Web browser keeps opening to msn by itself randomly

I have been having the same issue myself i use chrome as my browser i got home from work and i see msn is open i did not open msn as i dont use it so i check my history and see it has opened every 7/8 mins since two o’clock in the morning without any promt i am using windows 10 on a windows 10 ready hp laptop i only really use it for youtube and netflix and it has never had this issue before in the past i have read through the thread and dont see any solutions that has worked for me and i would also prefer not to system hack my laptop to avoid a simple pop up i do have a pop up blocker which ofcourse failed to prevent this if anybody has any suggestions it would really help its not exactly a major issue at all but let be honest microsoft this is an issue you should be able to resolve as from looking into this i can see this issue has been ongoing since 2011 if not earlier and its very frustrating to see the lack of support offered for loyal customers this is the sort of behaviour that is forcing me to switch over to apple or playstation ect... its not the best image i am in high hopes of a prompt response that will resolve my problem

I think I know the cause of this:

If you're connected to a wireless network that has a web-based login portal (whether you type a login/password, or just click agree to the terms and conditions, they're both the same) while you're also connected to a wired, then that is probably the cause, and your workaround is to disconnect to that wireless network (or alternatively, just log in.)

Edit: or do this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43491861/how-to-disable-automatically-browser-opening-on-wi-fi-hotspot-connection-for-win

Explanation: Windows 10 has a new behavior to correct Windows 7's worse behavior of frequently prioritizing wireless connections over wired connections, while you're connected to both, and getting the interface metrics all wrong. Windows 10 prioritizes wired always, meanwhile it also has a feature so that if it detects a wireless network with a web landing, then it directs your browser to a Microsoft owned URL (I forgot the exact URL,) which is then supposed to be redirected by your wireless controller to its internal IP, therefore showing you the landing page. If you're on a wired network, then this will send the URL request over the wired network instead, which WILL be able to reach the outside internet without having to log in to your wifi. It will periodically do this to "help" you log in to a network opening your browser to that URL, which can then reach Microsoft's actual website, which subsequently redirects you to MSN.

This is a bug that Microsoft should fix, rather than send a representative who doesn't read your question enough to understand what qualifiers apply, has less knowledge than the asker, and can't read your post fully, and/or lacks the analytical capability to troubleshoot in order to answer the question, only to instead throw you off on random tangents based on some script he goes off of without any actual knowledge of the underlying causes so he could make a better suggestion.

Hope this helps, it did for me. After initially coming here and noticed nobody already had a fix, this occurred to me based on what I know about networking (I hold a CCNP and work on Cisco enterprise wireless) as well as Windows behavior, and how I was troubleshooting such a webauth page minutes earlier and was probably still connected to it. (See that, Microsoft? Not so hard.)

My opinion for fixing this is that Microsoft should by default put the wireless NIC to a sleep state if a path to the open internet is found on a wired connection (using the method Microsoft already uses to show that yellow triangle on the network icon if it determines no connectivity to its servers,) thus saving power and reducing the use of spectrum when you aren't actually using it, all while eliminating the chance of packets intended to go over wired instead end up going wireless. That, and this is a very commonly requested feature by enterprise IT teams for the reasons I mentioned. And of course, when you disconnect from wired, it wakes up the wireless NIC.

(normally I hate it when google points to either answers.microsoft.com or social.microsoft.com because the solutions Microsoft offers in these places are totally irrelevant to the issue at hand. (Seriously, a browser hijack? WTF? Why would anybody besides Microsoft create a browser hijack to msn? Is bing really that terrible that they now resort browser hijacks to get people to go there? Common sense should tell you that if Microsoft wanted to do that, then they'd force edge as the default browser, and prevent changes to the default search engine, just like they do with windows phone. Seriously, Microsoft shouldn't be giving scripts and canned responses to their representatives.)

I add my experience too:

In two different computer, a personal one and a work one, I have the identical issue.

I use these pcs for different purpose, i just have gaming stuff on the personal pc, nothing related to my work.

Doesn't matter which browser I'm using as default (i have opera in home one and chrome in work one), I have msn page opening.

I really will NEVERclean install my operating system for a page opening up, you should be checking what's wrong with windows making things randomly, more than trying to workaround and get things working properly.

Having a meeting with work pc, and msn opening up at the middle of presentation is NOT professional and not funny at all.

Thanks.

Riccardo

Look man, don't get snappy. I have the exact same issue.

Legally installed Windows Home copy activated with a legal key. NOTHING is installed on the computer other than Chrome with zero extensions. Edge has not been touched or even opened by me once. 

Malwarebytes is clean. ADW scans clean. The ONLY thing this computer is used for is a file server on my local network. Uptime is currently around 5 or 6 months. I log in remotely about once a month to check up on it, and every time there's about 15 new tabs open in Edge when I closed all the tabs and Edge last time. It's a combination between something repeatedly trying to open my router config page and being unable to reach it, a random MSN.com page that does load, and multiple failed attempts to load msftconnecttest.com.

I have another HTPC that's legally running the same copy of Windows and is not doing this at all. Edge is not my default browser on either machine. My router is owned by me and not my ISP, and I have it set to reboot weekly. I don't need Windows to constantly check for connectivity. It's just incredibly annoying and none of this helpful in any way to the end user.

Please consider a clean install with the most recent ava Win10 (non-insider) Build, afterwards directly from the mfg site download all drivers missing, or consider using the Acer Live Updater available on your specific models Acer download page (please do not use any 3rd party updaters).

As you have wiped your system multiple time, I assume you have a good backup, please consider updating your backup (i.e. FileHistory) (and/or manually copying data to an external drive and/or using OneDrive cloud storage) before clean installing.