According to security researchers, MacAppsHD is a potentially unwanted program (PUP) that belongs to the Adware category. Adware is something that designed in order to provide third-party ads to the user without asking his permission. Adware takes control of browsers and reroutes them to unwanted web sites and online ads every time you surf the Net. Adware software can end up on your Apple Mac in various ways. In most cases is when you download free programs and forget to uncheck the box for the optional applications installation.
Unwanted ads
Does adware software steal your confidential information? The MacAppsHD adware can gather your Internet surfing activity by recording URLs visited, IP addresses, web-browser version and type, cookie information, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and web sites visited. Such kind of behavior can lead to serious security problems or privacy information theft. This is another reason why the MacAppsHD adware software should be deleted immediately.
If your computer has been infected with the adware, you must have complete any of the steps below. Once you have removed MacAppsHD from your Mac by following our suggestions below, make sure not to commit the same mistakes again in the future.
How does MacAppsHD get on your machine
Adware gets on your MAC as a part of various freeware. This means that you need to be very careful when installing apps downloaded from the Net, even from a large proven hosting. Be sure to read the Terms of Use and the Software license, choose only the Manual, Advanced or Custom setup mode, switch off all third-party modules and applications are offered to install.
Threat Summary
| Name | MacAppsHD, Mac Apps HD 1.0 app |
| Type | adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), pop-up virus, pop-up ads, pop ups |
| Symptoms |
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| Removal | MacAppsHD removal guide |
How to Remove MacAppsHD adware
As with uninstalling adware, malware or potentially unwanted software, there are few steps you can do. We advise trying them all. If you do only one part of the instructions, then it should be use malicious software removal tool, because it should delete adware software and block any further infection. But to completely delete MacAppsHD adware you’ll have to at least reset your internet browser settings like startpage, search provider by default and newtab to default state, delete all unwanted and suspicious apps, and remove adware with malware removal utilities. Certain of the steps will require you to restart your MAC system or shut down this web page. So, read this guide carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.
To remove MacAppsHD, perform the steps below:
- How to delete MacAppsHD adware without any software
- Automatic Removal of MacAppsHD
- How to stay safe online
- To sum up
How to delete MacAppsHD adware without any software
In most cases, it’s possible to manually get rid of MacAppsHD adware. This way does not involve the use of any tricks or removal tools. You just need to recover the normal settings of the Apple Mac and internet browser. This can be done by following a few simple steps below. If you want to quickly remove MacAppsHD adware, as well as perform a full scan of your MAC system, we recommend that you use adware software removal tools, which are listed below.
Uninstalling the MacAppsHD, check the list of installed apps first
Check out the Finder (Applications section) to see all installed software. If you see any unknown and dubious applications, they are the ones you need to delete.
Open Finder and click “Applications”.
It will display a list of all programs installed on your MAC. Scroll through the all list, and delete any questionable and unknown software. Right click to questionable program and choose “Move to Trash”. Another solution is drag the application from the Applications folder to the Trash.
Most important, scroll through the all list, and move to trash any unknown applications. Don’t forget, select Finder -> Empty Trash.
Remove MacAppsHD adware from Safari
If you find that Safari web browser settings like search engine, new tab and startpage having been changed by the MacAppsHD adware software, then you may restore your settings, via the reset browser procedure.
Click Safari menu and select “Preferences”.
It will open the Safari Preferences window. Next, click the “Extensions” tab. Look for unknown and suspicious extensions on left panel, select it, then press the “Uninstall” button. Most important to remove all unknown extensions from Safari.
Once complete, click “General” tab. Change the “Default Search Engine” to Google.
Find the “Homepage” and type into textfield “https://www.google.com”.
Delete MacAppsHD adware from Firefox
This step will allow you delete MacAppsHD ads, third-party toolbars, disable malicious extensions and restore your default start page, newtab and search provider settings.
Click the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and press the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu as shown on the image below.
A small menu will appear, press the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, click “Refresh Firefox” button like below.
Follow the onscreen procedure to restore your Firefox web browser settings to their default state.
Remove MacAppsHD from Chrome
Resetting Google Chrome to default values is effective in deleting the MacAppsHD ads from your internet browser. This method is always advisable to perform if you have trouble in removing changes caused by adware software.
- First, launch the Chrome and click the Menu icon (icon in the form of three dots).
- It will show the Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
- You’ll see the list of installed extensions. If the list has the extension labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following steps: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
- Now open the Chrome menu once again, click the “Settings” menu.
- Next, click “Advanced” link, which located at the bottom of the Settings page.
- On the bottom of the “Advanced settings” page, press the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
- The Google Chrome will display the reset settings dialog box as shown on the image above.
- Confirm the browser’s reset by clicking on the “Reset” button.
- To learn more, read the post How to reset Google Chrome settings to default.
Automatic Removal of MacAppsHD
Run malware removal utilities to delete MacAppsHD automatically. The free software utilities specially designed for browser hijacker infections, adware and other potentially unwanted software removal. These tools may remove most of adware from Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. Moreover, it can remove all components of adware from Windows registry and system drives.
How to automatically remove MacAppsHD with MalwareBytes Free
We recommend using the MalwareBytes Free. You can download and install MalwareBytes Anti-Malware to search for adware and thereby delete MacAppsHD ads from your web-browsers. When installed and updated, this free malware remover automatically searches for and deletes all threats exist on the MAC system.
Installing the MalwareBytes is simple. First you’ll need to download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware by clicking on the link below.
20842 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: September 10, 2020
When the downloading process is finished, close all apps and windows on your MAC. Open a directory in which you saved it. Run the saved file and follow the prompts.
Once install is done, you will see window similar to the one below.
Now press the “Scan” button . MalwareBytes utility will begin scanning the whole MAC system to find out the MacAppsHD adware. While the MalwareBytes Anti Malware is checking, you can see count of objects it has identified either as being malicious software.
When MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) completes the scan, MalwareBytes will open a list of detected items. Once you’ve selected what you want to delete from your MAC OS press “Remove Selected Items” button.
The Malwarebytes will now remove MacAppsHD adware software and move the selected threats to the program’s quarantine.
How to stay safe online
The AdGuard is a very good ad blocking application for the Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of unwanted advertisements, popunders, pop-ups, annoying newtab pages, and even full page ads and website overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can block unwanted websites automatically or by using a custom filter rule.
AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.
3677 downloads
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: January 17, 2018
Once the downloading process is finished, run the downloaded file. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen.
Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick instructions. Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
Each time, when you start your Apple Mac, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted ads, block harmful and misleading web sites.
To sum up
Now your MAC OS should be clean of the MacAppsHD adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted pop up ads and unwanted harmful web-sites) and MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your MAC OS for new malicious software, hijackers and adware). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac operating system. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijacker infections, malicious applications and adware are released.
If you are still having problems while trying to remove MacAppsHD ads from your web-browser, then ask for help here.
