Have any of these Edge extensions? Delete them – they were injecting ads in search results

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Microsoft recently purged 18 Edge browser extensions from the Edge Add-ons portal after they were exposed for injecting ads into users’ web search results. So anytime a user clicked on a specific search result, the user was redirected to an advertisement. Terrific.

But before we go any further, let’s get to the list of extensions so you can swiftly delete them from your browser. Here is the full list of the 18 Edge extensions that were recently caught injecting ads into web pages:

• NordVPN
• Adguard VPN
• TunnelBear VPN
• Ublock Adblock Plus
• Greasemonkey
• Wayback Machine
• The Great Suspender
• Floating Player – Picture-in-Picture Mode
• Go Back With Backspace
• friGate CDN – smooth access to websites
• Full Page Screenshot
• One Click URL Shortener
• Guru Cleaner – cache and history cleaner
• Grammar and Spelling Checker
• Enable Right Click
• FNAF
• Night Shift Redux
• Old Layout for Facebook

So how did this come to light? Reddit, naturally. Here’s how one user explains his experience:

Edge injecting ads into search results? from r/edge

Thankfully, Microsoft has removed all of these extensions from its Edge Add-ons portal. According to ZDNet, “The 18 extensions can be grouped into two categories. The first one is for extensions that tried to pass as the official versions of various apps, even if those apps didn’t have official versions for Edge.”

This first category of extensions includes NordVPN, Adguard VPN, TunnelBear VPN, Ublock Adblock Plus, Greasemonkey, and Wayback Machine. The second category is extensions that were ripped from real Chrome extensions then ported with malicious code to Edge. Yikes, not good.

“If you were using any of these extensions installed directly from the Microsoft Edge Addon store, we suggest removing them from edge://extensions,” says Microsoft.

Do you have any of these extensions installed? Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• How to skirt around Edge’s new annoying URL copy and paste feature
• Microsoft Edge is adding new features including built-in promo codes and screenshot tools
• Microsoft Edge is creeping up on Google Chrome in market share
• The new Windows 10 update brings more customization and improved privacy features for Edge

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.