How to remove Chromium [Windows 10, 8, 7, XP]

It is not a good idea to have an unwanted application such as Chromium on your PC. The reason for this is simple, it doing things you do not know about. The Chromium can also be used to collect lots of personal data which can be later used for marketing purposes. You don’t know if your home address, account names and passwords are safe. And of course you completely don’t know what will happen when you use Chromium browser to surf the Internet.

Technically, the adware is not a virus, but it does bad things, it generates a lot of pop ups. It may download and install on to your computer lots of unwanted programs such as Chromium without your permission, force you to visit misleading or malicious web sites. Moreover, the adware can replace your internet browsers setting such as startpage, new tab and default search provider with an unwanted web page.

So, obviously, you need to get rid of the Chromium web browser ASAP. Use the free tutorial below. This guide will help you clean your machine of adware and thereby remove the Chromium unwanted software.

Remove Chromium

We can help you remove Chromium from your computer, without the need to take your computer to a professional. Simply follow the removal guidance below if you currently have the annoying PUP on your machine and want to delete it. If you’ve any difficulty while trying to uninstall the Chromium and ad supported software that created to download and install various unwanted applications, feel free to ask for our help in the comment section below. Read this manual carefully, bookmark or print it, because you may need to exit your internet browser or restart your computer.

How to remove Chromium without any software

The steps will help you get rid of Chromium browser from your computer for free. These removal steps work for the Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Uninstall Chromium and other PUPs through the Control Panel of your PC system

The best way to begin the system cleanup is to uninstall unknown and suspicious software. Using the Windows Control Panel you can do this quickly and easily. This step, in spite of its simplicity, should not be ignored, because the removing of unneeded programs can clean up the Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer and MS Edge from pop up advertisements hijackers and so on.

Carefully browse through the list of installed applications and remove all software that has the name similar to “Chromium”. We suggest to click ‘Installed programs’ and even sorts all installed applications by date. Once you have found anything suspicious that may be the PUP, adware or PUPs, then select this program and click ‘Uninstall’ in the upper part of the window. If the suspicious application blocked from removal, then use Revo Uninstaller Freeware to fully delete it from your system.

Remove unwanted Scheduled Tasks

Once installed, the adware can add a task in to the Windows Task Scheduler Library. Due to this, every time when you open your PC, it will download and install Chromium unwanted software on your computer. So, you need to check the Task Scheduler Library and remove all malicious tasks that have been created by malicious programs.

Press Windows and R keys on the keyboard at the same time. This opens a prompt that titled as Run. In the text field, type “taskschd.msc” (without the quotes) and click OK. Task Scheduler window opens. In the left-hand side, click “Task Scheduler Library”, as shown below.

In the middle part you will see a list of installed tasks. Please choose the first task, its properties will be open just below automatically. Next, click the Actions tab. Pay attention to that it launches on your system. Found something like “explorer.exe http://site.address” or “chrome.exe http://site.address”, then get rid of this malicious task. If you are not sure that executes the task, check it through a search engine. If it is a component of the ‘ad-supported’ applications, then this task also should be removed.

Having defined the task that you want to remove, then press on it with the right mouse button and choose Delete as displayed in the following example.

Repeat this step, if you have found a few tasks that have been created by malicious program. Once is done, close the Task Scheduler window.

Clean up the web browsers shortcuts

Unfortunately, the adware can also hijack Windows shortcuts (mostly, your browsers shortcuts), so that an ad site will be displayed when you run the Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Microsoft Edge or another web browser.

Right click on the shortcut of infected web-browser like below.

Select the “Properties” option and it will open a shortcut’s properties. Next, click the “Shortcut” tab and then delete the “http://site.address” string from Target field like below.

Then press OK to save changes. Repeat the step for all internet browsers that are rerouted to an unwanted web site.

Chromium removal tools

Manual removal guidance does not always help to completely remove the potentially unwanted program, as it’s not easy to identify and delete components of Chromium and all malicious files from hard disk. Therefore, it is recommended that you use malware removal tool to completely delete Chromium off your Windows 10 (Windows 8, 7, XP). Several free malware removal tools are currently available that can be used against the potentially unwanted program. The optimum way would be to run Zemana Anti-malware, Malwarebytes Free and AdwCleaner.

Scan and clean your computer of Chromium with Zemana Anti-malware

We recommend you to run the Zemana Anti-malware which are completely clean your computer of Chromium PUP. Moreover, the tool will help you to delete PUPs, malware, toolbars and hijacker infections that your PC may be infected too.

Download Zemana Free by clicking on the link below. Save it on your Windows desktop.

When the download is done, close all applications and windows on your computer. Double-click the install file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up like below, click the “Yes” button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” which will help you set up Zemana on your computer. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.

