Tab.lightningnewtab.com

Tab.lightningnewtab.com is a site that markets LightningNewTab, a Chrome extension that has been classified as a Potentially Unwanted Program. Although Tab.lightningnewtab.com is not a threatening website, Tab.lightningnewtab.com does distribute software with a known refusal to uninstall itself on request, and may be tied to unwanted changes to your Web browser. Whatever its actual intentions or business plan might be, Tab.lightningnewtab.com should be considered a threat to your PC's security whenever Tab.lightningnewtab.com appears in repeated pop-ups, redirects or other forms of browser misbehavior, which malware researchers always would advise treating with solid anti-malware solutions.

The Lightning that Keeps Striking Your Browser

Potentially Unwanted Programs sometimes do not bother to include any functions that would benefit their users, but, just as often, may hide behind the provision of supposedly useful functions, such as malware researchers saw with LightningNewTab. This PUP claims to drastically improve your website accessibility with minor interface changes that include new buttons for significant websites, along with its new homepage, Tab.lightningnewtab.com. However, because having Tab.lightningnewtab.com locked as your homepage also is strikingly similar to the behavior of a common browser hijacker, this software is not recommended for most PC users.

Most users of Tab.lightningnewtab.com's program also reported a variety of issues related to a failure to remove LightningNewTab, reset their Web-browsing settings or delete unwanted changes to their Web browser's interface. Although Chrome is confirmed to be affected by LightningNewTab as its predominant target, other browsers also may be modified. With respect to Chrome, malware researchers verified this PUP's installation through a typical extension-based format. Removing Tab.lightningnewtab.com's software entirely, as through the proper use of strong anti-malware and anti-adware utilities, also should revert any undesired browser changes.

Keeping Your Browser from Getting a Persistent Aftertaste of Tab.lightningnewtab.com

Tab.lightningnewtab.com's software, obviously, can be found at its website, but malware experts also rate bundle-based distribution as a likely possibility for most PUPs, including LightningNewTab. If you need to keep your browser from being modified by a PUP with no interest in your browser's performance or security, avoiding risk-laden freeware websites and scanning suspicious files with anti-malware utilities before launching them are encouraged. Even for programs that are not threats, such as an installer for a Tab.lightningnewtab.com hijacker, most PUP-associated programs can be detected by a well-designed, updated PC security tool.

Tab.lightningnewtab.com does not have any current, verifiable ties to any direct attacks against PCs viewing Tab.lightningnewtab.com, but malware researchers often find it only a matter of time before browser hijackers end up endangering a hijacked computer, either intentionally or by mischance. Software that takes excessive control over your Web browser or your other programs almost never should be considered of as nothing more than a PUP, at best – or a threat, at worst.