Thanks, sensible suggestion. Don't know why that hadn't occurred to me. @:-)

However, I've just now opened Chrome and used it to access Google.

All in Japanese. Still.

I'm beginning to wonder if the redirect is indeed caused by a virus. I'm going to try to download a checking program today (sigh), provided that I can get one to download, and we'll see how that goes.

ETA: I was able successfully to download Avast. Never could get another program (AVG) to download, but this one worked. I did the thorough scan option. The results: no virus detected.