Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker - How to remove

Trackpackagetab.com is a webpage that replaces the new tab page on some people’s browsers. Trackpackagetab.com does this with the help of Track Package Tab, a related browser extension. Supposedly, Trackpackagetab.com is there to help users track their shipments, but it appears more suited to track user browsing habits and to show them advertisements (such as by promoting notification spammers). Removing Trackpackagetab.com is not quite as simple as uninstalling the Track Package Tab extension, but it is a start.

In short about Trackpackagetab.com:

Type of threat	Browser hijacker.
How Track Package Tab changes the browser	Trackpackagetab.com replaces the new tab page, the user’s data is logged, dubious sites are promoted on the new tab.
How hijackers get installed	Advertised online, bundled with freeware installers.
How to get rid of Trackpackagetab.com	Uninstall Track Package Tab, uninstall other unwanted extensions, check for malware with anti-malware apps (Combo Cleaner for Mac, Spyhunter for PC, others), block notifications from sites that are abusing them to show pop-up ads.

Problems with Trackpackagetab.com

New tab hijacker

When Track Package Tab, a browser extension released by Innover Group, is installed on a web browser, that browser’s new tab page and home page are replaced with Trackpackagetab.com. Innover Group is the same company that’s behind Convertersuite.com, Quicklivenews.com, and many other new tab-replacing extensions. That’s just how they work.

Trackpackagetab.com is supposed to be an enhancement for a web browser that helps you track packages and calculate shipping prices. To deliver these features, it replaces the new tab page (as well as the home page) in the browser.

It doesn’t need to do this – replacing the new tab page is unnecessary. It takes away the user’s ability to customize and personalize their browser – when customization and personalization are the point of the new tab page. And it’s not like Trackpackagetab.com adds anything useful:

• there’s a search box that leads to Yahoo.com and the user can’t set another search engine to be used,
• there are links to Youtube Facebook, Gmail, and Google Maps – sites that are useful to some and irrelevant to others, but again, you can’t change Trackpackagetab.com,
• there’s a package tracker widget and a link to a postage calculator.

I would argue that Trackpackagetab.com, like many other newtab hijackers, does not comply with Google Chrome’s single purpose policy. After all, everything that Trackpackagetab.com has to offer related to shipping packages can be comfortably contained in an extension pop-up, being more convenient to access while leaving the new tab page alone. And yet, Trackpackagetab.com’s creators chose to hijack the new tab.

Adware

A good explanation for why Trackpackagetab.com hijacks the browser is that it needs to in order to be better able to advertise to the users.

First, Trackpackagetab.com promotes two sites owned by the same company that made it: Quickformsearch.com and Livenewseveryday.co, a news aggregator that asks to send notifications to visitors. All of their privacy policies talk about using collected data to serve advertisements. That data might include people’s browsing histories, as Track Package Tab does get access to it.

Also, if Trackpackagetab.com did not take over the new tab page, it could not be able to redirect searches as it does. Browser hijackers that redirect to Yahoo are incredibly common. Trackpackagetab.com could not do that if it didn’t replace the new tab page.

Unwanted installation

Neither on Mozilla nor on Chrome’s sites does Trackpackagetab.com have any reviews, despite having thousands of users. That’s always a thing with browser hijackers and it probably shows that users of Trackpackagetab.com don’t know about the extension being installed. Still, Trackpackagetab.com amasses hundreds of thousands of visits per month, so the extension must be doing its job of taking over people’s browsers.

One way that unwanted extensions get installed is by being offered with free apps and programs. It gets bundled with another app’s installer, is downloaded and installed in the background, and people only learn about it once it’s on their computer already.

Another method is simple online ads. Mostly, Trackpackagetab.com appears to be advertised on various package tracking sites. The ads can be confusing when they say “Start” and offer to track your packages while you’re already on a package-tracking site. Some people click those ads thinking that they’re not ads but just the site’s user interface. That’s how they get tricked into installing Trackpackagetab.com.

Sometimes, multiple browser extensions are installed together.

How to remove Trackpackagetab.com

Here are the things you need to take care of when getting rid of Trackpackagetab.com:

• Track Package Tab is in browser settings as controlling the new tab page, which means that to stop seeing Trackpackagetab.com, Track Package Tab has to be disabled or removed,
• some unwanted sites may be using notifications permissions to spam your browser with ads – this is a setting in the browser that remains even after Trackpackagetab.com is uninstalled,
• there may be other dubious browser extensions (and other junkware) that remain installed.

You can use an anti-malware program – Combo Cleaner for macOS, Spyhunter for Windows, others – to look for malware on your computer. If any is found, delete it.

If pop-ups are cluttering the corner of your browser, you need to go into notifications settings:

1. Check your notification settings:
   • Chrome – type “chrome://settings/content/notifications” in the address box.
   • Edge (Chromium) – type “edge://settings/content/notifications” in the address box.
   • Firefox – open Settings, Preferences, Privacy & Security, scroll down to Permissions, and click on Settings next to Notifications.
2. Find sites that are sending unwanted notifications, press the button next to each of them and then click “Block”.

Block all the sites that you do not wish to see pop-up ads from, especially unfamiliar ones. It’s really easy to accidentally allow notifications, and then some sites take advantage of that to spread intrusive ads.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove browser extensions

TopHow To remove Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings

• Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.

• Choose Manage search engines.

• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.

• Go back to Settings. Open On start-up.
• Delete malicious search websites at Open specific page or pages by opening the three-dot menu and clicking Delete.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings

• Click on Edge's menu button and select Settings. Click on the Reset Settings button on the left.
• Press the Restore settings to their default values option.

• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How To remove Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker from Firefox:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Options → General. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Restore to Default.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Trackpackagetab.com Hijacker, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• ChooseTroubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on theReset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.