Recently, a number of users reported that their Google Chrome browsers keep on opening new tabs no matter what they do. This issue could be due to lots of reasons but the main ones are corrupt installation, background applications, adware, dubious browser extensions, malware, and so on.
Although there are a lot of possible causes for this particular issue in Chrome, its potential fixes are straightforward so you should not have any problem following the given options below.
Option 1 – Get rid of any conflicting browser extensions
As mentioned, shady browser extensions can cause unusual behavior in a browser. Chances are, these extensions or toolbars might be conflicting with the loading of the website. Thus, you have to get rid of these unwanted extensions and toolbars to fix the issue.
- Open Chrome and press Alt + F keys.
- Go to More tools and click Extensions to look for any suspicious browser extensions or toolbars.
- Click the Recycle bin and select Remove.
- Restart Chrome and press Alt + F keys again.
- Proceed to On Startup and mark Open a specific page or set of pages.
- To check if the browser hijacker is still active, click Set pages, if it is active, overwrite the URL.
Option 2 – Try to disable applications from running in the background
- Open Google Chrome and then click on the menu button located in the top-right corner.
- From the drop-down, select Settings and then scroll down until you see the Advanced button. Click on it.
- Next, turn off the toggle for “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” under the System section.
- Now restart Chrome and check if it is working properly.
Option 3 – Try to configure the search settings of Chrome
- Open Google Chrome and type any search query in the address bar and then tap Enter.
- After that, it will open the Google search engine. From the top-right corner, click the Settings button.
- Next, select Search settings from the drop-down menu.
- Then scroll down to the new page that appears and make sure that the “Open New Window for each result” option is set to Uncheck.
- Once you’re done, save the changes made and restart Google Chrome.
Option 4 – Reset Chrome
Resetting Chrome can also help you fix the error. This means that you will be restoring its default settings, disabling all the extensions, add-ons and themes. Aside from that, the content settings will be reset as well and the cookies, cache, and site data will also be deleted. To reset Chrome, here’s what you have to do:
- Open Google Chrome, then tap the Alt + F keys.
- After that, click on Settings.
- Next, scroll down until you see the Advanced option, once you see it, click on it.
- After clicking the Advanced option, go to the “Restore and clean up option and click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” option to reset Google Chrome.
- Now restart Google Chrome.
Option 5 – Try to clean reinstall Chrome
There are instances when programs leave files behind after you’ve uninstalled them and the same thing can happen to Chrome so before you reinstall Chrome, you have to make sure that you have deleted the User Data folder. To do so, refer to the following steps:
- Hit the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
- Next, type “%LOCALAPPDATA%GoogleChromeUser Data” in the field and hit Enter to open the User Data folder.
- From there, rename the default folder and name it something else, e.g. “Default.old”.
- After that, install Google Chrome again and check if the issue is now fixed.
Option 6 – Try scanning your computer using Windows Defender
As mentioned, the error when accessing the security settings or properties of a folder or file might be due to a virus or malware. It could be that it had made some modifications that prevents you from accessing security settings or properties. To eliminate it, you have to scan your computer using security programs like Windows Defender.
- Tap the Win + I keys to open Update & Security.
- Then click on the Windows Security option and open Windows Defender Security Center.
- Next, click on Virus & threat protection > Run a new advanced scan.
- Now make sure that Full Scan is selected from the menu and then click the Scan Now button to get started.