Firefox, Chrome & Co.: Your browser has to endure a lot. But what if viruses attack the browser. We’ll show you how to safely clean it all up.
Unwanted ads, intrusive pop-ups, warped homepages, redirected search queries or a real virus – you have to be prepared for this when you are surfing the web with your browser.
In many cases, you can quickly tell whether malware has taken over your browser by the following signs:
- More intrusive pop-ups and new tabs that won’t close
- Home page or search engine changes without your consent
- Unwanted extensions or toolbars pop up
- You get redirected to unknown pages or ads while browsing
- You receive warnings about a virus or an infected device
- The browser feels like it takes forever to load websites
In these cases, you should counteract with the following measures.
Step 1: Run virus scanner
Malware that somehow makes itself felt in the browser can have many origins. Harmless threats such as adware can be removed quite easily, but there are also really nasty malware that try to steal your passwords, for example. Therefore, first let your virus scanner run a complete system scan.
If you are traveling with Defender, the scan works by clicking on the Defender icon and “Virus & threat protection”. Click on the menu item “Scan options | Full scan”. If malware is found and removed here, you should take a close look at your browser again after restarting Windows. If the unusual behavior has disappeared, you are done at this point.
Of course, the virus check also works with any other virus scanner. Free offers with very good detection are Avast Free Antivirus or AVG Antivirus Free.
Step 2: Offline check and second opinion
Your virus scanner was already on the system when you caught the malware in your browser. It is therefore possible that the protection software simply overlooked something. What you can do now is scan your system offline. Windows Defender can easily do this via Scan Options via “Scan with Microsoft Defender Offline”.
Anyway, it’s a good idea to take an infected system offline. So do not endanger other devices in the same network, but disconnect the Internet connection. On a second system, get a so-called second-opinion virus scanner such as ESET Online Scanner or Zemana Anti-Malwareand use it to check your system again.
Step 3: Clean browser
You can of course reset your browser and in the step after next we will also show you how to do this. However, you may lose long-maintained bookmarks and other browsing data.
So before that, you should try cleaning it with a tool like AdwCleaner. The tool is free and self-explanatory. After the start, a click on “Scan now” is sufficient. Get any problems fixed or run a basic repair if needed.
Step 4 (Chrome only): Start a virus scan in the browser
Google Chrome offers a built-in virus scanner that you can access via the settings. To do this, first click on “Advanced” and then click “Reset and clean”.
You can start a search for malware via “Clean up your computer”. If unwanted software is found, you must confirm the removal of the corresponding modules and then restart the computer.
Step 5: Reset browser
You can reset Chrome and Firefox to factory settings using on-board tools. This should also get rid of stubborn threats, but unfortunately your browser settings are gone too.
- Chrome: In the settings, click on “Advanced” and then on “Reset and clean”. After that, “Restore settings to original default values” is the right choice. You must then explicitly confirm the reset again.
- Firefox: “about:support” takes you to an interesting subpage in Firefox, which also offers a reset via “clean up Firefox”. Confirm the reset again and Firefox will go back to the beginning.