How to remove Alien Tab [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

When you perform a search via Alien Tab, in addition to search results from Yahoo, Bing or Google Custom Search which provide links to web pages, news articles, images or videos you will also be shown lots of unwanted advertisements. The devs behind Alien Tab doing this to generate advertising money from these ads.

Although, Alien Tab hijacker is not a virus, but it does bad things, and it can impose changes to web browsers settings. Moreover, an ‘ad-supported’ software (also known as adware) can be additionally installed on to your PC with this hijacker, that will display a huge number of ads, or even massive full page ads that blocks surfing the Internet. Often such these ads can recommend to install other unknown and unwanted applications or visit harmful web pages.

The Alien Tab hijacker may change current settings of web browsers, but often that the unwanted software can also infect all types of web-browsers by modifying their desktop shortcuts. Thus forcing the user to see Alien Tab undesired web-site every time launch the internet browser.

Therefore it is very important to clean your machine of hijacker infection ASAP. Follow the tutorial below to remove Alien Tab redirect, as well as other malicious software and ad-supported software, which can be installed onto your computer along with it.

Remove Alien Tab

There are a simple manual tutorial below which will help you to delete Alien Tab from your Windows personal computer. The most effective solution to remove this hijacker is to follow the manual removal guide and then use Zemana Free, Malwarebytes or AdwCleaner automatic tools (all are free). The manual way will help to weaken this browser hijacker and these malicious software removal tools will completely remove Alien Tab and return the Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge settings to default.

Manual Alien Tab start page removal

Steps to get rid of Alien Tab hijacker without any applications are presented below. Be sure to carry out the step-by-step guide completely to fully remove this undesired Alien Tab search.

Uninstall potentially unwanted programs using MS Windows Control Panel

It is of primary importance to first identify and remove all potentially unwanted programs, ad-supported software programs and hijackers through ‘Add/Remove Programs’ (Windows XP) or ‘Uninstall a program’ (Windows 10, 8, 7) section of your Windows Control Panel.

Carefully browse through the list of installed applications and remove all software that has the name such as “Alien Tab”. We suggest to click ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed software by date. When you have found anything suspicious that may be the hijacker, ad-supported software or potentially unwanted applications, then select this program and click ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the suspicious program blocked from removal, then use Revo Uninstaller Freeware to fully get rid of it from your system.

Remove Alien Tab search from Google Chrome

In order to be sure that there is nothing left behind, we suggest you to reset Chrome internet browser. It’ll return Chrome settings including home page, newtab page and search engine by default to defaults.

1. First run the Google Chrome and click Menu button (small button in the form of three horizontal stripes).
2. It will display the Google Chrome main menu. Select “Settings” option.
3. You will see the Google Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and click “Show advanced settings” link.
4. Scroll down again and press the “Reset settings” button.
5. The Chrome will open the reset profile settings page as shown on the screen above.
6. Next click the “Reset” button.
7. Once this task is complete, your internet browser’s home page, new tab page and search engine by default will be restored to their original defaults.
8. To learn more, read the post How to reset Chrome settings to default.

Delete Alien Tab from Firefox by resetting web browser settings

If your Firefox browser startpage has changed to Alien Tab without your permission or an unknown search engine displays results for your search, then it may be time to perform the web browser reset.

Launch the Mozilla Firefox and press the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the web-browser screen. Next, click the question-mark icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu. It will display the slide-out menu.

Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you’re unable to access the Help menu, then type “about:support” in your address bar and press Enter. It bring up the “Troubleshooting Information” page as shown below.

Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation prompt. The Firefox will begin a task to fix your problems that caused by the browser hijacker infection that cause Alien Tab web-site to appear. When, it is finished, click the “Finish” button.

Get rid of Alien Tab from Internet Explorer

In order to recover all internet browser start page, new tab page and search engine by default you need to reset the Microsoft Internet Explorer to the state, that was when the MS Windows was installed on your computer.

First, launch the Internet Explorer. Next, click the button in the form of gear (). It will show the Tools drop-down menu, click the “Internet Options” as shown on the image below.

In the “Internet Options” window click on the Advanced tab, then click the Reset button. The IE will open the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” window as shown on the image below. Select the “Delete personal settings” check box, then click “Reset” button.

You will now need to reboot your system for the changes to take effect.

Disinfect the web browser’s shortcuts to remove Alien Tab

A browser hijacker can hijack various Windows shortcuts on your desktop (most often, all browsers shortcuts), so in this step you need to check and clean them by removing the argument like http://site.address/.

Right click on the internet browser’s shortcut, click Properties option. On the Shortcut tab, locate the Target field. Click inside, you will see a vertical line – arrow pointer, move it (using -> arrow key on your keyboard) to the right as possible. You will see a text “http://site.address” that has been added here. Remove everything after .exe. An example, for Google Chrome you should remove everything after chrome.exe.

To save changes, click OK . You need to clean all web browser’s shortcuts. So, repeat this step for the Chrome, Firefox, IE and Edge.

Alien Tab removal tools

Manual removal instructions does not always help to completely get rid of the hijacker, as it’s not easy to identify and get rid of components of browser hijacker and all malicious files from hard disk. Therefore, it is recommended that you run malware removal utility to completely get rid of Alien Tab off your computer. Several free malware removal tools are currently available that can be used against the hijacker. The optimum solution would be to use Zemana, Malwarebytes Free and AdwCleaner.

Remove Alien Tab with Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM)

Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) highly recommended, because it can find security threats such adware and browser hijackers that most ‘classic’ antivirus applications fail to pick up on. Moreover, if you have any Alien Tab hijacker removal problems which cannot be fixed by this tool automatically, then Zemana provides 24X7 online assistance from the highly experienced support staff.

