Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
After downloading mackeeper and reading horror story reviews and warnings about the product i imediatley un-instaled it and then emptied my 'trash' on my macbook pro. Is this enough to un-do any damage mackeeper may have done to my new computer? If it has already done damage to my computer is there any way to rectify this? I am extremely worried, after spending a lot of money on a new computer, of the potential damage this software could cause.
MacBook Pro
MacKeeper, while junk, is not malware as some people are fond of calling it. If you uninstalled it properly (by dragging it to the trash and then allowing it to remove itself when asked), then all components should be gone.
As to damage to your system, did you allow it to do any "cleaning?" If so, it's possible it could have removed something important. Using "cleaning" utilities incurs that risk. If you're not having any problems, I wouldn't worry about it.
At most, you would probably just need to reinstall the system, which can be done on top of the current system. This replaces any potentially damaged or missing components with new ones, and leaves all your data alone, so ideally you wouldn't notice any difference. I don't believe that this should be necessary, but if you do have issues and decide to reinstall, just be sure to make a good set of backups in case something goes wrong.
bentkitty100 wrote:
MacKeeper isn't a virus 😉
but it would be nice if there were more Thomases out there 😀
I was not registering an opionon on MacKeeper (it would probably not be printable). But, Thomas is, in fact, the forum expert on virii and malware. And it would be great if we could clone him. 🙂
😊
I was, of course teasing you about the MacKeeper virus thing, hence the wink.
And, if you'd like a way to print an opinion on MacKeeper, you can always do what I do, which is call it CrapSeeker.
And of course I know that Thomas is the forum expert on virii, malware, trojans, etc...
And of course I know that Thomas is the forum expert on virii, malware, trojans, etc...
He is the Top Banana as regards malware, viruses etc, but a few of us also get in on the act:
This User Tip seeks to offer guidance on the main security threats and how to avoid them.
Not trying to downplay you, Klaus 🙂 You, Linc Davis, all of those people, are as helpful as Thomas on these issues. We appreciate all of you!
We love you, too, Klaus1!
bentkitty100 wrote:
I was, of course teasing you about the MacKeeper virus thing, hence the wink.
You are far kinder than I on the matter. 😉
Aw, shucks! 😊
On which matter? The correct usage of the term virus, or about MacKeeper?
So I bit the bullet, bought Mackeeper yesterday (the full suite) and ran a few of the utilities. I have to say, from a real basic position, I was impressed.
My knowledge of computers is average. In car terms I could change a tire, a fuse, maybe the oil and spark plugs and that's about it. But I was frustrated with my Mac because I only use it to DJ so it literally only has DJ software and music on it. Out of 4G of ram I have 2.2 available (I try to keep it clean because I need it to run fast). However, I started experience 7 minute login times for no reason.
I followed every forum I could read and took action going into the library and eliminating startup processes, stopping the apps from bouncing, utilized the activity monitor, etc...but none of those made a major difference. After I ran some elements of the Mackeeper software yesterday, now it works like it did out of the box and starts up in less than a minute! So far none of the programs I used have experienced any issues.
As I admitted I am no expert so you could probably poke holes in what it did or didn't do and I can't argue but I couldn't fix it using all the other advice. I probably overpaid, there are probably free apps that do exactly what Mackeeper did and maybe better that I could have piece mailed together. But seriously, I'm probably naive, but don't understand why the latest version would get any bad press.
To each there own, this is certainly not an endorsement but I personally couldn't find an opinion from an "average" computer usage person. My advice...take a lot of opinions into consideration. If you install it be careful when running the utilities (it wanted to erase what it thought were duplicate .exe files that I knew were not duplicates and would have crashed my DJ software) and don't take the easy way out and say "yes" to cleaning or fixing everything. Be diligent, I have a feeling that a lot of people with bad experiences just agreed for instance to erasing all duplicates to free up disk space and erased essential files.
Happy New Year.
Well, good luck 🙂 However, I believe (although I might be wrong) that some of the worst effects come if you don't buy the full package.
Does anyone know if that's true?
That is why you do not run MacKeeper on a Mac ... it does not know what are critical OSX parts and what is not usable.
The amount of effort you put into investigating what MacKeeper should NOT do is too much work. OSX utilities know what is correct and what is not, so can be trusted "out of the box".
Read "More Like This" to see how many people had to dump their current install and start over because MacKeeper had destroyed their system worse than a bad surgeon.
steve359 wrote:
That is why you do not run MacKeeper on a Mac ... it does not know what are critical OSX parts and what is not usable.
Hear, hear!!
Even though this question has been "beat to death" I wanted to share my experience and knowledge about Mackeeper and another click program genieo (genieo is no doubt malware and proof that you need some kind of malware scanner on a Mac nowadays.)
I had Mackeeper installed on both my new Macs. A top spec MacBook Pro 13" (2012) and a Mac Mini custom ordered through Apple with every upgrade paired with a 27" Thunderbolt Display.
I consider my self pretty computer savvy but was a new Mac convert and read all the seemingly awesome reviews on Mackeeper. So I fell for all the ads and most likely paid reviews and bought for both my computers. I did this when I first set them up so I had no benchmark on whether it slowed them down. What a huge huge mistake.
Both my systems were so slow my wife who was still in the PC world said this is why I don't ever buy a Mac, they are so slow all I get is a colored wheel every time I use your computers. She would constantly say I paid thousands of dollars for junk and that a 400 dollar PC would be much faster. I just hung my head low knowing she had a point.
After some quick research I uninstalled Mackkeeper by simply opening up Applications in Finder and dragging to Trash, this iniated Mackeeper's uninstaller which asks why you want to unistall (which you don't have to answer) I simply clicked uninstall. I emptied the trash, restarted and it was like I had just went from 2004 to 2014, my MacMini was incredible, I was elated.
I quickly did the same on my MacBook Pro and the performance increase was even more astounding. No more little Racing helmet icon on top of screen with constantly rotating gear! Alas, I finally had my money's worth in computing power. My available ram went through the roof on both systems showing Mackeeper was hogging and wasting all the memory.
While Mackeeper may not technically be malware it is a horrendous program, a waste of money, and destroys your computer when its installed.
As for the argument you don't need Malware/Antivirus protection I will give you one piece of advice and an example. There's a program called Genieo which is hidden in downloads of other programs as part of a bundle. Geneio pays to have the product put in the bundle of an actual program. This is Adware/Malware and a vicious vile one at that. It will hijack your browsers constantly displaying ads, and eventually take over your whole system.
When you download and run Bitdefender it will identify Geneio and remove it, though you will still have to work to fix your browser settings. My point is now that Macs are becoming more prevalent and have in my opinion a wealthier clientele, they are ripe for the picking since hardcore Mac enthusiasts will swear you don't need any protection. I am not saying you need an antivirus program continually running but it's good to run a scan every so often. Even though Mackeeper will not be identified as a malicious program, virus, or such it is complete garbage.
My wife by the way loves to use my Macs now!!
RevoltAnon wrote:
When you download and run Bitdefender it will identify Geneio and remove it, though you will still have to work to fix your browser settings.
I can't say for certain how thorough a job BitDefender did to remove it, but I would encourage you to double-check all the locations outlined in this article. Even the Uninstall Genieo app doesn't remove everything and as you found you still have to readjust settings on most browsers.
Mackeeper
