A nasty thing called "install.mac" has hijacked my Safari address bar search...

Found one more file:

Macintosh HD/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client

Found more cruft, this time a framework folder left at:

Macintosh HD/Library/Frameworks/GenieoExtra.framework/

(Right click and select Show Package Contents in the Finder or type "sudo find <directory>" in Terminal to look at the files.)

More cruft:

~/Library/Preferences/com.installmc.global.settings.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.installmc.settings.plist

Found one more file

Yes, things have changed a lot with Genieo since this topic started. There's a lot more sneaky stuff installed. Worse, the uninstaller leaves a lot of that sneaky stuff behind, still installed and running constantly.

For removal instructions, see the Genieo removal page in my Adware Removal Guide.

(PS - note that the preference files you indicated in your last post are unimportant. You can certainly get rid of them if you like, but they do no more than take up an inconsequentially small amount of space on the hard drive. They're not something I would bother with.)

Hi, I followed the tutorial step by step, I found out this thing came in after I downloaded Gimp for Mavericks. Apparently Safari is ok but both Chrome and Firefox still had the installmac problem. I uninstalled them but how do I know it's gone? Thanks!

Hi, I followed the tutorial step by step

Which tutorial? Note that if you did what Dr.Mac said to do, you didn't remove it. See my post here:

Re: A nasty thing called "install.mac" has hijacked my Safari address bar search...

I found out this thing came in after I downloaded Gimp for Mavericks.

Where did you download Gimp from? The official Gimp website (www.gimp.org), or from some third-party download site?

Hi, I followed your tutorial as well. I double checked if those files were still there after I restarted the mac and nothing seems to remain.

Fingers crossed I got rid of it.

I downloaded it from Softonic, silly me.

I downloaded it from Softonic, silly me.

Ahh, I see they're back to their erroneous ways. They've done this in the past as well. See:

Boycott Softonic

Ah good, thanks for the link!

hi girls,

i've your same matters.

how did u remove that install.mac?

please help me... i can't believe it's my 3th day with my first mac... and... i've this terrible thing in my mac!!

thanks

Well, there are men and women participating in this conversation so I'm not sure which "girls" you are referring to, but scroll up to the reply from thomas_r in which he says this:

"For removal instructions, see the Genieo removal page in my Adware Removal Guide."

He was extremely helpful in getting this thing removed from my last computer. I guess we've all learned our lesson about not downloading stuff we aren't really really sure about!

(edit: or apparently you can just click it directly from MY response!)

Hi, I found that I had the same problem, so I first used FindAnyFile to find all the files related to Genieo, and I started deleting them (and emptying the trash). However before deleting all the files I read this post further, and found thomas’s tutorial. So I used the Finder’s go menu and located and moved the files that he indicated to the trash, and when I got to the last one (/usr/lib/libimckitsa.dylib) the finder wouldn’t put it in the trash. I relaunched the finder but the problem persisted. I tried to restart my mac, but it won’t ! I can’t even shut it down now, and when I saved a Word doc before starting a restart I found that the doc wasn’t saved, it just disappeared. Obviously I must have deleted something which I shouldn’t have. What can I do?

Thanks!

It's hard to say without more information. You say you can't shut down... why not? What happens when you try?

Do you have any backups?

Hi Thomas

Resolved in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5785685?answerId=24500035022#24500035022

Paul

Yes, thanks to Paul_31 i did manage to sort out the issue. Your tutorial works fine, as long as one doesn't make the mistake of emptying the trash too early. Thank you for your support!