Mac Infected? Don’t worry Free your Mac from Adware, Pop-up Ads and Viruses

Earlier it was not possible for Adware and potentially unwanted programs to attack Mac OS. But now the virus developers are using more sophisticated and advanced techniques to breach the security of Apple MAC OS and infected them badly.

The main aim behind infecting PC’s with Adware is to earn money via promoting advertisements, generating web traffic and collecting sales leads for third-parties. But to run these marketing campaigns they carry out malicious conducts like through unwanted ads, pop-ups, sponsored links within the browsing pages.

But not all the advertising campaigns are genuine, there are more in number of malicious stuffs roaming around the keep and trying to attack your MAC OS.

How Adware attacks MAC OS

Adware/unwanted programs are mostly comes bundled with other freeware programs that users download from unknown sources. But users are unaware that bundled software does not disclose the details of other software bundled along with it. Thus, users unknowingly install Adware on their computer systems.

After the PC is hit by an Adware, it modifies browser’s settings, preferences like start page, add new toolbars and may also drop other Adware of its kinds to your Mac OS itself. Since then, it will start bothering you while browsing with numerous ads and pop-ups to generate pay-per-click revenue out of it.

Here are some typical signs and symptoms of adware infection on your Mac:

• Advertisements and pop-ups appear all over the screen;
• Unknown page open up each time you launch your browser showing fake warnings and security alerts;
• Web pages automatically redirect to different and unknown URLs when you least expect them;
• Pages show pop-ups recommending to download fake optimization tools or other unwanted software.
• Additional unwanted programs might hook up onto the system without your knowledge.

Caution: Users should always be attentive when downloading any freeware program as such free software installer programs contain bundled programs.
So be careful what you choose to install and always select custom installation option while installing any software program.

Remove Adware, Pop-up, and viruses from Mac

This is a complete removal guide that might take several minutes to complete. As it is very important to locate and delete programs files, shortcuts, startups and browser resetting so it involves all necessary steps.

It is a detailed guide which best suits beginners as well as advanced users. In order to successfully remove all annoyances from your Mac, you need to follow step-by-step instructions.

In any case, you feel stuck at any step, then don’t try to just play with them instead skip them then go to our last step which is scanning the PC with anti-malware tool to detect and remove all the threats.

Combo Cleaner is a complete security suite for Mac OS that is developed by “RCS LT” company. This program is featured with anti-virus scanner and system optimization tools like disk cleaner, duplicate files finder, application uninstaller, privacy scanner, and 24*7 customer support service.

Rather than being just a traditional anti-virus or a system optimizer, this single program takes a different approach that eases the user from using a different application to keep their MAC OS protected and optimized.

It is very important to have a reliable anti-virus solution for the computer system. Combo cleaner is one of the best options for MAC users as detects and eliminates all sorts of threats like adware, browser hijacker, Trojans, and other malware. It is a light-themed, easy-to-use interface and keeps updating its threat database hourly to instant detect and remove any sort of malware. Thus ensuring not any malicious stuff is behind within the system.

How to Install and Scan with Combo Cleaner

• Click here to Download the “Combo Cleaner”;

• Once the download completes, double-click on the downloaded file;

• After the window opens, drag the Combo Cleaner program icon and drop into your “Applications folder” icon.
  

  Combo Cleaner Install Step 2

• Now, open your “Launchpad” and click on the “Combo Cleaner” icon.
  

  Combo Cleaner Install Step 3

• This will start the combo cleaner installation and updates its latest virus definition. Once done, Combo cleaner will launch;
  

  Combo Cleaner Dashboard

• Click on “Antivirus” tab and choose the scan options like Quick, Full, and custom. (Full is recommended for the first time)
  

  Combo Cleaner Antivirus Scan

• Let the scan be completed and it will list all the threat found. Now, click on “Remove All Threats”;
  

  Combo Cleaner Scan Results

• After removing the threats, click on the “uninstaller” to find and remove any unwanted programs. Select the program from the list and its related files and then click on “Remove Selected Items“

Combo Cleaner Uninstaller

If you still have the second thought about this anti-malware, then you may want to check out our review article about Combo Cleaner.

Mac OS: Manually Find And Remove Mac ( Not Recommended)”

If you are going for the manual removal process, then we recommend you to print/download these instructions or open it from another uninfected computer or laptop and follow step-by-step manual removal instruction. Mac OS PDF Guide

Step 1. Ending Process Running Under The “Activity Monitor”

1. Type “Activity Monitor” in the Launchpad to open it;
   

   Launchpad-1.1.1

   

   Activity Minor – 1.1.2

2. Scroll through the list of running apps, look for the suspicious ones that appear unknown to you or taking huge CPU resources.
3. Use the [x] button to quit the process.
   

