How to remove a Chrome extension that will not go quietly
Most unwanted extensions are removed in two clicks. This is about the ones that come back, and what to deal with after they are gone.
What it looks like
- Searches land on a search engine you did not choose.
- Ads appear on sites that do not normally carry them.
- Your homepage or new tab page changed on its own.
- Tabs or pop-ups open by themselves.
- An extension you do not remember installing is in the list.
Removing it
Open chrome://extensions and read the whole list, not just the icons in your
toolbar — plenty of extensions do not show one. Click Remove on anything you do
not recognise. If that works and nothing comes back, you are done; skip to the last section.
If it comes back
An extension that reinstalls itself is being put there by something else, and removing it again will not help. Work through these in order.
- Check whether it is installed by policy. On the extension's card, a note saying it is installed by your administrator means a policy is enforcing it. On a work machine that is expected. On a personal one, it means something set that policy, and Chrome will reinstall the extension until it is removed.
- Look for the program that installed it. On Windows, open Settings, then Apps, sort by install date, and look at what arrived around the time the problem started. On macOS, check the Applications folder and your login items. Removing the program is what stops the reinstall.
-
Reset Chrome's settings.
chrome://settings/resetrestores your homepage, search engine and pinned tabs, and clears extension permissions. Bookmarks and saved passwords are untouched. - Check your profile. If you are signed into Chrome, extensions sync across devices, so one machine you have not cleaned will push it back to the others.
Afterwards
An extension with permission to read every page could see what you typed, including passwords, and read the cookies that keep you signed in. If the one you removed had that access, change the passwords for accounts you used while it was installed, and sign out of all sessions where the service offers it — changing a password does not always invalidate a stolen cookie.
We do not describe any specific extension as malicious unless a published advisory says so and we can link it. What we can tell you is what an extension is able to reach, which you can look up on our check page.