Win 11 opens help page for the app that I am trying to use.

Greetings everyone. My first post on this forum.

I am looking for your help for an issue that I have on Win 11 ( 23H2 ( OS Build 22631. 5624))

Problem is as stated in the title. So, this is not the first time it has happened. When I was not able to determine what the issue was the first time, I did a clean install. Everything worked well for more than a month and today, the problem recoccured. Brave is my primary browser and I went to aliexpress.com to search for a electronic part which is when the problem started. (I am not saying that the website caused the problem. I am just reporting the most recent activity prior to me obeserving the issue)

The browser keeps on opening numerous help pages - non stop - for the app that I am trying to use. In this case, the system started opening help pages for brave. Note that I did not press the F1 key and I also confirmed that the key was not stuck.

Next I opened Windows Sandbox to see if I can open Edge to check if the problem occurs there too. The moment Sandbox loaded, help page for Edge inside the sandbox was up.
I also have Virtual Box with Mint installed. Clicking on the Virtual box icon opened up help pages for Virtual box.

To scan for malware, I ran windows defender, Malwarebytes and AdAware. I use ublock origin on all my browsers with all filterlists active. I also have adguard installed. Browser settings are set to offer max security.

Finally, I think I am not alone. After a brief search, I was able to find someone else who had reported this problem. Edge and Chrome browsers auto opening help pages


Any idea what might be causing this behavior? Anything else I can do to resolve this issue? TIA.

Sounds like some sort of redirect malware to me. The reason Edge opened the pages in Sandbox is because you are syncing Edge.

For ALL your browsers delete history, cookies and cache. In Edge that's settings>privacy, search, & services. Research other to find out how.

Make sure your browser settings are not set to open tabs from previous session. Make sure reload all open tabs is not checked .Make sure home page has not been changed. In Edge that's under settings>start, home & new tab page. Again, research how its handled in other browsers.
Restart the computer to see if all the pages open again.

See if AdwareCleaner finds anything. AdwCleaner 2025 - Free Adware Cleaner & Removal Tool | Malwarebytes

Don't know if aliexpress caused it or not, but I'd stay away from that sire. Lots of nasties can be gotten when click on their ads.

@glasskuter - Thank you for the suggestions. I will try them out.