Have you tried FireFox?
I actually use Firefox explicitly as my main browser at version 29 now and had no problems with home page changing etc, as for its still the same home page with no strange redirects etc. My system has otherwise been fine with no hijacks etc. The only thing that tipped me off to Conduit was AVG Free Antivirus detecting it as a medium risk problem. I was thinking it was a false positive until I put 2 and 2 together with recent Chrome install for Angry Birds game to play free. I figured that Chrome was good and clean and thats what Conduit slipped on in with below the radar until the AVG picked up on it during a full system scan.