access Safari settings without opening Safari?

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Level 1

8 points

access Safari settings without opening Safari?

Using Safari on my MacBook Pro (OSX Yosemite 10.10.3). (Safari is up to date but I don't know the version number.)

I visited a webpage. I don't remember if I clicked on anything there but suddenly, dozens of popups appeared, many of them multiples of the same thing. They don't have URLs. There have no address bar. So many appeared so quickly that they froze the browser. The Settings link was greyed out. The Quit Safari command did not work. I was unable to close them individually. I was unable to Shut Down or Restart the computer through the standard procedure. Instead I received a notice that Safari was preventing Shut Down. I was forced to use the Power Button. On reboot, I reopened Safari and immediately the exact same thing happened; all the popups froze the browser and I couldn't Shut Down the computer without using the Power Button.

Safari is set to begin where I left off, so it's going to continue reopening the same problem popups.

Is there a way to change settings on Safari without opening it?

Only thing I can think to do would be to remove Safari and reinstall it. I suppose that my Favorites would be restored from having them on other devices (iPhone and iPad). But I'd lose my browsing history and all my settings.

Can anyone offer a good work around?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2009), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 3, 2015 12:45 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jun 3, 2015 8:36 AM in response to foxiejeffrey

There is no reason to download anything.

Quit the application. Force quit if necessary.

Relaunch it by holding down the shift key and clicking its icon in the Dock. From the menu bar, select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Privacy ▹ Remove All Website Data

to get rid of any cookies or other data left by the server. Open your Downloads folder and delete anything you don't recognize.

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Answer 2

thunderzzz

Level 6

8,452 points

Jun 3, 2015 12:56 AM in response to foxiejeffrey

I assume you have adware. Follow the instructions on this web page in order to manually remove adware from your mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

You may also find adware removal guide on this page http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-identification/

If you do not want to remove adware manually use adware medic tool(probably the easiest solution) in order to scan and remove it: http://www.adwaremedic.com/

Download, open adwaremedic dmg file , and run it by clicking “Scan for Adware” button to remove adware.

Once done, quit AdwareMedic and restart your mac.

Launch Safari.

Install adblock for your browser: https://adblockplus.org/

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