My computer is running very slow and it does shut down the internet browser if I leave it open overnight

Adware Genieo is installed without your knowledge. Removing it will help,

1. Use free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac/ AdwareMedic to remove adware

http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php

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

Once done, quit Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

or

Remove the adware manually by following the “HowTo” from Apple.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

2. Safari > Preferences > Extensions

Turn those off and relaunch Safari.

Turn those on one by one and test.

3. Safari > Preferences > Search > Search Engine :

Select your preferred search engine.

Battery

Battery needs to be replaced.

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/service/battery/

RAM

Upgrading RAM to 8GB will help.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/

When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

If my comment was not clear, please tell me what you don't understand.

You have multiple pieces of adware installed. See my Adware Removal Guide for help removing it.

You also have ZipCloud installed, which is junkware that was probably installed along with the adware. To remove ZipCloud, delete the ZipCloud app from the Applications folder, as well as the following files (if you don't know how to find them, see Locating files from paths):

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.jdibackup.ZipCloud.autostart.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.jdibackup.ZipCloud.notify.plist

After removing these items, restart the computer.

Finally, note that you have a LOT of other third-party software installed with only 4 GB of RAM. If removing the adware and ZipCloud doesn't help, you may need to remove some of the third-party software that you're not using or don't really need.

(Fair disclosure: I am affiliated with Malwarebytes, whose sites I'm linking to above.)

The file Otwexplain.download.plist might be linked to a virus.

I recently clicked to install unknown software and got the well-known MacKeeper virus and it modified my Chrome settings to default search to "Otwexplain", which is the link to that file.

Solution:

Search your folder (Library among others) for any files related to to mackeeper, zeobit, otwexplain and delete them.

See also here:

http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/

dmitri14 wrote:

The file Otwexplain.download.plist might be linked to a virus.

I recently clicked to install unknown software and got the well-known MacKeeper virus and it modified my Chrome settings to default search to "Otwexplain", which is the link to that file.

MacKeeper is not actually a virus, it's just junk software that is often installed by unethical and adware-riddled installers, which are downloaded from the wrong site or from a developer who has sold out to the adware creators as a way of making money. It definitely should be removed. However, note that there are no traces of MacKeeper on Elenysp's system, so this advice is not applicable in this case.

Otwexplain is a variant of the Genieo adware. See my previous post for more information on this. Also, note that Genieo is not the only adware that Elenysp is infected with.

Thanks for clarification.

I have mentioned MacKeeper as I found it on my computer together with Otwexplain, doesn't hurt to check.

Its behaviour is certainly more malicious than a normal junk software - it keep restarting itself even when force-quitted from Activity Monitor, and pollutes various hidden directories even after uninstall. So I don't really see any difference to a virus.

I have searched for Genieo but could not find any files after deleting Otwexplain files.

I have found this very helpful:

Remove unwanted adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac - Apple Support

From there I have found and deleted this bad boy:

~/Library/Caches/com.VSearch.VSinstaller

as well as this guy and its family:

com.begadinformal.agent.plist

If there is any other similar animal to look for, I'd appreciate to know.

dmitri14 wrote:

I have mentioned MacKeeper as I found it on my computer together with Otwexplain, doesn't hurt to check.

Absolutely, for others reading who might have some kind of adware installed, it definitely can't hurt to check for MacKeeper. It, as well as many other junk apps (like CleanMyMac, TuneupMyMac, K9-MacOptimizer, Advanced Mac Cleaner, MacBooster, ZipCloud, etc), are often installed alongside adware. Whenever present, these apps should be removed.

I just noted that Elenysp does not have MacKeeper since this is her topic, so she doesn't need to go looking for it.

Its behaviour is certainly more malicious than a normal junk software - it keep restarting itself even when force-quitted from Activity Monitor, and pollutes various hidden directories even after uninstall. So I don't really see any difference to a virus.

Well, what you describe is not a characteristic specific to a virus, or any other kind of malware. There are plenty of other apps that keep restarting even after force-quitting, and that don't uninstall themselves properly. I'm not arguing that MacKeeper isn't an awful piece of garbage, just saying that it's definitely not a virus... calling it that causes confusion as to what a virus actually is, and that's a bad thing. Better understanding = better protection against bad stuff.

(Plus, the MacKeeper folks are extremely litigious, and will go after anyone who calls MacKeeper malware, if they can identify you. I know several people who have been sued, or threatened with lawsuits, by the MacKeeper folks. Since it really isn't malware, it's best to stick to more factual descriptions that they can't legitimately object to.)

I have searched for Genieo but could not find any files after deleting Otwexplain files.

If you're following Apple's support document on adware removal, that's horribly outdated by now and doesn't include anything about removing this variant of Genieo. Note that the other files you found are components of the VSearch adware, and there should be some other VSearch files present that you didn't mention. See my Adware Removal Guide, or use Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac to remove the things that got missed.

(Fair disclosure: I am affiliated with Malwarebytes.)

If there any other software exhibiting this behaviour, I'd certainly love to know which ones.

So I know which ones to stay away from. 🙂

Tried Malwarebytes which found another Malware on my Mac including files from Genio masked as something else that I did not find manually.

Many thanks!