wait - Chromebook can get malware?

Factual Questions
1

Somehow, I thought that Chromebooks were impervious to those things because you can’t install anything on them. Suddenly, AOL mail doesn’t work. It works fine on our desktop, leading me to think that the Chromebook was somehow infected. I tried what they call a Powerwash which, I thought, reset the thing to its original configurations, but that didn’t help. Anyone have any thoughts on how to deal with this (aside from taking a hammer to it.) Thanks, dopers.

2

What browser are you using on your desktop machine? If it’s not chrome, it might be that either AOL or Chrome have changed so as to be incompatible.

Also, does AOL still exist? I guess it must then.

3

I can get to AOL’s mail system via Firefox or Chrome on my desktop. That’s why I am surprised that the Chromebook appears to be affected. (BTW, AOL’s mail system is still better than G-mail, but I don’t use it any more because of a number of other objections. Mrs. CC, however, stays with it, and it’s her Chromebook that’s affected.)

4

Your Chromebook doesn’t have malware.

5

It could be that chrome on the chromebook has some sort of unwelcome extension installed. That seems the most likely way that a chromebook could get malware.

But it could just be some sort of corruption in the cache. I woukd suggest clearing that and see if the page loads afterwards.

6

I’ve cleared the cache and done a powerwash and a reset. Most of the extensions that it has are Google-related. I guess I could get rid of them and see if that makes a difference - but no one installed one. They’ve just appeared.

7

I think a power wash restores the Chromebook to factory conditions… so I assume that in the process it would remove any third party apps and extensions, leaving only those apps which come "out of the box " with Chrome OS.

The Google Product Support forum is pretty good for Chromebook issues.

8

There is malware that affects the Google Chrome browser, usually by installing an extension. It works cross-platform – I’ve seen it on PCs and Macs.

Simple solution: take a look at your extensions and delete anything that shouldn’t be there.