Stop Boomerang Junk Coming Back <<<

Some stubborn software keeps reinstalling no matter what you do to remove it. Robert Irvine explains how to prevent persistent pests from boomeranging back.

- Robert Irvine

Stop junk Chrome extensions reinstalling

It’s easy to uninstall extensions in Chome: either right-click the toolbar icon and select ‘Remove from Chrome’; or click the menu button, choose ‘More tools’, Extensions and click the dustbin icon next to the offending item. But some stubborn add-ons refuse to be removed permanently in this way and try to reinstall themselves when you next launch Chrome. We’ve experienced this problem with McAfee WebAdvisor and PropertyWizza, for example.

To make matters worse, extensions don’t usually appear in the Windows Control Panel’s ‘Uninstall or change a program’ section, which means you could be stuck with them constantly ‘boomeranging’ back into your browser. Fortunately, there’s a solution: open Chrome’s Extensions page, tick the ‘Developer mode’ box at the top and you’ll notice that an ID number and other details appear below each add-on. Look for a ‘Loaded from’ entry below the unwanted extension, which tells you its location, then find that folder on your hard drive – it’s usually something like C:ProgramData iodfjkodegnfidngbfdgsjdsk – and delete it. This should stop the add-on reinstalling itself.

If you can’t see a ‘Loaded from’ entry, try running the official Chrome Cleanup Tool (bit.ly/cleanup429), which finds and removes potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) that cause problems in the browser, including infamous pests SearchProtect, SmartWeb and Conduit. This tool isn’t particularly thorough, but it’s fast, free, easy to use and certainly worth a try.

Remove adware and other PUPs permanently