A browser whose home page has changed by itself
Put your own home page and search back, and remove the thing that changed them without your permission.
One morning the browser opens on a page you have never chosen, and typing into the address bar produces a search you have never heard of.
This has a name in the trade — a browser hijack, which is a dramatic word for a nuisance. Something you installed came with a passenger: a free PDF reader, a photo tool, a driver updater, a game. On the third or fourth screen of the installer there was a small pre-checked box offering to "improve your search experience", and Next was the sensible-looking button.
Nothing is broken and nothing has been stolen. Three settings were changed, and all three change back.
It is always the same three places, whichever browser you use.
And a word on the free program that brought it: it may well be perfectly good. The passenger is not a sign that you chose badly. It is a sign that somebody was paid to hide a check box.
Key points
- Set the page your browser opens on, in one box
- Find the extensions list and recognize the two you did not choose
- Remove an extension, and know it cannot take your bookmarks or passwords with it
- Use Restore settings to their defaults when picking through is not worth the time
What to remember
- Change the setting, then remove the extension — otherwise it changes the setting back tomorrow.
- Free programs are often paid for by their passengers. Custom install, and read the check marks.
Try this
Open your browser’s extensions list and read the names. Anything you cannot account for arrived with something else, and turning it off for a week costs nothing.
Practice: A browser whose home page has changed by itself. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.