PianomanDave

Q: Is MacKeeper Safe to use to remove Adware?

Is MacKeeper Safe to use for OSX 10.9.4?  I need to remove trovi.com and then to scan to make sure that I have no other viruses or Adware. I am afraid to use any software that does not come from a company I know or can get some reviews on. Norton doesn't remove Adware.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 8GB Ram, 2.2GHz Intel Core i7, 1TB

Posted on Sep 1, 2014 12:06 PM

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Q: Is MacKeeper Safe to use to remove Adware?

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  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Sep 1, 2014 12:13 PM in response to PianomanDave
    Level 6 (13,653 points)
    iPad
    Sep 1, 2014 12:13 PM in response to PianomanDave

    NO!!!!

    It is complete "garbageware"/"scamware".!!!

     

    Apps like MacKeeper or any other maintenance apps like CleanMyMac 1 or 2, TuneUpMyMac, MacCleanse or anything like these apps, installed on your Mac, while they appear to be helpful, can do too good a job of data "cleanup" causing the potential to do serious data corruption or data deletion and render a perfectly running OS completely dead and useless leaving you with a frozen, non-functional Mac.

    Plus, these type of apps aren't really necessary OR needed. They really aren't.

    There are manual methods to clear off unnecessary data off of your Mac that are safer and you have complete control over your Mac and not just leave a piece of auto cleaning software in charge of clearing off data off of your Mac. Their potential of causing OS X issues outweighs the implied good and benefits these types of hard drive or memory "cleaning" apps are written to do.

    These types of  system 'cleaning" apps are very poorly written and are really a scam to rob newbie and novice Mac users of their hard earned cash for a poorly written maintenance program that will do much more harm to a perfectly normal running OS X system than the good that the app developers purport these types of apps will do.

    Plus, the software companies that write these apps make it hard to easily uninstall these apps if something DOES go wrong and these apps work in a way where you have no recovery or revert function to return your Mac back to its former, working state in the event something does go wrong.

    It is best to never, EVER download and install these types of apps.

    The risk to your system and important data is too great a risk!

     

    Also, if you have any Norton software installed, completely uninstall this, as well

    Antivirus software can slow down, impede and negatively impact the normal operation of OS X.

     

    https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20080427024142EN_En dUserProfile_en_us

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Sep 1, 2014 12:16 PM in response to PianomanDave
    Level 6 (13,653 points)
    iPad
    Sep 1, 2014 12:16 PM in response to PianomanDave

    See this discussion for removing the Trovi adware.

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6071383?tstart=0

  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 Sep 1, 2014 2:14 PM in response to PianomanDave
    Level 5 (4,791 points)
    Sep 1, 2014 2:14 PM in response to PianomanDave

    PianomanDave wrote:

     

    Is MacKeeper Safe to use for OSX 10.9.4?

    If you have to ask the answer is NO!  It can do more harm than good in the hands of an inexperienced user.

     

    Trovi is not malware, so it's not likely to help you in any case.

     

    To remove most all currently known adware, including Trovi, safely and easily use TheSafeMac's Adware Removal Tool.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Sep 1, 2014 4:02 PM in response to PianomanDave
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Sep 1, 2014 4:02 PM in response to PianomanDave

    You installed the "VSearch" trojan, perhaps under a different name. Remove it as follows.

    Malware is constantly changing to get around the defenses against it. The instructions in this comment are valid as of now, as far as I know. They won't necessarily be valid in the future. Anyone finding this comment a few days or more after it was posted should look for more recent discussions or start a new one.

    Back up all data before proceeding.

    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    /Library/LaunchAgents/com.vsearch.agent.plist

    Right-click or control-click the line and select

              Services Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

    from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item named "com.vsearch.agent.plist" selected. Drag the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

    Repeat with each of these lines:

    /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.daemon.plist
    /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.helper.plist
    /Library/LaunchDaemons/Jack.plist

    Restart the computer and empty the Trash. Then delete the following items in the same way:

    /Library/Application Support/VSearch
    /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/Jack
    /System/Library/Frameworks/VSearch.framework
    ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ConduitNPAPIPlugin.plugin

    Some of these items may be absent, in which case you'll get a message that the file can't be found. Skip that item and go on to the next one.

    From the Safari menu bar, select

              Safari Preferences... Extensions

    Uninstall any extensions you don't know you need, including any that have the word "Spigot," "Trovi," or "Conduit" in the description. If in doubt, uninstall all extensions. Do the equivalent for the Firefox and Chrome browsers, if you use either of those.

    Reset the home page and default search engine in all the browsers, if it was changed.

    This trojan is distributed on illegal websites that traffic in pirated content. If you, or anyone else who uses the computer, visit such sites and follow prompts to install software, you can expect much worse to happen in the future.

    You may be wondering why you didn't get a warning from Gatekeeper about installing software from an unknown developer, as you should have. The reason is that this Internet criminal has a codesigning certificate issued by Apple, which causes Gatekeeper to give the installer a pass. Apple could revoke the certificate, but as of this writing, has not done so, even though it's aware of the problem. This failure of oversight has compromised both Gatekeeper and the Developer ID program. You can't rely on Gatekeeper alone to protect you from harmful software.

    *If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination  command-C. In the Finder, select

              Go Go to Folder...

    from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.