How to unlock Chrome’s inbuilt malware scanner

Most of us go for an antivirus to protect our computer but there are many other ways by which you can protect yourself especially if you are a Chrome user. Here's know how.

By Nilakshi Pathak
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Nothing is safe when you are browsing the internet. One needs to be constantly alert when they open their browser. The reason being there are malicious websites, malware, viruses and hackers who are waiting just for you. It is therefore very important to keep your computer safe for keeping yourself safe.

 
How to unlock Chrome’s inbuilt malware scanner

Most of us go for an antivirus to protect our computer but there are many other ways by which you can protect yourself especially if you are a Chrome user. Chrome browser for Windows comes with a malware scanner. This scanner is run at regular interval to make sure that your browser is free from junk.

 

How to unlock Chrome’s inbuilt malware scanner?

Follow the steps given below to unlock the inbuilt scanner of Chrome:

1. Open Chrome browser.

2. Click on the Menu button placed at the upper-right section which is represented by three dots.

3. Click on “Settings”. Scroll down and click on “Advanced” to see further options.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and there you will find Reset and Clean Up” header. From the list, click on “Clean up computer”.

5. This will further open up more option. Click on “Find and remove harmful software”. This is the malware scanner of Chrome and it is described as “Chrome can find harmful software on your computer and remove it”.

6. Click on “Find” to run the scan and the Chrome browser will start checking your computer for harmful software.

7. After the scan is completed, Chrome will show you a report of it. You can remove the unwanted software by clicking on “Remove”. And if your computer is clean of such software, you will see the message “No harmful software found” on the screen.

Now that you have scanned your computer through Chrome once, you can do it again through a shortcut by entering chrome://settings/cleanup in the address bar directly. This will lead you directly to the scanning screen. If the link doesn’t work, make sure that you have updated your browser.

When you run the scanner, Google checks the following things on your system:

• Metadata about programs.

• Programs that are installed and are running on your computer.

• Services and processes.

• Scheduled task

• System registry values.

• Windows proxy settings.

You can stop yourself from sharing the information with Google by deselecting the box that says “Report details to Google.” You need to do it before you run the scan.

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Please, note that this malware scanner will not take all the harmful software into account. It will only report the software which is detrimental to the Chrome browser. As a result, it is advised that you always keep a trusted antivirus activated on your computer.

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