According to security researchers, PromoteMethod is an adware program. How does adware work? Adware is form of malicious software which displays unwanted ads on a machine, redirects search requests to advertising web sites and gathers confidential data for marketing purposes. Adware can show banner advertisements, full-screen advertisements, pop ups, videos, or other varieties of online advertising. Adware can attack your computer’s browsers such as the Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome. Maybe you approve the idea that the advertisements or popups is just a small problem. But these intrusive ads eat MAC OS resources and slow down your MAC system performance.
Unwanted ads
Does adware steal your data? The PromoteMethod adware can collect lots of marketing-type data about you such as what web-pages you are opening, what you are looking for the Internet and so on. This personal info, later, may be sold to third parties.
How does PromoteMethod get on your computer
Most of undesired advertisements and pop ups come from web-browser toolbars and/or addons, and third-party applications. Most commonly, these items claim itself as software that improve your experience on the Internet by providing a fast and interactive start page or a search provider that does not track you. Remember, how to avoid the unwanted software. Be cautious, start only reputable apps which download from reputable sources. NEVER install any unknown and questionable programs.
Threat Summary
| Name | PromoteMethod, Promote Method 1.0 app |
| Type | adware software, PUP (potentially unwanted program), pop up virus, pop ups, pop up advertisements |
| Symptoms |
|
| Removal | PromoteMethod removal guide |
Remove PromoteMethod adware
When the adware gets installed on your MAC system without your knowledge, it is not easy to uninstall. In most cases, there is no Uninstall application which simply remove the PromoteMethod adware software from your Apple Mac. So, we suggest using well-proven free specialized tool such as MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM). But the best solution to get rid of PromoteMethod will be to perform several manual steps, after that additionally use antimalware tools.
To remove PromoteMethod, complete the following steps:
- How to manually remove PromoteMethod
- Automatic Removal of PromoteMethod adware software
- How to stay safe online
- To sum up
How to manually remove PromoteMethod
First try to delete PromoteMethod manually; to do this, follow the steps below. Of course, manual adware removal requires more time and may not be suitable for those who are poorly versed in system settings. In this case, we suggest that you scroll down to the section that describes how to get rid of PromoteMethod adware using free tools.
Uninstall PUPs through the Finder
First method for manual adware removal is to go into the Finder, then Applications. Take a look at the list of applications on your computer and see if there are any questionable and unknown apps. If you see any, you need to delete them. Of course, before doing so, you can do an Internet search to find details on the application. If it is a potentially unwanted program, adware software or malicious software, you will likely find information that says so.
Open Finder and click “Applications”.
It will open a list of all applications installed on your Apple Mac. Scroll through the all list, and remove any dubious and unknown applications. Right click to suspicious application and select “Move to Trash”. Another solution is drag the program from the Applications folder to the Trash.
Most important, scroll through the all list, and move to trash any unknown applications. Don’t forget, choose Finder -> Empty Trash.
Remove PromoteMethod adware from Safari
If you find that Safari web browser settings such as new tab, startpage and search provider having been modified by PromoteMethod adware, then you may revert back your settings, via the reset web browser procedure.
Run Safari web browser. Next, select Preferences from the Safari menu.
First, click the “Security” icon. Here, choose “Block pop-up windows”. It will stop some types of pop-ups.
Now, click the “Extensions” icon. Look for dubious add-ons on left panel, choose it, then press the “Uninstall” button. Most important to get rid of all questionable addons from Safari.
Once complete, check your startpage and search engine settings. Click “General” icon. Make sure that the “Homepage” field contains the website you want or is empty.
Make sure that the “Search engine” setting shows your preferred search engine. In some versions of Safari, this setting is in the “Search” tab.
Remove PromoteMethod from Google Chrome
Annoying PromoteMethod ads or other symptom of having adware software in your browser is a good reason to reset Google Chrome. This is an easy method to restore the Google Chrome settings and not lose any important information.
- First launch the Google Chrome and click Menu button (small button in the form of three dots).
- It will display the Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
- You’ll see the list of installed add-ons. If the list has the plugin labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following guide: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
- Now open the Google Chrome menu once again, press the “Settings” menu.
- You will see the Google Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and click “Advanced” link.
- Scroll down again and click the “Reset” button.
- The Google Chrome will display the reset profile settings page as shown on the screen above.
- Next press the “Reset” button.
- Once this process is done, your web browser’s search provider, startpage and newtab page will be restored to their original defaults.
- To learn more, read the post How to reset Chrome settings to default.
Remove PromoteMethod adware from Firefox
The Firefox reset will remove PromoteMethod ads, modified preferences, extensions and security settings. It’ll keep your personal information like browsing history, bookmarks, passwords and web form auto-fill data.
First, run the Firefox. Next, press the button in the form of three horizontal stripes (
). It will open the drop-down menu. Next, press the Help button (
).
In the Help menu press the “Troubleshooting Information”. In the upper-right corner of the “Troubleshooting Information” page click on “Refresh Firefox” button as shown in the following example.
Confirm your action, click the “Refresh Firefox”.
Automatic Removal of PromoteMethod adware software
Spyware, adware, PUPs and hijackers can be difficult to get rid of manually. Do not try to remove this software without the help of malicious software removal utilities. In order to completely remove adware from your computer, run professionally created utility such as MalwareBytes.
Run MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) to remove PromoteMethod adware
Manual PromoteMethod removal requires some computer skills. Some files that created by the adware may be not completely removed. We recommend that run the MalwareBytes that are completely free your MAC of adware. Moreover, this free utility will allow you to delete hijacker, malicious software, potentially unwanted software and toolbars that your machine can be infected too.
- MalwareBytes can be downloaded from the following link.
Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
20841 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: September 10, 2020
- Once the downloading process is finished, please close all apps and open windows on your computer. Run the downloaded file. Follow the prompts.
- The MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will open and show the main window.
- Further, click the “Scan” button to scan for PromoteMethod adware. A scan may take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your computer and the speed of your Apple Mac. While the MalwareBytes Free is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified either as being malicious software.
- When the checking is complete, you may check all threats detected on your MAC system.
- Review the results once the tool has done the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply press the “Remove Selected Items” button.
- Close the Anti-Malware and continue with the next step.
How to stay safe online
The AdGuard is a very good ad blocker application for the Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of unwanted ads, popunders, pop-ups, annoying newtab pages, and even full page ads and webpage overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can stop unwanted web-sites automatically or by using a custom filter rule.
Installing the AdGuard is simple. First you’ll need to download AdGuard on your MAC OS from the link below.
3677 downloads
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: January 17, 2018
When downloading 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 tutorial. Press “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will help you get to know AdGuard better.
Each time, when you start your computer, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop intrusive pop up ads, block harmful and misleading web sites.
To sum up
Now your machine should be clean of the PromoteMethod adware. We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your MAC system for new adwares and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you block undesired ads and malicious webpages). Moreover, to prevent any adware software, please stay clear of unknown and third party programs.
If you need more help with PromoteMethod related issues, go to here.
