There is an example of a hijacked Internet Explorer. In this case the Linkury Malware embedded into the ImgBurn installer has changed the home page, changed the default search provider and installed a useless toolbar. These programs get money by analysing your search results and targeting you with adverts and in some cases fake websites. Besides a privacy concern and the annoying additional adverts such addins are usually responsible for frequent browser crashes and cause delay in the browsers performance and search results.
The first thing to do is go to tools at the top right of Internet Explorer → Manage add-ons
Have a look at toolbars and extensions. In general I recommend disabling all Toolbars and Extensions particularly if you don't know what they do.
Check related addins and also disable. As you can see this delays each search by 1.25 s which isn't much on its own but can be significant if alot more toolbars and extensions are installed.
The next is the search providers. The defaults for Internet Explorer should be Bing however it can be changed to Google if you prefer.
In this case the unwanted Linkury is the default search provider meaning all searches are redirected and targeted with additional advertisements (even the well-known search providers target your search results with adverts which is how they make money). You can't delete search provider so go to Bing (or if you had Google) and select "set as default".
You can now select the unwanted "Web search" and select "Remove".
Check there are no accelerators and that tracking protection looks like the default:
Next you will want to go to tools again at the top right → Internet Options
You will note that the home page is changed to the Linkury.
Change the home page to your desired home page or click use default for the MSN default.
Also select delete under browsing history, its recommended to check all boxes and select delete.
Scroll through the rest of the options and make sure they look like the following:
For Windows 8.1 its recommended to have Internet Explorer always open on the Desktop as the Metro version of Internet Explorer is dreadful.
You may also want to restore advanced settings and then reset internet explorer
Finally click apply.
You may then want to clean out your system using CCleaner and scan for Malware using Malwarebyte's AntiMalware:
