Thread: how to be rid of web redirections

I have recently had several occurrences of the scam messages on my Edge in Win 10 with all updates that say "your WIN 10 is broken etc" and including a very loud noise. It is a pretty common scam I believe.

I have been able to shut down Edge and then reselect . I have since deleted all history etc.

I wrote to Trend Micro and they replied that I should delete anything in the string of the desktop icon after Edge.exe.
However , I cannot see the whole string as it is greyed out even on administrator and I cannot see the end of it in Properties, and cannot alter it. I have checked permissions and they show that I should be able to alter it.
( my user name is administrator)
Any ideas on how to get to see it.
Part of the string I can see is Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Micros

The scam hasn't reappeared since I deleted history but I would like to see if I can delete the string after exe as recommended.
Any ideas

Regards Philip A

Sorry to hear that, cparmbruster. You have encountered a Technical Support Scam that involves convincing users that their computer has been compromised, before conveniently offering their services to deal with the issue. Please check the link below on how to avoid website redirection: Resetting your web browser for performance and website redirection issues To know more about Technical Support Scam, you can check the links below: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Suspected Third Party Technical Support Scams and Surging Tech Support Scams and How to Avoid Them In case you need more help, please let us know. - Kim

This probably isn't what you want to read .. but get rid of Edge!
Not as sinister or anti M$ as you think that reads tho.

Reason I say to get rid of it, is that one day soon, you will anyhow .. so maybe just easier to do it now.

Edge is going away. That is, Edge as it currently is has ceased development, and is transferring to the Chromium system.
They relented, and decided that development of Edge is costly for no reason, and it just plain and simply sucks(in terms of security).

Anyhow: I suggest that you look to install the Dev version of the new Chromium based Edge.
it's still Edge as you currently know it .. just that it's no longer the old version of Edge.

Go to this M$ download link, and choose the central box link. ie. the Edge Dev not the Beta version on the LHS. Dunno nuthing about the Canary version.

The Edge Dev version doesn't install over the current(old) version, it will install a totally new version of Edge.
I think it may do the transfer your settings and saved stuff too .. kind'a thing. but I'd say skip that bit and maybe just export your bookmarks/favourites(whatever they call them).
As you may see from my use of terms .. I'm a Firefox user.

But I have used(and do sometimes use) the Chromium version of Edge, and it kind'a works well.

I'm so used to FF, tho, it's hard to use anything else now, other than for specific purposes.
A little while back, my bank altered their website, and FF didn't work well on it. So had to use Edge(Chromium). But they sorted their FF issue and now back with FF on that site.

The other thing that I use Edge for now is my NAS box, on my network.
It's coded in such a way that I need to use Chrome to access all of the features. Stupid coding practises on the part of QNAP there, but whadd'ya do!? (otherwise I'm happy with the NAS box).

So for years I've used Chrome to access the NAS, but since I installed Edge Dev, I use that now and uninstalled Chrome

One last suggestion to help 'clean your system' a little.
That string you posted .. Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Micros ... That should reside in Users->(Your name)->AppData->Local->Packages .. where yourname may be Philip or whatever you used.

I'd highly recommend that you delete it all. And by all, I mean ALL.
You can safely delete all data that resides in AppData if you have a irksome unresolvable issue with something.

Basically, AppData contains all the saves/settings/quick access/detritus that makes your software easier to use.
So the only caveat with deleting stuff in AppData is that you rely heavily on the program to run with the last settings you used, removing it all makes the software 'start again' so to speak.

As an example: a little while back my son's laptop wouldn't boot up to the desktop, he has so much garbage installed, stuff like desktop background changers and all manner of useless stuff.
Anyhow, was taking too long(for me) to try to locate the offending setting/file/whatever .. so just told him, I'm deleting his AppData data, and he just has to start a fresh.

if you have some stuff that you just absolutely don't want to lose the settings you already have(and that's normal) .. then the other option is to delete stuff selectively instead.
For example I use a program called Photo Gallery(it's an old M$ software) .. on the whole it's useless, but the one thing it does well is cataloging my photos(more specifically the raw files).
So I can delete the entire contents of AppData(which I've done plenty of times) .. but sometimes I prefer to keep the database that Photo Gallery creates, so I selectively delete stuff in the AppData folder.
If I delete everything, it just means that when I next open Photo Gallery, it has to rebuild the database all over again(on 200K raw files that takes an hour or so).

AppData contains a lot of flotsam. Stuff that just resides there utterly useless. It builds up over time, and takes up gigabytes of space. On an old terabyte HDD, not a problem, but on smaller SSDs, those recovered gigabytes can be helpful.

My last use of deleting detritus out of AppData was to remove saved settings in Maya. I had to install Maya for my sons graphics/cartoony/games curriculum collge thingydoodle. They use it at school, and he needs it at home too.
I have two screens on my desktop, one 4K and one HD.
To see how quickly Maya runs, on both 4K and HD, I dragged it across from the 4K screen to the HD screen. Now when I bring it back to the 4K screen, it still runs in a semi HD screen only mode!
No idea why, very annoying(doing the testing) .. so to fix it, I went into AppData, found the two listing for Maya(folders called Autodesk) and just deleted them both. Program now work in 4K mode on the 4K screen.
Note this isn't important to me, it's just testing Maya for the kid .. about to get him a desktop, so to spend $s on the most effective components type of testing.

If you follow up on this(and I highly recommend you do if your PC has had the same install for years) .. note that some stuff in AppData won't delete. This is due to persistence, where there is some software running that won't allow access, until the software has been shut down.
This is common.
My usual thing to do tho is the selective deletions. Just look (primarily) in the Local and Roaming folders for stuff/programs that you either don't recognnise, or you know that you've deleted from the PC.
If you see a folder(or directory) with an unknown name(that is software you don't know of on your PC, google it. There is a high chance that the highjacking software that's doen this to your Edge is in there somewhere too(they all are!)

Hope that info helps a little.