“Browser” Extension Virus

Browser Hijacker
by Violet George
January 6, 2023
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“Browser” Extension

“Browser” Extension is a potentially unwanted program that falls into the category of browser hijackers. As such, “Browser” Extension has the capacity to meddle with the settings of your browser and impose certain changes.

Browser Extension Virus

For instances, it will likely introduce its own search engine which will substitute the one you had set by default. That same search engine, or possibly a different site, will likely be set as the new browser homepage as well. And if you try to reverse these changes in the settings, the next time you start your browser it will only be to find that the settings imposed by “Browser” Extension are back in place. This is because as long as this program exists on your computer, it will always be in charge of your browser. The only possible way to rid yourself of these unwanted effects is by removing the browser hijacker in question.

The only tricky thing about that is that, unlike most other types of software, programs like “Browser” Extension, Captchafair.top, iStart Search Bar don’t exactly offer an obvious uninstallation option. In order to ensure that this hijacker is permanently and completely gone from your PC, you will have to dig a little deeper into your system. And we can show you exactly how to do that in the removal guide that you will find just below this post.

SUMMARY:

Name“Browser” Extension
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Detection Tool

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Please follow all the steps below in order to remove “Browser” Extension!

How to remove “Browser” Extension

  1. First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
  2. Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find “Browser” Extension in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select “Browser” Extension from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

What we suggest you do first is, check the list of programs that are presently installed on the infected device and uninstall any rogue software that you find there:

  • From the Start Menu, navigate to Control Panel ->>> Programs and Features ->>> Uninstall a Program.
  • Next, carefully search for unfamiliar programs or programs that have been installed recently and could be related to “Browser” Extension.
  • If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to “Browser” Extension.
  • If a notification appears on your screen when you try to uninstall a specific questionable program prompting you to just alter it or repair it, make sure you choose NO and complete the steps from the removal wizard.

Remove “Browser” Extension from Chrome

  1. Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
  2. Go to more tools
  3. Now select extensions
  4. Remove the “Browser” Extension extension
  • Once you open Chrome, click on the three-dots icon to open the browser’s menu, go to More Tools/ More Options, and then to Extensions.
  • Again, find the items on that page that could be linked to “Browser” Extension and/or that might be causing problems in the browser and delete them.
  • Afterwards, go to this folder: Computer > C: > Users > *Your User Account* > App Data > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data. In there, you will find a folder named Default – you should change its name to Backup Default and restart the PC.
  • Note that the App Data folder is normally hidden so you’d have to first make the hidden files and folders on your PC visible before you can access it.

How to get rid of “Browser” Extension on FF/Edge/etc.

  1. Open the browser and select the menu icon.
  2. From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
  3. Look for the “Browser” Extension extension
  4. Get rid of “Browser” Extension by removing it from extensions

If using Firefox:

  • Open Firefox
  • Select the three parallel lines menu and go to Add-ons.
  • Find the unwanted add-on and delete it from the browser – if there is more than one unwanted extension, remove all of them.
  • Go to the browser menu again, select Options, and then click on Home from the sidebar to the left.
  • Check the current addresses for the browser’s homepage and new-tab page and change them if they are currently set to address(es) you don’t know or trust.

If using MS Edge/IE:

  • Start Edge
  • Select the browser menu and go to Extensions.
  • Find and uninstall any Edge extensions that look undesirable and unwanted.
  • Select Settings from the browser menu and click on Appearance.
  • Check the new-tab page address of the browser and if it has been modified by “”Browser” Extension” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

How to Delete “Browser” Extension

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the “Browser” Extension process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete “Browser” Extension
  • Access the Task Manager by pressing together the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys and then selecting Task Manager.
  • Open Processes and there try to find a process with the name of the unwanted software. If you find it, select it with the right button of the mouse and click on the Open File Location option.
  • If you don’t see a “”Browser” Extension” process in the Task Manager, look for another suspicious process with an unusual name. It is likely that the unwanted process would be using lots of RAM and CPU so pay attention to the number of resources each process is using.
  • Tip: If you think you have singled out the unwanted process but are not sure, it’s always a good idea to search for information about it on the Internet – this should give you a general idea if the process is a legitimate one from a regular program or from your OS or if it is indeed likely linked to the adware.
  • If you find another suspicious process, open its File Location too.
  • Once in the File Location folder for the suspicious process, start testing all of the files that are stored there by dragging them to our free online scanner available below.
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    • If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, return to the Processes tab in the Task Manager, select the suspected process, and then select the End Process option to quit it.
    • Go back to the folder where the files of that process are located and delete all of the files that you are allowed to delete. If all files get deleted normally, exit the folder and delete that folder too. If one or more of the files showed an error message when you tried to delete them, leave them for now and return to try to delete them again once you’ve completed the rest of the guide.

    How to Uninstall “Browser” Extension

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for “Browser” Extension in there
    4. Uninstall “Browser” Extension from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any “Browser” Extension-related entries from the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to open the Registry Editor app (type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter) and then open a Find dialog (CTRL+F key combination) where you have to type the name of the threat. 
    • Perform a search by clicking on the Find Next button and delete any detected results. Do this as many times as needed until no more results are found. 
    • After that, to ensure that there are no remaining entries lined to “Browser” Extension in the Registry, go manually to the following directories and delete them:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory. 
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Random


    What is the purpose of “Browser” Extension?


    You might be wondering what the point of all these changes is. In addition to the above, browser hijackers like “Browser” Extension also specialize in generating various online ads directly within your browsing program. Thus, all sorts of popups, banners, box messages and other advertising materials will be present on more or less any website or page that you visit.
    And the point of it all is for the developers of these programs to earn commission from all these paid ads. Normally this happens as part of Pay Per Click and Pay Per View remuneration schemes, which means that every click and/or view on said ads generates revenue for the browser hijacker creators. This is why the ads are usually positioned on your screen in a way that makes it almost impossible to avoid interacting with them.
    In addition to the aggressive positioning, though, programs like “Browser” Extension also tend to engage in certain questionable background practices. For instance, browser hijackers have been known to gather browsing-related data from users in order to optimize the ads they display. This data is stored and analyzed, but can later also be sold to third parties – and all of this without necessarily obtaining the user’s informed consent.
    Furthermore, the frequent page redirects that programs of this type trigger can potentially pose a security risk for your system. There is a danger of landing on a site or page that may be harboring viruses and malware like Trojans, spyware, ransomware, etc. The same could even go for the ads displayed on your screen, so be very careful with what you click on as you’re browsing the web. But of course the best way to minimize your risk of a virus infection is  to delete “Browser” Extension.


    About the author

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    Violet George

    Violet is an active writer with a passion for all things cyber security. She enjoys helping victims of computer virus infections remove them and successfully deal with the aftermath of the attacks. But most importantly, Violet makes it her priority to spend time educating people on privacy issues and maintaining the safety of their computers. It is her firm belief that by spreading this information, she can empower web users to effectively protect their personal data and their devices from hackers and cybercriminals.

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