Closing Hijacked Browser Tabs.
Yes, tabs not the browser itself. I've tried googling this but I'm afraid I don't know the correct term so I can't find the info. What I'm referring to is when you close a tab and another one pops open by itself.Everytime you try and close the new tab, it opens another. A related problem is when a site won't let you close a tab. I used task manager but this closed the whole browser, which was a nuisance as I was in the middle of something on another tab.Is there a way to close a tab when clicking on the little x or right-click/close won't do it? I use Opera, Firefox and IE7 so a solution relating to any or all of these would be appreciated.
Thanks.
webwiz posted this at 21:29 — 18th January 2008.
He has: 629 posts
Joined: May 2007
I have been using Opera daily since 1999 and have never experienced the symptoms you describe.
Try setting "Block all pop-ups" from the quick prefences menu (F12). This will give you a subtle sliding notice that you can click if you really want to open the pop-up. For normal links that try to open a new tab you can right-click (Cmd-click on Mac) and choose "Open in new tab".
If Opera is opening windows instead of tabs, go to the Advanced tab in Preferences and remove the check mark (tick) against "Open windows instead of tabs" in the Tabs options.
FWIW - Clicking the "X" in the tab, or closing the current tab with Ctrl-W has never failed for me.
Hope this helps.
Cordially, David
--
delete from internet where user_agent="MSIE" and version < 8;
Magenta posted this at 05:31 — 19th January 2008.
She has: 47 posts
Joined: Jul 2007
I didn't know about Ctrl+W.Thanks! I have "Block all pop-ups" set on all my browsers but it didn't stop the tabs thing.
I was using Firefox when the tabs got impudent.I switched to it as my main browser because I'd read it's the most secure.However I must agree with you that the problem never occurs when using Opera.I think I'll switch back to it. Thanks for your reply, webwiz. 
prakharmaheshwari05 posted this at 07:22 — 19th June 2008.
They have: 5 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
even i was having the same problem.. thanks for the help
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 13:23 — 19th June 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Can you post the site that was doing this?
Greensphere posted this at 17:11 — 20th June 2008.
They have: 91 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
I had something similar a while ago but it was a bit of malware that was to blame as fast as i was closing the tabs it was opening new ones which was enough to convince me to update my security.
decibel.places posted this at 18:43 — 20th June 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
yes I too had a trojan - I think a win32 worm or something like that - I got by downloading an infected file from p2p
Took a heck of a lot to eradicate it but it's ok now
It was worst on IE, pretty bad on Firefox, disabled Opera, so I used the Avant browser for a while.
but I think what is being discussed here is a simple chain of pages with javascript to open a new window onclose - very common with porn sites (how would I know?) and the viewer may have set the browser to open new windows in tabs.
Either way, whether a new tab or a new window this can be very annoying and it beats me how anybody thinks it is a useful marketing technique.. often the windows will have a link that says "click here to stop opening new windows" so you are forced to follow the link...
No, I never designed such systems but their code is pretty simple.
I think closing the browser from task manager (in Windows) can stop it - if not, guess it's a reboot.
Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.