Why does an unwanted advertising tab load at startup?
I use two home pages - BBC News and Met Office weather. These used to be the only two tabs that loaded at start up: now a third tab opens, which is pure advertising. The first ad on the extra tab currently is William Hill bookmakers.
I have run a full virus check (Windows Defender), but nothing showed up. My system is Windows 8.1.
Any help gratefully received, thank you!
Chosen solution
Hello,
Check your home page options to make sure that nothing appended itself at the end of your home pages:
- Tools (or
) > Options > General
Also check your list of extensions to make sure that nothing suspicious is there:
- Tools (or ) > Add-ons > Extensions
It might also be a good idea to scan with other antimalware tools as each have their own algorithms for finding malicious files and applications. The following are free tools that can run alongside Windows Defender without any issues (so long as you don't use their real-time protection, which is in the paid version only anyways):
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
- ESET Online Scanner
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
- Hitman Pro (30 day trial)
All Replies (2)
Chosen Solution
Hello,
Check your home page options to make sure that nothing appended itself at the end of your home pages:
- Tools (or ) > Options > General
Also check your list of extensions to make sure that nothing suspicious is there:
- Tools (or ) > Add-ons > Extensions
It might also be a good idea to scan with other antimalware tools as each have their own algorithms for finding malicious files and applications. The following are free tools that can run alongside Windows Defender without any issues (so long as you don't use their real-time protection, which is in the paid version only anyways):
- MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware
- AdwCleaner (for more info, see this alternate AdwCleaner download page)
- ESET Online Scanner
- Microsoft Safety Scanner
- Anti-Rootkit Utility - TDSSKiller
- Hitman Pro (30 day trial)
Hello,
Many thanks indeed. The first two options were already correctly set. My first choice outside of these was adware cleaner, which did the trick! Many thanks again.