The term about:blank stands for nothing more than an empty page on your browser page. Whether you are using chrome, firefox, Edge, or any type of browser, the page appears with the label “about:blank”, in the address bar as well as the tab’s page title. You have most probably spotted the empty page popping up into your browser time and again when clicking a link or opening one in a new tab or window.
So, what does this actually mean? What does, about:blank stands for?
Is it malware, a sign of poor internet, or a bad link?
In general, they are nothing of concern.
What does about: Blank mean
About:blank pages are a part of the “about URI scheme”. It is used by browsers to process internal commands that they choose to implement.
There are several ‘about’ commands, such as ‘about:about’, ‘about:cache’, ‘about:plugins’ and more.
An about:blank page does not have a webpage to load, nor does it is going to load any.
No, these are not the blank pages but have the hidden browser functions too used by the browser itself.
The conclusion is that, as it sounds about:blank, is a blank page without URL, it is a command built into the browser. If your browser constantly redirects you to about:blank then there may a sign of malware who is triggering this action.
If the browser is constantly redirecting you to the about:blank page it means you have an adware program installed on your system.
Common uses for about:blank
You might get this question popped in your head that why people want to use a blank page. The idea does sound strange but it does sound strange, but t has a real purpose. The most common use is instructing, the web browser to open a blank page when launched, or even for a new tab, or new window in some cases.
Browsers like Chrome and firefox love to take over when you open their executable file. Ergo, they start doing all sorts of tasks behind the scenes that eat up resources and bandwidth.
While it is not possible to stop the ‘invisible madness’, but you can have control over some elements.
Such as what opens upon launch, people like the idea of launching their browser to the blank page because it prevents browsers from opening different tabs or windows from the previous session.
Ensuring privacy upon launch, regulating bandwidth by opening a non-internet tab to start their session, making the homepage blank, regulating, processes on an older PC.
The cause for about:blank
It can occur in different ways, most often it occurs when you have clicked a download link that opens in another window tab, during this time, the browser gets forced to display, a blank page to initiate the download.
The download page does not show any information besides providing you with the file, hence the blank page appears.
And of course in the case when the browser does not have any idea what to do based on the information processed it may open the blank page.
Also read: How To Encrypt Files, Folders And Drives In Windows 10
HTML, Java, and other codes can force the browser to open a blank page because it can’t process anything.
A window or a tab consequently has to open, so it resorts to the about:blank command.
It becomes suspicious at times by the users that about:blank is a computer virus sneaking it’s way to the system. But this is not the case. When a browser finds itself in a situation where it needs to show the blank page, it does. The page is not served to you from an external source.
So it is not malicious to your system, however, if it has been happening in a loop, it may be concerning that malware is causing a browser to open a blank page.
How to remove about:blank
Stopping about:blank pages depends on why they are being displayed in the very first place.
If you have adjusted your browser settings to open them, you need to go back to the settings and undo it.
Assuming that you are having issues with not just a single web page but with every other web page or not just opening one browser or visiting a single URL, there are a few things that you can do to fix these issues.
Starting by running a virus scan, you can also clear the browser’s cache and history to remove any bugs.
If the problem still continues, try to disable any extension you have, close the browser, and re-open it. Add-ons and extensions may cause problems so disabling these may be the fix you actually need. Lastly, you can restore settings, to the system default, this is an extreme option but you can go for it if nothing works.
If you are seeing so often your blank pop up the page you should scan your system with a good anti-malware, such as MalwareFox.
Download and install it. Once it gets installed let it update and download recent signatures and press the scan button. Once the scan gets completed, you will be from all malware.
You can also reset the browser settings to their original defaults, which is optional. This step should be performed only if your issues have not been resolved by the previous options.
- Open Chrome’s settings menu.
- At the bottom click advance.
- Under the section reset, click on reset.
- Confirm by clicking on reset.
You can also Double-check for malicious programs through Zemana AntiMalware Free, it is a free popular on-demand antivirus scanner that can detect and remove malware that even the most well-known anti-virus and anti-malware applications fail to find.
While the Malwarebytes and HitmanPro scans are more than enough, we are recommending Zemana AntiMalware to users who have malware related issues.
Your computer should now be free of the about:blank redirect.
Also read: Amazon Echo And Google Home – Which Is The Smarter Choice?
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