Does Mackeeper come along with MAC?

MacKeeper is a piece of poisonous junk that does nothing useful, may actually be harmful, and can be difficult to remove. It is not supplied by nor recommended by Apple but the makers take every opportunity to push it. There is actually a class action going on against the makers. For removal instructions go to http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/how-remove-mac-antivirus-software- mackeeper-refund-3612033/ and scroll down to 'How to remove MacKeeper from your Mac'. Your Mac is very good at doing its own 'cleaning' and doesn't need any such program.

Do NOT use MacKeeper, it is scamware and can do your system real harm. OS X does not need cleaning, it does its own maintenance. Uninstall it if it was installed. The only reliable software I know of is Malwarebytes, developed by one of our own colleagues here in the support forums. I does no system cleaning but does scan , report and remove malware if any exists.

Never install any product that claims to "clean up", "speed up", "optimize", "boost" or "accelerate" your Mac; to "wash" it, "tune" it, or to make it "shiny". Those claims are absurd.

• Such products are very aggressively marketed. They are all scams.
• They generally operate on the flawed premise that a Mac accumulates "junk" that needs to be routinely "cleaned out" for optimum performance.
• Trial versions of those programs are successful because they provide the instant gratification of greater free disk space.
• That increased space is the result of irreversible destruction of files, programs, or operating system components normally protected from inadvertent alteration or deletion. The eventual result will be unreliable operation, poor performance and random crashes that may not become evident for months or even years after their use, when updates to programs or OS X are eventually released.
• Memory "cleaners" that circumvent OS X's memory management algorithms work by purging inactive memory contents to mass storage, which can only result in degraded performance and accelerated hardware failure.

First, never use any kind of "anti-virus" or "anti-malware" software on a Mac. That's how you create problems, not how you solve them. Any software that purports to automatically "clean up" or "speed up" a Mac is a scam.

You may have installed the "Flashmall" trojan. Please take the steps below to disable it.

Malware is always changing to get around the defenses against it. This procedure works as of now, as far as I know. It may not work in the future. Anyone finding this comment a few days or more after it was posted should look for a more recent discussion, or start a new one.

Back up all data before continuing.

1. Triple-click the line below on this page to select it, then copy the text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:

~/Library/LaunchAgents

In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return. A folder named "LaunchAgents" will open.

2. Inside the folder you just opened, there may be files with a name beginning in any of the following ways:

com.crossrider

com.extensions

com.flashmall

com.Installer.completer

com.webhelper

com.WebShopper

com.webtools

flashmall

UpdateDownloader

WebSocketServerApp

Move any such files to the Trash and close the Finder window. Log out or restart the computer. The trojan will now be inactive, but there are a few more components of it that should be cleaned up.

3. Do as in Step 1 with this line:

~/Library/Application Support

A folder named "Application Support" will open. Inside it there may be subfolders with any of these names:

IM.Installer

webHelperApp

WebShopper

WebTools

If so, move those subfolders—not the "Application Support" folder—to the Trash.

4. Open this folder in the same way as above:

~/Library/ScriptingAdditions

and remove an item named

BrowserHelper.osax

if present.

5. Open this folder:

~/Library

Look for subfolders with either of these names:

flashmall

WebTools

and move them to the Trash, if present. Don't remove the subfolder named "WebKit".

6. Open the Applications folder. Move to the Trash items with any of these names:

Flashmall

mediaDownloader

WebShopper

WebTools

Important: You can't delete applications by trying to drag them from the Dock or the LaunchPad. Open the Applications folder in the Finder.

7. Open this folder in the same way as above:

~/Applications

This is not the usual Applications folder, but a different one inside your home folder. Look for an application with a name like this:

flashmall

and move it to the Trash, if present. Also remove anything else in that folder that you don't recognize.

Empty the Trash.

8. From the Safari menu bar, select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions

Uninstall all extensions you don't know you need, including one called "GoldenBoy," if it's present. If in doubt, remove all of them. None is required for normal operation. Do the equivalent in the Chrome and Firefox browsers, if you use either of those.