Why has my Google Chrome Changed Language? If you are seeing pages in Russian in Chrome, it could be due to a few different reasons. Here are some possible explanations:
- Language Settings: It’s possible that the language settings in Chrome have been changed to Russian. You can check this by going to the Chrome settings, clicking on “Languages,” and making sure that your preferred language is at the top of the list.
- Malware: Malware or a virus on your computer can sometimes change your browser’s settings and cause it to display pages in a language other than your preferred one. Run a malware scan on your computer to check for any infections.
- Website Settings: Sometimes, individual websites will default to displaying in a certain language based on your location or browser settings. In this case, you can try using a VPN to change your location or clearing your browser cache and cookies.
- Hacked Account: If you’re signed in to your Google account on Chrome, it’s possible that your account has been hacked and the language settings have been changed. You can try resetting your password and checking your account settings to ensure that everything looks normal.
If none of these solutions work, you can try reaching out to Google support for additional assistance.
This is a classic Chrome browser hijacking, used to drive traffic to ad revenue sites.
Google has a blog entry dedicated to the topic: Clean up your hijacked settings
Check your Devices here
If resetting the browser clears the hijack, you’re good to go. Otherwise, you may have a secondary malware infection on your PC that is re-infecting Chrome. In that case, you would need to undertake your favorite malware remediation scheme.
Clean up your hijacked settings
So, you’re trying to download a free screensaver or game or something else you really want. But later you find out that game came bundled with a malicious program that’s trying to hijack your browser settings. You’re not the only one having this problem—in fact, it’s an issue that’s continuing to grow at an alarming rate. You should always be in charge of your own Chrome settings. To help keep your browser settings under your control we added a “reset browser settings” button to Chrome’s settings page in October.
Despite this, settings hijacking remains our number one user complaint. To make sure the reset option reaches everyone who might need it, Chrome will be prompting Windows users whose settings appear to have been changed if they’d like to restore their browser settings back to factory default. If you’ve been affected by settings hijacking and would like to restore your settings, just click “Reset” on the prompt below when it appears.
Note that this will disable any extensions, apps and themes you have installed. If you’d like to reactivate any of your extensions after the reset, you can find and re-enable them by looking in the Chrome menu under “More tools > Extensions.” Apps are automatically re-enabled the next time you use them.
Some hijackers are especially pernicious and have left behind processes that are meant to undermine user control of settings, so you may find that you’re hijacked again after a short period of time. If that happens you can find additional help uninstalling such programs in the Chrome help forum—and remember even if you don’t see the prompt, you can always restore Chrome to a fresh state by clicking the reset button in your Chrome settings.
Linus Upson, Vice President of Engineering
