What Is the Wave Browser and How To Remove It

There are many excellent browsers to choose from, but you may find that you have an extra browser on your computer that you definitely didn’t choose yourself. If you suddenly have something called “Wave Browser” installed on your computer, there are important things you need to know about its risks and how to get rid of them by using a little troubleshooting.

What Is the Wave Browser?

The name might suggest that Wave Browser is a web browser. According to a public threat analysis, Wave browser is based on the open-source Chromium browser that also serves as the basis for Google Chrome and the latest Microsoft Edge version.

On the Wave Browser home page, the software is advertised both as a privacy-focused browser and a browser that can be custom-branded for marketing purposes.

This all sounds innocent enough, but although you can voluntarily install Wave browser, the real issue is that the software finds its way onto computers when users did not ask for it or knowingly give permission for it. That makes Wave Browser a PUP or Potentially Unwanted Program. PUPs walk a fine line between being a harmless irritation and outright malware.

There’s a good chance that your antivirus software won’t raise the alarm when something like Wave browser is installed on your system or do anything to prevent that installation in the first place.

What Does Wave Browser Do?

According to the threat assessment, Wave Browser was created by Wavesor Software, owned by Polarity Technologies Ltd in Cyprus. Polarity is, in turn, owned by Genimous, which is a Hong Kong-based company. Genimous is allegedly connected to several “browser hijackers.” Wave Browser is also associated with a company named iSign International, which makes several other security products.

A major red flag with Wave Browser is how little information there is about what it does, how it works, or why it exists. The websites that advertise the software don’t say much beyond a few vague privacy statements without explaining exactly how it’s all meant to work.

Is it a browser hijacker or benign adware?

Browser hijackers are a type of malware that alters your browser’s settings and appearance. For example, they might change your homepage to a malicious web page (visible on a new tab), or install addons and plugins that do things like record you through your webcam, log your keystrokes, or otherwise invade your privacy to scam or victimize you. Suspicious (and ugly) toolbars in your browser are another classic symptom of browser hijackers.

The Wave browser does not appear to rise to the level of malicious browser hijacking. Instead, it’s a form of “adware.” However, even adware comes with risks that the developers didn’t intend, which we’ll explain in more detail later in this article.

Suspicious Wave Browser Behavior

The threat assessment summary does point out a number of problematic behaviors from Wave Browser.

First, the program has been designed to evade analysis, to resist being uninstalled, and, as mentioned before, to install itself without the user knowing about it. It can disguise desktop windows to hide graphical interactions. There’s also mention of “some Nymaim” behavior, which refers to an (entirely separate) trojan that installs additional malware once it’s on your system.

How Did Wave Browser Get on Your Computer?

If you didn’t install Wave Browser on your computer on purpose, the most likely way it got onto your system is through a practice sometimes referred to as “bundling.”

This is when extra software is bundled in with a primary package that you want to install. 

For example, you might download a great DVD burning app, but that app also installs things like browser plugins or antivirus packages. These additional software packages are often just adware rather than malware. They might even be completely innocent applications that you might otherwise have wanted on your computer.

Regardless of the payload, app bundling piggybacks off your permission to install the primary application to install everything else. 

Bundling isn’t exactly illegal or a scam. It relies on our tendency to ignore all of the writing in application installers, simply clicking “next” repeatedly until we can use the app we want. By making the bundled apps “opt-out” rather than “opt-in,” they manage to move the responsibility to the user. If you had read the installation terms and unchecked or customized the “standard” installation, the bundled apps would never be installed on your computer in the first place.

How Dangerous Is Wave Browser?

We have to be clear that there’s no objective evidence that Wave browser is doing anything specifically malicious. Still, the entire way it operates, avoids analysis, and resists removal from your system makes it an application you probably don’t want. Add to this the dubious nature of the companies that are associated with it, and there’s even more reason to stay away.

Wave Browser also alters the settings of all the browsers on your system. This is done without asking for your consent, without explaining what the changes are, and certainly not for the benefit of the user.

The scope for harm here is not to be underestimated. You may experience advertising pop-ups that you wouldn’t have otherwise. These adverts have the potential to be malicious, to slow down your computer, or to invade your privacy. You may also be redirected to fake or otherwise malicious websites, significantly increasing the risk of going online.

How to Remove Wave Browser Automatically

As you’ll see in the following two sections of the article, Wave Browser isn’t easy to remove. It requires significant digging into your computer’s files and settings and risks like losing data or breaking something else.

This is why our first recommendation is to install and run specialized adware or malware software to identify and remove the Wave Browser. There are several anti-malware applications, but the one that protects against the Wave Browser is MalwareBytes. Simply install the program, run a scan, and then choose to quarantine and remove the Wave Browser.

The best part of this method is that the software should also identify other programs that Wave Browser may have subsequently installed, so it’s generally the most effective solution.

If you’re using a Mac, you may want to consider using CleanMyMac X, which is a malware removal tool part of its functionality.

Restore Your Computer to Before the Installation of Wave Browser

If you have a system restore point or a recent drive backup, it could be faster and more thorough to restore your computer to a time before Wave Browser was installed.

This isn’t as quick and easy as using a malware removal tool, but it’s likely to be less work and more effective than a manual removal attempt if you can’t or don’t want to use a malware removal tool.

If you can’t use a malware removal tool and you don’t have a restoration method available to you, then you’ll have to scrub it manually.

