. Press the Windows+R keys.
2. Type regedit in the resulting dialog box and click OK.
3. Find and Delete the following keys.

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMStorage\flexiblefamily.com
• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\DOMStorage\www.flexiblefamily.com