Need help to get rid of the Rusian Edge web browser

[ThaoL]

For a while, I found that suddenly I had Edge web browser with Russian on it. I tried in many ways to switch it back to the English version, but none of my efforts resolved the issue.

In the meantime, I found that my computer's screen was frequently frozen during idle times and I couldn't bring it back without turning off my laptop and restart it.

For many other times, I couldn't turn off my laptop with the shutdown option through the power menu without manually pressed and held the power button for a while. Otherwise, my laptop became very hot in my backpack.

During its operation, it worked really hard and heated up really fast all the time.

It is highly suspicious that my computer has many virus issues, but Windows 10 defender couldn't detect any of them. I want to reinstall the operation system and reboot the boot sectors of my laptop.

Can you help, please?

[WAWood]

@ThaoL 

From your description, it sounds like you got infected with some malware that installed the Edge version and corrupted other stuff on your PC, as well.  Reinstalling Windows from scratch is the best approach in this situation.

If you're faced with reinstalling Windows 10 onto your PC, there are several options, not all of which necessarily will be available to you:
1) Factory reset using internal HP image
2) Factory reset using external HP image you make
3) Factory reset using external HP image you buy
4) Windows reinstall using media you make

Each of these is discussed in some detail below ...

---------- Factory reset using internal HP image ----------
HP preloads most PCs with a compressed Windows Image that can be used to completely restore the PC to its original condition. This image is contained in the Recovery partition, and if it is intact, it will generally work well.

To do this, you press the Esc key repeatedly while rebooting and when the HP Startup Menu appears, you select the option to do the reset -- usually F11. This will take a couple of hours or more to complete and when done, your PC will start over with initial setup screens. That means that EVERYTHING previously on your PC will have been erased: accounts, settings, personal data, applications, drivers.

NOTE that the disk drive has to be in excellent condition or this will fail. So, BEFORE you do this, instead of pressing F11 as above, press F2 to run diagnostics. If the disk test passes, you should be able to run the reset.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you make ----------
HP provides a Cloud Recovery tool that you can use, together with a 32GB USB stick, to create your on HP reset media.

Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

This works the same as the factory reset described above.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you buy ----------
For those PCs not supported by the Cloud Recovery, in some cases, HP offers Recover Media for sale. This can not be downloaded; instead, it must be ordered from HP.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.

In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click &quot;Update&quot;.<br><br>If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the &quot;+&quot; symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Support.

HP contact info: https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true

If HP no longer carries the media you need, another site you should check for HP Recovery Media is: http://www.computersurgeons.com/

These work the same as the factory reset described above.

---------- Windows reinstall using media you make ----------
If there is no HP recovery media and Cloud Recovery is not an option, then your only option is to creating your own media using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool (MCT).

Use this link to download and create that media: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You may see the option to download an ISO file or create media; choose the option to create media. This will take a while because it has to download over 4GB of data and then has to format and create installation media from those files.

Insert that media into your PC, boot from it, and run through the installation. When you get the window asking for a product key, look down near the bottom of the window for the link you can click to skip that step.

When done (the PC will restart several times), you boot into Windows and you get back online, it will contact the MS activation servers and automatically reactivate Win10.

[ThaoL]

Dear Mr. WAWood,

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones!

And, thank you very much for your comprehensive instruction. It is really helpful.  Can I clarify with you that, the factory reset will help clear the boot sectors or not?

Just want to share with you that I am the HP guy. My laptops, printers are all HP's. After years of trying different brands, I found HP is an American brand that is reliable with many good features to support and to bring comfortableness for its users. The price is reasonable, too.

Virus and malwares seem to be the inavoidable issue and my previous HP laptop was infected by either malware/virus couple times. I reset that laptop using the factory reset option that was preinstalled in my laptop. However, the issue was still persisted until I cleared the boot sectors and reinstalled the Windows operation system.

Will the recovery HP image you provided will help cleaning my laptop in that way?

Sincerely,

[WAWood]

@ThaoL 

The HP Recovery Media rewrites the ENTIRE drive, including all the partitions.  It does that by removing the partitions, recreating them, and repopulating them.  So, anything that was there before is gone after that.

[ThaoL]

Dear @WAWood,

That will be awesome. My another question regarding of this will be its application. After downloading the recovery media, can I use it for all HP laptops that I have (3 at the moment) in the case any of them has any similar trouble?

I look for hearing from you soon as I am going to work on it later today.

Thank you very much again.