   Force Stop -1.2 and 1.3

Step 2. Remove Malicious Apps From Mac OS

1. Open “Finder” by clicking on the Finder application on your dock.
   

   Finder – 2.1

2. In the left pane of the Finder, click on “Applications“.
   

   Applications – 2.2

3. Next, you need to locate the Adware/suspicious apps and remove them. The “Applications” window will display the list of all apps installed on your Mac OS.
   

   Step – 2.3

4. Now, you need to go through the list to find out the suspicious/malicious or infectious app, select it then right click and then select “Move to Trash”. (Repeat this step until you remove all such apps).
   

   Move to Trash – 2.4

5. Now you need to empty the trash as sometimes program can restore themselves from the trash. On your dock, right-click on the trash icon and then select “Empty Trash”.
   

   Step – 2.5.1

   

   Step 2.5.2

NOTE: if something looks suspicious to you but you are not sure of that, search the web to find out more about that app.

Step 3. Remove Apps From Auto-Startup

Generally, malicious programs, Adware and spyware add themselves to the boot process to launch automatically whenever the device boots. So, you need to find such apps and remove from the startups.

1. Open Apple menu? System Preferences
   

   Step – 3.1

2. Now, choose “Users & Groups” section
   

   Step – 3.2

3. Select your username from the left pane;
   

   Step – 3.3

4. A list will appear showing login items; check the list and use “—” sign to disable any suspicious or unwanted apps you see. Close the screen.
   

   Step – 3.4

5. Next step, from the top menu, choose to Go -> Go to Folder, then type /Users/Shared/ within the search box. In the “Sharedfolder”, you need to delete the “Similar” files and folders.
   

   Step – 3.5.1

   

   Step – 3.5.2

   

   Step – 3.5.3

6. Now Restart your Mac to make the changes into effect.
   

   Step – 3.6

Step 4. Remove Daemons And Agents From Mac’s Startup

1. From the top menu -> Choose Go -> Go to Folder
   

   Step – 4.1

2. Type in “/Library/LaunchDaemons”, within this location you will see lots of files with .plist extension. Scroll through it and find the ones which appear to be suspicious and delete them.
   

   Step – 4.2.1

   

   Step – 4.2.2

3. Do the same for other launching agents locations:
   1. 1. /Library/LaunchAgents
      2. ~/Library/LaunchAgents

   For example: an adware named Vsearch, you may get launching agent as :
   /Library/LaunchAgents/com.vsearch.agent.plist
   ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.vsearch.agent.plist
   Don’t forget to empty the trash and then restart the computer.

   

   Step – 4.3.1

   

   Step – 4.3.2

4. After restart, again repeat step 1-2 and type in: /System/Library/Frameworks/ (look for the malicious file with .framework extension like /System/Library/Frameworks/VSearch.framework)
   

   Step 4.4.1

   

   Step – 4.4.2

5. Put the file to trash, if you find one with a malicious name.
6. Similarly, do more searches within the location:
   • /Library/Application Support/
   • /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/
     

     Step – 4.6.1

     

     Step – 4.6.2

     

     Step – 4.6.3

     

     Step – 4.6.4

7. Put them to trash and again empty the trash and restart the computer.
   

   Step- 4.7.1

   

   Step – 4.7.2

   

   Step – 4.7.3

Step 5. Uninstall Unwanted/Suspicious Extensions From Browsers

Follow the steps to remove unwanted and suspicious extensions from the Safari browser:

• On the Safari browser, click the “Safari” menu then select “Preferences”.
  

  Reset Mac Safari Step-1

• On the General tab of the Safari preferences, check for any unknown URL added as the default homepage, Within the “Homepage” field enter your preferred URL as your default start-page of the browser.
  

  Reset Mac Safari Step-2

• Next, you need to check for malicious extensions, click on the “Extensions” tab on the same window.
• “Extensions” screen will list all the extensions installed on your safari browser, you need to browse through the list and uninstall the ones which appear to be Adware. If you find a malicious extension select it and then click on “Uninstall”. Repeat the steps to remove all unwanted extensions.
  

  Reset Mac Safari Step-3

• Close the Safari browser.

Reset Chrome Browser Guide

For chrome resetting tutorial, please visit our detailed guideline.

How To Reset Chrome To Its Default Settings