Safari Search preference changes

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Level 1

48 points

Safari Search preference changes

At th suggestion of Apple's customer relations folks a while back, I changed my Safari search preference to DuckDuckGo.com and was quite pleased with it. However, I now have some kind of malware on my iMac that I cannot get rid of and I think it affects the search engine choice. By example, when I choose a new window, a kind of blank Search window appears...neither DuckDuckGo, Google nor Yahoo. I cannot get the search preferences to be recognized. That malware is labeled, "OSX.Genieo." I have Malwaresbytes anti-malware software, and it will help me clear all malware except this one.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Safari 9.1, Photo 1.0, iTunes 12.3

Posted on Sep 10, 2016 1:10 PM

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Answer 1

dominic23

Level 10

84,018 points

Sep 11, 2016 5:04 AM in response to Bronco 01

Adware is installed on your Mac without your knowledge.

How to remove adware?

You will have t do this after starting up in Safe Mode to prevent adware

from interfering with the removal of adware .

1. Shut down the computer.

Press the power button. Immediately after you hear the startup sound,

press and hold the Shift key.

The Shift key should be pressed as soon as possible after startup,

but not before the startup sound.

Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo on the screen.

Startup will take longer than usual.

Screen flickering is normal in Safe Mode.

Login to your account. Launch Safari.

Enter this address https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/mac/

in the Safari address bar.

Download, Install , open, and run it by clicking “Scan” button to remove adware, if present.

Once done, quit MalwareBytes.

2. Safari > Preferences > Extensions

Turn all extensions off

or uninstall all extensions you haven’t installed knowingly.

3. Safari > Preferences > Search > Search Engine :

Select your preferred search engine.

4. Safari > Preferences > General > Homepage:

Set your Homepage.

5. Restart normally from  menu in the menu bar.

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Answer 2

Bronco 01 Author

Level 1

48 points

Sep 11, 2016 5:06 AM in response to dominic23

Thanks; all were useful steps. But, I had already done them all without success. The step left to accomplish is the one to eliminate the OS X.Genieo malware, which my copy of the malwarebytes does not seem to be able to delete. I have rerun the software many times without success. Any ideas?

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