How to Remove Wave Browser Manually on Windows

The first step to removing Wave Browser on Microsoft Windows systems is to uninstall the software the usual way.

1. In Windows 10 or Windows 11, open the Start Menu and search for Add or remove programs. You also find it by searching for Apps and Features or Programs and Features.

2. Select the entry when it appears. You can also find Add or remove programs in the Control Panel.

3. Look for Wave Browser’s entry and uninstall it.

If you don’t see anything called “Wave Browser,” arrange your installed programs by date so that the most recent applications are at the top. Uninstall any software that you don’t recognize or know what it does. If you aren’t sure, do a web search to see what each one does and make sure it’s legitimate. Using the uninstall function in Windows will remove the “exe” file that executes Wave browser.

After the uninstallation, reboot your computer into Safe Mode to stop anything but core Windows components from loading. Most importantly, since Wave Browser adds a task to your Task Scheduler, Safe Mode prevents that from running at startup, allowing you to manually remove its components.

If you don’t know how to start Windows in Safe mode, have a look at our guides to starting Windows 10 and Windows 11 in Safe Mode.

Once in Safe Mode, delete these files and folders from your computer’s hard drive:

• %QUICKLAUNCH%\WaveBrowser.lnk
• %PROGRAMS%\WaveBrowser.lnk
• %APPDATA%\Wavesor Software
• %USERROOT%\Wavesor Software
• %PROGRAMFILES%\Wavesor Software

Remember that these locations are relative to where you chose to install Windows and your applications on your computer. These locations also change with different versions of Wave browser. 

In our test inside a virtual machine, we found the Wavesor folder under Users/IEUser/Wavesor Software/ Wave Browser.

If you’re having a hard time finding the Wave Browser, you can check the properties of its desktop shortcut and find its target location.

Next, open the Start Menu, search for the Registry Editor, and open it.

WARNING: You can crash your Windows computer by making a mistake when editing in the Registry Editor. If you don’t feel confident, leave it alone or ask for help from someone who knows what they are doing.

In the Registry Editor, look for the following keys and delete them:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\WaveBrowser
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Wavesor
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\WaveBrowser

After removing these files and registry entries, restart your computer as normal and Wave Browser should be gone.

How to Remove Wave Browser Manually on Mac

Removing Wave Browser from a Mac is thankfully much easier than removing it from a Windows PC. All you have to do is head to the Applications folder in Finder and then drag Wave Browser to the bin. Empty the bin to delete it for good.

Although Wave Browser may be gone, its web browser plugins may live on in your browsers. If you’re only using Safari, then check out How to Install or Uninstall Safari Extensions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. If you’re using Chrome, then have a look at How to Install and Uninstall Chrome Extensions.

Hunting Down Related Apps and Processes

After you’ve removed the Wave browser from your Windows PC or macOS computer, your work isn’t entirely done. You still need to check for other things that might have been installed with the Wave Browser.

On Windows, open the Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Delete) and look for any running processes that look suspicious. Do a web search on each one to ensure that it’s not a legitimate process and, if it is malware, do another web search on how to remove it.

On a Mac, you’ll use Activity Monitor (find it using Spotlight Search through Command + Spacebar) to do the same thing.

Again, it’s much easier to simply use anti-malware software to identify and remove potential adware or spyware. Only do the manual method if these software programs don’t fix the issue. 

Remember to Reset Your Browsers

Even after you’ve removed all traces of Wave Browser and you’ve eliminated any other suspicious software that might have been installed with it, there are a few remaining issues.

Any changes to your settings or additional plugins that have been installed need to be dealt with. Just because Wave Browser is gone doesn’t mean the changes that it’s already made to your system have also been reversed.

Whether you’re using Microsoft Edge, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome, you’ll have to check and reset each browser individually. If there are browsers that you aren’t using, you may be better off uninstalling them. 

If you’re still using an old version of Windows with Internet Explorer, we strongly recommend that you update to a newer version of Windows and a different browser like Edge since your security on those older platforms is inadequate.

While we can’t detail the steps to reset every browser out there, most Chromium-based browsers, such as Chrome and the latest version of Microsoft Edge, use the same general method.

Simply go to Settings > Advanced > Reset Settings > Restore settings to their original default.

You should also visit Settings > Extensions and remove all extensions you did not put there.

What About Wave Browser on iOS and Android?

There seems to be a version of Wave browser on both the Apple Apple Store and Google Play Store. We were unable to find any information indicating that these apps are malicious. Both Google and Apple have strict rules for apps on their platforms, so we expect that these apps would have been reported and delisted by now if they misbehaved. 

That being said, it’s probably a good idea to avoid installing them in the first place. There are many excellent browsers on mobile and if you’re really concerned about strong privacy, consider something like the Brave Browser instead.

How to Prevent PUPs in Future

The best way to prevent the installation of PUPs is to carefully read every page of the installation wizard when you install a new application. Especially if it’s a free application, remember that free applications still need to pay for their own development and hosting. If that money isn’t coming from you, then it has to come from someone else. That means advertising within the application and external sponsorships from companies to bundle their software with the app.

This creates an incentive for even reputable free app developers to open the door to malicious or unwanted software that slips through your net on a technicality.

As always, you should never install software that you download from the internet without scanning it for malware first. Before running it, you can use an online tool such as VirusTotal to check an installer. Just remember that even if the scanner doesn’t show malware, there may still be bundled adware in the package, so take special care when installing the software.