Remove the About:Blank Browser Popup

If your computer keeps displaying browser popups that have the address About:Blank, then you could either have a problem with your browser settings, were visiting a site that displayed a popup, or have adware or hijackers installed installed that are displaying these popups. No matter the reason that you are seeing these types of popups, the about:blank page is not malicious and is only a symptom that there is something that needs to be addressed on your computer or sites that should be avoided.

Below I will go into more detail about what About:Blank pages are, what causes them to be displayed, and then suggestions on resolving the display of these types of popups or alerts.

What are About:Blank pages?

All modern browsers, which include Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, & Safari, support a Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) URI, or Uniform Resource Identifier, scheme called “about“.

The about identifier, which can be typed into a browser’s address bar, is meant to be used to access a browser’s internal information such as settings, resource usage, jokes, Easter eggs, or any other information output a browser developer wants to add.

While all browsers can add any “about” addresses that they wish to their browser, one URI that almost all browsers use is the “about:blank” address. When a browser navigates to this address it simply displays a blank page, which can then be used by extensions or a scripting language like Javascript to add further output.

The about:blank page is not malicious in any way, but as it is commonly used by popup advertisers and adware, people may become concerned when they see them. I have outlined the various ways that about:blank may be shown in a browser below and suggestions on how to resolve them below.

What causes about:blank popups?

Sites that use about:blank popups for advertising.

The most common sites that display popups that are labeled about:blank are adult video sites. On many of these sites, when you click on the play button for a video, in addition to playing the video, it will also open a popup that shows the about:blank address. After a few seconds, javascript will use that page to redirect you to one of the site’s advertising partners.

Occasionally, though, these about:blank popups will not be properly changed to an advertisement, and visitors will be left with these blank popups that have the address of about:blank. These types of popups are not a problem and you can just close them.

To avoid seeing these types of popups, you can use a pop-up blocker, which are bundled in most browsers.

Your browser in intentionally being set to use about:blank as the startup page?

It is not uncommon for people to configure their browser to automatically open the about:blank as their startup or home page. This is because it allows the browser to open very fast, as no default web site is loaded, and then they can navigate to whatever site they wish. If this is the case, and you do not wish to continue using about:blank as the start page, you can simply go into the browser’s settings and remove about:blank as the default home page.

Corrupt Browser Settings

It is also possible for a browser’s settings to be corrupted or misconfigured. In this rare case, about:blank may show due to this. If this happens you can simply reset your browser to default settings in order to replace the configuration with a default working one.

Steps on how to restore the settings of the most popular browsers can be seen in the guide below.

The computer is infected with adware or hijackers

Last, but not least, there are certain adware and browser hijacker infections that will display popups that show about:blank as the address or change your home page to about:blank. By using about:blank pages, infections have a blank canvas that can be used by installed malicious toolbars, browser helper objects, and executables to display what they want.

If your computer is constantly being shown about:blank pages or you cannot stop your browser from displaying them when you open the browser, then there is a good chance you have an infection installed. To clean your computer for free, you can use the removal guide below.

What should I do if I continuously see about:blank popups?

If you are just seeing browser about:blank popups when you visit certain sites, then the solution is to just avoid these sites or make sure you have a popup blocked enabled. On the other hand, if you are just using your computer normally, not visiting adult sites, and your browser opens on its own to display about:blank popups, then there is a good chance you are infected with some type of unwanted program.

To be safe, I would then suggest you use the guide below to scan for unwanted programs or infections and remove them for free.

Your computer should now be free of the About:Blank Popup program. If your current security solution allowed this program on your computer, you may want to consider purchasing the full-featured version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below: