Question Malware or Virus when running Chrome

[sdph536]

My wife has a new ASUS laptop running windows 10 -

It is running free Avast and Malwarebytes

However, every time you run Chrome and in no consistent way there are these additional tabs that pop open that appear to be some browser related malware. However, after scanning with Avast and Malwarebytes nothing is found. I have removed all browser extensions and I have ran a boot scan using Avast and yet the issue persists.

I really would like avoid having to erase the drive and doing a full windows install - Before that wondering if there is anything else I can do to see what this issue is.

For now I have removed Chrome and then install the Avast Secure Browser - does not seem to happen when using this browser.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

First of all NEVER use a browser provided by an antivirus company for both usability and sanity reasons. Now as for your issue with chrome it is almost certainly extensions you accidentally installed. In chrome click the three dots in the top right then go to 'More Tools' and click extensions. If you have anything other than Adobe Acrobat and google docs you should probably delete it especially if you don't know what it is or it sounds needlessly important. Especially delete anything with the word 'download' in it. Since you uninstalled chrome they were most likely deleted so you took the nuclear option of getting rid of them. Feel free to reinstall

 

[sdph536]

Yeah I've done that before and when I reinstall the issue comes back.

 

[LORDPrometheus]

Yeah I've done that before and when I reinstall the issue comes back.

You should also check your notification settings and what home pages are set to open

 

[Avast-Team]

My wife has a new ASUS laptop running windows 10 -

It is running free Avast and Malwarebytes

However, every time you run Chrome and in no consistent way there are these additional tabs that pop open that appear to be some browser related malware. However, after scanning with Avast and Malwarebytes nothing is found. I have removed all browser extensions and I have ran a boot scan using Avast and yet the issue persists.

I really would like avoid having to erase the drive and doing a full windows install - Before that wondering if there is anything else I can do to see what this issue is.

For now I have removed Chrome and then install the Avast Secure Browser - does not seem to happen when using this browser.

We're glad to hear it doesn't happen in our Secure Browser, but would like to learn more about what you're seeing in your regular Chrome browser. What kind of content or what site is listed in the suspicious tabs? It may be another program installed on her laptop that's either updating and displaying a webpage afterward, etc, but we won't know for sure without more information.

-Avast Team