A malicious extension called NebulaTachyonen appeared in Microsoft Edge on
my ThinkPad. It says it’s been added by my “organization” though I don’t belong to any. There’s no option to remove it manually. I’ve read everything I can find about it and followed the instructions I could understand.
Lenovo premium support says I’ll need to reinstall Windows. The two tech businesses I called said that’s not necessary. One would use Malwarebytes but I already did that scan, and it didn’t detect it.
Are there any malware removal products that are more thorough than Malwarebytes?
Edge policies may have been reset by the malware so that Edge is “managed by your organization.” If so, that might be what’s preventing you from removing the malware. This article has some suggestions how disable the policy. If that doesn’t help, run a search for Edge is being managed by my organization. Hope this suggestion is useful.
Another thing I learned once is simplicity in confusion. I had some sort of add-on that redirected my searches. It turns out when I looked at the browser properties, it said it was named Google seach. But - when I went to settings - Search engine - manage search engines - and edited Google, the website in details was not google. Neither were any of the other search engines (Microsoft etc.) they all were actually the website of the redirected PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program)
I can’t run a search for “Edge is being managed by my organization.” because I get redirected to a site called custom search.quick shoppe rs.co whenever I try to use google or bing. I downloaded Spyware, but I guess I’ll have to pay to subscribe in order to get the free trial. Has anyone here ever used it?
Honestly, the article’s instructions were too complicated for me to follow.
Thank you for trying. I’m just not tech savvy enough to benefit from your help.
For the love of all that’s holy, don’t give the criminals money. You’d literally be better off taking the computer out back and burning it to ashes than paying extortion, especially since you’re likely to actually get nothing in return.
I posted about Spyhunter. Wikipedia says there are questions about that tool:
SpyHunter is often labeled an Potentially Unwanted Program due to its misleading results of always showing infections, including on clean computers, and injects tracking cookies into a users browser, raising concern whether it is legitimate or not. The company also floods web search results when searching for a specific threat, linking a download to SpyHunter, even if the product is not able to remove it.
I agree you should download another browser like Firefox, Brave or Chrome if possible.
I’ve had good experiences with Bitdefender. I’ve only used it once to handle a browser hijack, but it worked. No guarantees that it will handle your particular situation of course, but it’s free, so giving it a try costs nothing but your time.
Chrome and Edge are essentially the same browser with different skins, but Firefox is different from the ground up, so you might have more luck there. Just be careful when installing it – it will ask if you want to import settings, bookmarks, etc., from your existing browser. Obviously, say no to that.
I’m not sure if you uninstall Edge on a Windows computer. If you can, make sure you have Firefox in place first – what would happen if you had no browser at all, I wonder?
