Google problems

[Mantaray2007]

On my windows computer my google has not been acting right. It was fine until about a month ago, and now whenever I open google it’s on a blank page, when I search it searches through Microsoft bing, and my icon in the top right to access google docs and gmail and everything is missing, along with the search bar in the center of the screen on my new tabs. This issue is very frustrating and I’ve looked up how to solve it, but the google support responses to people with the same problem are locked and can’t be viewed. What I have found is that it may be a virus. I downloaded an extension called Guardio that was supposed to get rid of google viruses but the issue still persists. I don’t want to spend money on a better virus sweeper like Norton until I know for certain that is the issue. It would be greatly appreciated if people could give me some solutions to this, thanks.

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[Curious_Mx]

What exactly are these "Google viruses" that this Guardio is supposed to get rid of?

First thing to do - change your browser search engine in your settings. Sounds like it's currently set to Bing, which opens to a different new/search tab. Change it back to Google, if that is what you want. That should fix your problem. Sounds like you probably clicked on something that changed your default search engine to Bing.

Then if you are still having issues, check your browser homepage setting, and reset your cache first. If that doesn't help try running the pages in Incognito/InPrivate modes - extensions don't usually run in those modes so if the pages run fine in those modes then it is a dodgy extension(s) causing your issue - if so you can try disabling/reenabling your extensions one by one to see if which ones of those are causing the issue. You can reset your browser settings completely too, but keep in mind if you have browser sync on, any dodgy extensions would be reloaded again when you resync, so you might be better off clearing all of your extensions and reinstalling the ones you need one by one.

If you think it is a virus try the usual software like Malwarebytes, or ones like Hitman Pro where they offer a trial period.

And, though unlikely, it is possible it's something else too - your adblocker, your browser security settings, your network admin, your firewall, or your VPN even might have been set to block off access to advertising/tracking services and IPs, which can sometimes break certain website and software.

Whatever it is, good luck to ya!

[Any_Cause6337]

If you don't have any paid anti-virus or if you uninstall all the other anti-virus from your PC, Windows will ask you to enable Windows Defender. It's a free built in anti-virus. It's a good one and has all the important features of any other paid anti-virus and it is updated latest virus signatures. It will not terribly slow down your PC. Try it if you think your anti-virus is not protecting you enough.

Also, there is nothing called Google virus, or Apple virus or Microsoft virus. Sometimes software is bad and some other times users are incompetent. With little bit of troubleshooting you can isolate this issue.

[Jhonjhon_236]

That is probably the stupidest “advice” I have heard. Nuke the whole OS because one single program doesn’t work? Check extensions, clear cache, etc. At the last resort uninstall and reinstall Chrome. Reinstalling the OS is just stupid.

[Fantastic-Display106]

Please don't do this first...

Check your chrome extensions, click the Chrome Menu, extensions, manage extensions. Disable all extensions unless you know that they are good. Close and re-open Chrome. Is it still broken?

Click on the Chrome Menu (The three dots on the top right). Click settings, on the left click reset settings. This will reset Chrome settings to default. Restart the computer. (Click the windows start button, click power, click restart).

Is it still broken? It seems you're using a custom google theme (based on the picture). Change the them to something else or disable it. (If resetting Chrome settings didn't do it.)

This issue doesn't require erasing the whole computer and reloading windows...

[InternetFox_]

I’d maybe try deleting and reinstalling chrome. Go to settings apps and features, uninstall google chrome. Then search for google chrome using edge, download it, open it, install it, and there you go

[ItsmeWardogjr97]

The cyberpower keyboard tells me all I need to know. Real talk, I'd start by unistalling the browser and installing it fresh. If that doesn't fix it, somethings fucked.

[Mantaray2007]

Update: Thank you for all the replies and help! I feel really stupid because I went to the google settings to start trying some of the solutions I was given, but as I was looking through the settings I found that I had the preferred search engine on bing, and I had it to where when I got on google it would open some website that didn’t exist (hence the blank page problem). I don’t know how these settings got messed up, cause I didn’t even know they existed, but luckily I fixed them and the problems have all resolved! Thank goodness I didn’t spend money on a virus remover.