1. Please download Zemana Anti Malware by clicking on the link below. Save it on your Windows desktop or in any other place.
   
   

   Zemana AntiMalware
   164104 downloads
   Author: Zemana Ltd
   Category: Security tools
   Update: July 16, 2019
   
2. At the download page, click on the Download button. Your web browser will show the “Save as” dialog box. Please save it onto your Windows desktop.
3. Once the downloading process is complete, please close all applications and open windows on your personal computer. Next, run a file named Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup.
4. This will open the “Setup wizard” of Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) onto your machine. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
5. When the Setup wizard has finished installing, the Zemana will run and show the main window.
6. Further, press the “Scan” button . Zemana tool will begin scanning the whole personal computer to find out hijacker which cause Alien Tab web site to appear. While the Zemana Anti-Malware is checking, you can see count of objects it has identified either as being malicious software.
7. Once the system scan is complete, Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) will open a screen that contains a list of malicious software that has been found.
8. Next, you need to press the “Next” button. The tool will remove hijacker infection that made to redirect your browser to the Alien Tab site and add threats to the Quarantine. After disinfection is done, you may be prompted to restart the personal computer.
9. Close the Zemana Free and continue with the next step.

Delete Alien Tab with Malwarebytes

We suggest using the Malwarebytes Free that are completely clean your machine of the browser hijacker. The free tool is an advanced malicious software removal application developed by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular anti malware technology. It is able to help you remove browser hijacker infections, potentially unwanted software, malicious software, ‘ad supported’ software, toolbars, ransomware and other security threats from your PC system for free.

Download MalwareBytes Free by clicking on the link below. Save it to your Desktop so that you can access the file easily.

When the downloading process is finished, close all applications and windows on your computer. Double-click the install file called mb3-setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as displayed on the screen below, click the “Yes” button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” that will help you install MalwareBytes Anti Malware on your machine. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.

Once installation is finished successfully, press Finish button. MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown on the screen below.

Now click the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes Free utility will start scanning the whole personal computer to find out browser hijacker infection that reroutes your web browser to unwanted Alien Tab site. This process can take some time, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) tool is scanning, you may see number of objects it has identified as being infected by malicious software.

After that process is done, MalwareBytes Free will open a list of detected threats. Review the report and then click “Quarantine Selected” button. The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will remove browser hijacker infection that redirects your internet browser to unwanted Alien Tab web site. After that process is done, you may be prompted to restart the personal computer.

We suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using the MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to delete ‘ad supported’ software, browser hijacker infection and other malware.

Get rid of Alien Tab startpage from internet browsers with AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner is a free removal utility that may be downloaded and use to get rid of browser hijacker infections, adware, malicious software, potentially unwanted programs, toolbars and other threats from your personal computer. You may run this utility to find threats even if you have an antivirus or any other security application.

Download AdwCleaner utility by clicking on the following link. Save it on your Microsoft Windows desktop or in any other place.

Once the download is finished, open the file location and double-click the AdwCleaner icon. It will run the AdwCleaner utility and you will see a screen as shown in the figure below. If the User Account Control dialog box will ask you want to open the program, click Yes button to continue.

Next, click “Scan” for scanning your PC for the browser hijacker that reroutes your web-browser to annoying Alien Tab web-site. This process can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the AdwCleaner program is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.

Once AdwCleaner completes the scan, AdwCleaner will show a list of all items found by the scan as displayed on the screen below.

When you are ready, press “Clean” button. It will show a prompt. Click “OK” button. The AdwCleaner will delete browser hijacker infection which cause Alien Tab site to appear and move threats to the program’s quarantine. Once the procedure is finished, the tool may ask you to restart your personal computer. After restart, the AdwCleaner will show the log file.

All the above steps are shown in detail in the following video instructions.

Stop Alien Tab and other undesired web-sites

If you surf the Internet, you cannot avoid malvertising. But you can protect your web-browser against it. Download and use an ad-blocking program. AdGuard is an adblocker that can filter out a ton of of the malicious advertising, blocking dynamic scripts from loading harmful content.

Installing the AdGuard adblocker program is simple. First you’ll need to download AdGuard from the following link.

After downloading is finished, double-click the downloaded file to start it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as displayed on the screen below.

Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed and an icon will be placed on your desktop. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick guide as shown on the screen below.

Press “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your PC, AdGuard will start automatically and block pop-ups, pages such Alien Tab, as well as other harmful or misleading pages. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, which is located on your desktop.

Prevent Alien Tab hijacker from installing

Most commonly, the free applications setup file includes the optional adware or PUPs like this browser hijacker infection. So, be very careful when you agree to install anything. The best way – is to choose a Custom, Advanced or Manual setup mode. Here disable (uncheck) all additional programs in which you are unsure or that causes even a slightest suspicion. The main thing you should remember, you don’t need to install the optional software which you don’t trust! The only thing I want to add. Once the freeware is installed, if you uninstall this software, the newtab, home page and search engine by default of your favorite browser will not be restored. This must be done by yourself. Just follow the tutorial above.

Finish words

Once you have complete the step-by-step guidance above, your machine should be free from browser hijacker which created to reroute your web-browser to the Alien Tab page and other malicious software. The Google Chrome, Firefox, IE and Microsoft Edge will no longer show unwanted Alien Tab home page on startup. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step instructions does not help you, then you have caught a new browser hijacker infection, and then the best way – ask for help in our Spyware/Malware removal forum.