Once install is finished successfully, Zemana Free will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown in the following example.

Now click the “Scan” button to begin scanning your system for the Chromium and ‘ad supported’ software which can download other unwanted software.

After the scan is finished, Zemana will display a list of all threats found by the scan. You may move items to Quarantine (all selected by default) by simply press “Next” button. The Zemana will begin to remove ad-supported software that causes multiple intrusive ads and popups and installs potentially unwanted programs like Chromium. When that process is finished, you may be prompted to restart the PC system.

Automatically get rid of Chromium PUP with Malwarebytes

We advise using the Malwarebytes Free. You may download and install Malwarebytes to scan for adware and thereby delete Chromium PUP from your computer. When installed and updated, the free malicious software remover will automatically scan and detect all threats present on the personal computer.

Download MalwareBytes from the following link. Save it on your MS Windows desktop or in any other place.

When downloading is finished, close all software and windows on your personal computer. Open a directory in which you saved it. Double-click on the icon that’s named mb3-setup as shown below.

When the install begins, you’ll see the “Setup wizard” that will help you install Malwarebytes on your machine.

Once install is finished, you’ll see window as displayed in the figure below.

Now click the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) utility will begin scanning the whole PC to find out adware that causes multiple unwanted advertisements and pop-ups and installs potentially unwanted applications such as Chromium. Depending on your personal computer, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. When a threat is found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.

Once MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) has finished scanning your personal computer, MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will open a list of all threats found by the scan. When you’re ready, press “Quarantine Selected” button.

The Malwarebytes will now remove ad-supported software that causes multiple undesired ads and pop ups and installs potentially unwanted programs such as Chromium and move threats to the program’s quarantine. Once that process is finished, you may be prompted to restart your PC system.

The following video explains guidance on how to delete browser hijacker infection, ‘ad supported’ software and other malicious software with MalwareBytes Free.

Run AdwCleaner to remove Chromium from Windows

If MalwareBytes antimalware or Zemana Free cannot get rid of this potentially unwanted program, then we recommends to use the AdwCleaner. AdwCleaner is a free removal utility for hijackers, potentially unwanted software, toolbars and ad-supported software that causes multiple unwanted advertisements and pop ups and installs potentially unwanted software such as Chromium.

1. Download AdwCleaner by clicking on the link below. Save it on your Desktop.
   
   

   AdwCleaner download
   225298 downloads
   Version: 8.4.1
   Author: Xplode, MalwareBytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: October 5, 2024
   
2. Select the file location as Desktop, and then click Save.
3. After the downloading process is finished, run the AdwCleaner, double-click the adwcleaner_xxx.exe file.
4. If the “User Account Control” prompts, click Yes to continue.
5. Read the “Terms of use”, and click Accept.
6. In the AdwCleaner window, press the “Scan” to begin checking your personal computer for the adware which can install onto personal computer an unwanted program such as Chromium. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the count of files on your system and the speed of your machine. When a malware, adware or PUPs are detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.
7. After the system scan is complete, AdwCleaner will display a scan report. All found threats will be marked. You can delete them all by simply press “Clean”. If the AdwCleaner will ask you to restart your machine, click “OK”.

The few simple steps shown in detail in the following video.

How to stay safe online

We recommend to install an ad-blocking program which may stop unwanted web sites. The ad-blocking utility such as AdGuard is a program that basically removes advertising from the Internet and stops access to malicious web-pages. Moreover, security experts says that using ad blocking software is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Web.

Download AdGuard application from the link below and save it directly to your Windows Desktop.

After downloading is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen as shown in the following example.

Follow the prompts. When the setup is done, you will see a window as shown in the following example.

You can press “Skip” to close the install application and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” button to see an quick tutorial which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you launch your computer, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop pop-up ads, as well as other malicious or misleading web-sites. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that is located on your desktop.

Don’t know how your computer has been infected by Chromium ?

The potentially unwanted program like Chromium gets on your PC system together with some free programs. So always read carefully the installation screens, disclaimers, ‘Terms of Use’ and ‘Software license’ appearing during the install process. Additionally pay attention for optional applications that are being installed along with the main program. Ensure that you unchecked all of them! Also, use an ad blocking program that will help to stop malicious, misleading, illegitimate or untrustworthy web pages.

To sum up

After completing the steps shown above, your machine should be clean from Chromium browser and other malicious software. The Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Edge will no longer show unwanted web-sites when you surf the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step tutorial does not help you, then you have caught a new PUP, and then the best way – ask for help.

Please start a new thread by using the “New Topic” button in the Spyware Removal forum. When posting your HJT log, try to give us some details about your problems, so we can try to help you more accurately. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the unwanted Chromium web-browser.