Chrome: Remove browser hijackers

A browser hijacker is a malicious program that intervenes in browser settings. How to remove the annoying extension in Chrome and how to reset your settings, read this guide.

Chrome: reset settings and remove browser hijackers

You are suddenly redirected to other websites, you are shown a different search engine as standard, there are constantly annoying popups or you see new toolbars in the browser. Then you are the victim of a browser hijacker. In Google Chrome, however, you can get rid of it relatively quickly.

• Enter "chrome: // extensions /" in the address line of your browser.
• Now select all the extensions you do not know and then click on the trash can.
• In the left menu bar under "Chrome" go to "Settings".
• Choose Settings> At Startup> Set Pages.
• Now look for all suspicious entries under "Home Pages" and click on the "X" to delete them.
• Finally, confirm with "OK".
• Go to "Settings"> "Appearance"> "Show Home button"> "New tab page change".
• Activate the entry "Use new tab page" under "Start page" and confirm this with "OK".
• Under Settings, navigate to Search> Manage Search Engines.
• Select your default search engine under "Search engines" and then click on "Set as default".
• Select the unwanted search engine (s) in the "Default search settings" and "Other search engines" list and delete them by clicking on "X".
• With "Done" you end the dialog and can now surf normally again.
• Alternatively, you can also completely reset Google Chrome to default settings - but then you will also lose saved passwords and your bookmarks.
• Extra tip: With the Power Eraser from Norton you can scan your browser and free it from unwanted programs.

Chrome: Force browser windows to close

Malware is not always installed right away. Sometimes windows are simply blocked by a hijacker. Suddenly a new window pops up in the browser, for example informing you that your PC has been locked. This window can no longer be closed and at first it really looks like you cannot carry out any further commands. But there is help against it:

• Because before you exit Chrome completely, use the key combination [Ctrl] + [W]. This only closes the currently open browser tab.
• If that doesn't help, navigate to Chrome settings by clicking on the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen.
• Select "More Tools" and then "Task Manager".
• Now you can see all open tabs in Chrome. Select the no longer responding page with a mouse click and close the page with a click on the "End Process" button.
• If all of this does not help, exit the browser using the Windows Task Manager, which you can call up by pressing the [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Enft] keys at the same time.
• Once there, select the "Processes" tab and then right-click from the "Chrome.exe" list. Now close Chrome with "End process structure".

To protect your computer from future infections, we recommend using SpyBot.