Downloaded Downlite to my MacBook Pro without knowing it was harmful. Please help?

Go to the Safari menu and select Reset Safari...

Make it look like this

Then go to the Safari menu > Preferences > Extensions. If you see any extensions that you do not recognize or understand, simply click the Uninstall button and they will be gone.

I've seen a number of other people with the same issue just recently, but nobody else has been able to articulate where it came from. As I track adware and try to provide removal instructions, I'd like more information.

First, see if you find any matches in my Adware Removal Guide. If you do, and removing that item fixes the issue, please let me know which one it was.

If you don't find any matches, I would be very interested in finding out where you downloaded this "Downlite" program from. If you can tell me, I can download it on a test system and see what it does. Check your browser history. Alternately, find the Downlite installer, click on it once and then choose File -> Get Info, and look in the More Info section for "Where From" information.

Please post a link to the download.

My neighbour came to show me where he downloads from and used my Macbook and trackpad for the first time.

Clicked in the wrong place and I now have this problem. % yrs with Mac and the first issue with downloads!

The URL is http://proxybay.eu/search//0/7/200

Hit the green download button and you're blighted - didn't even get a file!

I hope this helps find a cure....

I don't see a green download button there... plenty of other colors, and all of them redirected (for me) to a malicious video streaming site. I'm unclear on what the issue is in your case, since you just say "you're blighted - didn't even get a file" - what does that mean?

Of course, it should go without saying that any piracy-related site should be avoided like the plague. Unfortunately, it does seem to need saying, and saying often.

I appreciate this and it is not something I am involved in. It was simply that I was being shown what can be done!

Inadvertently clicking on the 'download' has added Down lite to my mac and I am now plaqued by adware everytime I open a webpage and I canot find its source to remove it. I have followed several suggested paths but as yet have not been able to get rid of the problem.

The page I see is this;

Hit the green download button and you're blighted - didn't even get a file!

You're not the original poster, and I have no way of knowing whether your problem is the same as his, but is Java installed on your system and did you enable it for that site?

I do not have a Java icon shown in System Preferences, so assume it is not installed (should it be?). I am using OS X Lion 10.9.1

Each time i load a webpage I now get this green icon in the top left window and pop up ads along with links in text in green which are ads. Sometimes web pages load over the top of the one I have chosen which are betting pages etc. I have joined this thread as I saw reference to DownLite when first shown the proxybay webpage

I appreciate your assistance as this situation is really annoying me....

I see a different interface at that site:

Clicking one of the Download buttons redirects to a site that WOT blocks, but if I go ahead and load the page anyway, I see this:

Clicking the red Download In HD button there takes me to yet another scam site, again blocked by WOT. This time, I had to enter an e-mail address in order to be allowed to click the Download button, which I declined to do.

Nowhere am I able to find a link to this "Downlite" program. If you, or the original poster, can find an exact link, I'd be glad to take a look at it, but there's not much to be said if I can't see it.

You may have installed the "DownLite" adware, perhaps under a different name. Remove it as follows.

Back up all data.

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

/Library/Application Support/VSearch

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 "VSearch" selected. Drag the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

Repeat with each of these lines:

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.vsearch.agent.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.daemon.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.helper.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/Jack.plist /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/Jack /System/Library/Frameworks/VSearch.framework

After moving all the files, restart and emptythe Trash.

This unwanted program is distributed on illegal websites that traffic in pirated movies. 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.

*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, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Linc, since you have obviously seen a copy of this and I still haven't gotten my hands on one, do you have any objections if I "steal" the information here for my Adware Removal Guide? I will credit you, of course.

That's fine.

Thanks

Thanks for the info Linc. I shall have a go and report back

There's one other thing you may need to do after the above.

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" in the description. If in doubt, uninstall all extensions. Do the equivalent for the Firefox and Chrome browsers, if you use either of those.