Chrome tries to open a public wifi's landing page every time new tab is opened

Question

Recently, I took a flight on Southwest (I know, ugh). I connected to the in-flight wifi on my laptop. Ever since then, opening a new tab in Chrome takes me to the in-flight wifi's landing page, despite the fact that I have Tab For A Cause installed. Here's a screenshot of what happens when I open a new tab.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Tab For A Cause. Tried deleting the Southwest wifi login from Windows. Also tried uninstalling/reinstalling Chrome too, to no avail. (That was weird, actually. I used Iobit Uninstaller Pro, so it should have thoroughly cleaned everything of Chrome from my PC, but when I reinstalled it, I didn't have to sign in or anything. Didn't even have to reinstall my theme, which Chrome usually makes you do after a fresh install. Go figure.) Anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it?

Answer 1

Using 3rd party programs like CCleaner , PC Decrapifier , Chrome Cleanup Tool, or Iobit Uninstaller Pro is OK under some circumstances, but it's usually better to use the official uninstall process first. Some programs have "manual uninstall checklists", but a quick Internet search doesn't give me the clean answer I want for that.

My approach to your situation : Perform a traditional uninstall of Chrome, including the "Also delete your browsing data" checkbox.

1. Ensure you're logged into your Google account in the top right corner (as of Dec 2018, it shows a little letter in a colored circle to indicate the current account). This will ensure your bookmarks are saved, and some history, some plugins-installed, and some other details.

2. Close Chrome. Close Chrome from the system tray if you have it visible there. Assuming Windows 10, click Windows menu->Settings->Apps->scroll down, choose Google Chrome and click Uninstall. Proceed through the prompts, choosing "Also delete your browsing data" when prompted.

2A. If you're retracing steps, this is the time to go and manually hunt for Chrome folders and registry keys. Only do this if you're confident and backed-up. I know the set of folders and keys changes over time, so I'm not going to put specifics here.

3. Reinstall Chrome. First download it from https://www.google.com/chrome/ , then run the installer using default settings.

4. Test the new clean Chrome without logging in. Go to a known-good website, open some new tabs, close them individually, close them all, try again to expose the problem you saw earlier. Go to a possible-bad website, like this portal you visited. If the problems reappear on a clean Chrome install, you can report it to both the problem site, as well as using Chrome's Help->Report an issue. You probably won't get a response, but notifying both parties is important.

5. If the problem hasn't happened again, try logging into Chrome. Browse around and try to reproduce the problem. If it's gone, great. If it reappears, you have data to report to the problem website and Google. :( Start over.

Using Chrome beta, developer, or canary makes this process more complicated, but if you found those, you will probably be able to expose the issue in a systematic way. Using ISPs and hotspots with login pages (it sounds like the airline had one) will make it more complicated. Using antivirus will make it more complicated.