When you open your browser, is the homepage changed? Do new tabs open with a different search page or do ads appear on your web pages, or you get unrelated search results? If so, you have a browser hijacker not a “Web Explorer virus,” because there is no such thing.
A browser hijacker, takes over your browser and changes all the settings. It gets installed silently with some other program you install, usually a freeware. The easiest and quickest way to remove is to not reinstall OS but to follow the steps explained in the post, and everything will return to the way it was.
How Does a Browser Hijacker Get into Your System?
Usually, when free software like download managers, utility programs, antivirus, and other add-on software are installed from an unknown website, browser hijackers get installed. Cyberattackers intelligently bundle the hijacker programs with free downloads, and when the main application is installed, they also get into the system. In some cases, by default they are pre-checked and enabled for installation.
Once installed, they change the browser’s default search engine, homepage, or new tab page. This way the hijacker earns money from every search or ad click you make. It does not cause any harm, as most hijackers are designed to make money. But not all are built in the same manner. Some are designed to steal data, while others log browsing activity to create advertising profiles.
Most people run a full antivirus scan, to detect and remove them and when nothing is detected, they think everything is sorted. But with browser hijackers, this doesn’t work as they generally classified as potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) rather than viruses. So when you see things changing in your browser, a virus scan alone will not help. You will need a tool like Systweak Antivirus that can scan your browsers and detect the infected extension sitting in plain sight.
Signs Your Browser has been Hijacked
- The home page or new page keeps changing every time you open the browser or a new tab.
- A random search engine has suddenly become the default
- You see new toolbars or extensions in your browser.
- Search results are filled with ads, and some clicks just redirect you to some other page.
- Pages open more slowly in your browser than usual.
- Settings like the search engine, home page, and other things keep changing on their own.
How to Remove Browser Hijacker from Chrome, Edge and Firefox
The first step in removing a browser hijacker is to uninstall extensions you did not install or have no idea about. Once that is done, and the browser is reset to default settings, things go back to normal. But uninstalling these extensions is just a part. If the hijacker was installed via a desktop program, removing the extension without deleting it will cause the hijacker to reinstall itself when you reopen the browser.
Therefore, alongside removing browser extensions, always check the latest installed apps.
Go to Windows Settings > Apps > Installed apps and see if there is an app that was installed recently that you do not recognize. If so, uninstall it first, then clear the browser extensions because if you do the opposite or just change the home page, the fix will be temporary.
The right way is to uninstall the suspicious program, followed by removing extensions, then reset the browser to default settings.
After that, open Command Prompt as an administrator copy and paste (ipconfig /flushdns) and clear the DNS cache.
To manually remove hijacker from browser follow these steps:
Google Chrome
1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Copy and paste chrome://extensions in the address bar.
3. Check all extensions and click Remove to delete the ones you don’t recognize, including those you doubt. You can install them later if you need them.
4. Next, go to Settings. Click the three dots > Settings.
5. Click Reset settings from the left pane > click Restore settings to their original defaults and click Reset settings button.
6. Wait for the process to finish and settings to switch to defaults.
Note : Resetting the setting does not delete bookmarks, history, and saved passwords
7. Now again go to Settings and click Search engine to confirm it’s set to the one you setted.
Microsoft Edge
1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Copy and paste edge://extensions. Now look for any unfamiliar extensions and click Remove > confirm the action by again clicking Remove to get rid of them.
3. Next, click the three dots and select Settings.
4. Click Reset settings from the left pane > click Restore settings to their default values > click Reset to confirm the action and restart the browser.
5. Go to Start, home, and new tab page in Settings and check the settings. If you see that an extension is controlling the new page, turn it off and select Copilot.
6. Next, go to Privacy, search and services > click Search and connected experienced.
7. Click Address bar and search check the default search engine it should be the one you set.
Mozilla Firefox
1. Open Mozilla Firefox.
2. Copy and paste about:addons, in the address bar and click Extensions, from the left bar. Check the extensions.
3. To remove the unwanted ones click the three dots next to the extension and select Remove > confirm the action by clicking Remove.
4. Click the three horizontal select Settings.
5. Click Home and startup from the left pane, and click Restore Defaults to reset your homepage and new tab page.
6. Next, click the Search tab from the left pane and under Search, check your default search engine.
Using these steps you can remove the so-called Web Explorer browser virus a.k.a., Browser Hijacker.
Google Chrome Vs Mozilla Firefox: Which Browser is Better
Manual Removal vs. Antivirus Tools
To remove the browser hijacker manually you don’t need a tool but you need time and caution as making any change you are not sure of can mess things up. Whereas, using an antivirus tool with real time protection that can flag PUP before install like Systweak Antivirus will help catch hijacker processes, and its Web Protection can flag malicious links. The only drawback is that the tool is only available for Windows.
However, if you do not want to pay for a security tool, you can try using the built-in Windows Defender. But remember it does not detect adware, PUPs and can miss browser-level changes that aren’t technically malware. Some people even use third-party PUP/adware scanners which might seem the right choice at first but sometimes they themselves are bundled with unwanted extras.
Manual steps usually do the work. However, if the hijacker reinstalls itself, or you can’t find the program causing it, using a dedicated antivirus like Systweak Antivirus seems to be a smart choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Takeaway
A browser with a changed homepage, search engine is not uncommon. Everyone has witnessed it some time or the other. Luckily, this problem can be fixed by removing unwanted extensions, uninstalling unwanted free programs, resetting browser settings and by checking startup items and background processes. In case the problem resurfaces, checking the task scheduler, removing scheduled tasks that you don’t recognize and using an antivirus that comes with Web Protection as a feature to scan startup items is the best way to keep the problem away.