Q: Some mysterious malware has infected the Edge browser on our Windows 10 laptop, and none of our security programs can get rid of it. When we start Edge, it goes to the MSN login page, which has a scenic view of a small city along a bay. Then dark gray "smoke" begins to cover the picture and the field for logging in. We cleared the browser cache (a data repository), but it made no difference. Everything else on the PC works fine. What can we do?
Walt Thomsen, Plymouth
A: Your Edge browser has been compromised by malware, probably acquired during a legitimate download. It has taken over the initial page you view when going online.
The infection can be eliminated through the successive use of several anti-malware programs (see tinyurl.com/y8ngkwzq). But the fix doesn't guarantee that the browser won't be affected by the same or other malware in the future.
For an easier fix, try this very temporary workaround: Make sure Edge is set as your default browser. Then store a Web address that you trust on your PC, say in a Microsoft Word file.
When you start up the Edge browser and the screen darkens as you described, close the browser. Then click on the trusted address stored in Word. That will reopen Edge, but the trusted website will appear in the main browser Window. The infected web page will still be present, but it will have been pushed into the background, and will be visible only as a labeled tab across the top of the browser. Click the "X" on the tab for the infected web page, which will cause it to close. You can now resume browsing. The downside: You have to repeat this each time you use Edge.
A better solution is to switch from Edge to the Google Chrome (see tinyurl.com/qbud93e) or Mozilla Firefox (see tinyurl.com/bsxs3kt) browsers, which don't have this problem.
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