What is ExploreDivision
ExploreDivision is a PUP (potentially unwanted program) that falls under the category of Adware . Adware is software responsible for unwanted advertising. Some adware software will bring up advertisements when you is surfing the World Wide Web, while other will build up a profile of your browsing habits in order to target adverts. In general, adware have to be installed on your computer, so it will tend to be bundled with other software in much the same way as potentially unwanted software.
Unwanted ads
Even worse, adware software can gather your Net surfing activity by saving URLs visited, IP addresses, browser version and type, cookie information, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and webpages visited. Such kind of behavior can lead to serious security problems or sensitive information theft. This is another reason why the ExploreDivision adware should be uninstalled immediately.
Therefore, the ExploreDivision is a PUP and should not be used. If you realized any of the symptoms mentioned above, we suggest you to follow instructions below to delete the adware software and get rid of unwanted advertisements from your web-browser.
How does ExploreDivision get on your computer
The most popular way to get adware is free software installer. Most commonly, a user have a chance to disable all included ‘offers’, but certain installers are developed to confuse the average users, in order to trick them into installing potentially unwanted programs and adware software. Anyway, easier to prevent adware rather than clean up your Apple Mac after one. So, keep your browser updated (turn on automatic updates), use good antivirus apps, double check freeware before you run it (do a google search, scan a downloaded file with VirusTotal), avoid malicious and unknown web-pages.
Threat Summary
| Name | ExploreDivision, Explore Division 1.0 app |
| Type | adware software, potentially unwanted application (PUA), pop up advertisements, popups, popup virus |
| Symptoms |
|
| Removal | ExploreDivision removal guide |
How to remove ExploreDivision adware
Fortunately, it is not hard to delete ExploreDivision adware. In the following guidance, we will provide two solutions to free your Apple Mac of this adware. One is the manual removal method and the other is automatic removal way. You can choose the way that best fits you. Please follow the removal tutorial below to remove ExploreDivision right now!
To remove ExploreDivision, execute the following steps:
- Manual ExploreDivision adware removal
- Automatic Removal of ExploreDivision adware
- How to stay safe online
- Finish words
Manual ExploreDivision adware removal
In this section of the blog post, we have posted the steps that will help to delete ExploreDivision adware manually. Although compared to removal tools, this way loses in time, but you don’t need to download anything on your MAC system. It will be enough for you to follow the detailed guide with images. We tried to describe each step in detail, but if you realized that you might not be able to figure it out, or simply do not want to change the Windows and internet browser settings, then it’s better for you to run utilities from trusted developers, which are listed below.
Uninstall PUPs through the Finder
We recommend that you start the MAC cleaning process by checking the list of installed programs and delete all unknown or questionable programs. This is a very important step, as mentioned above, very often the harmful software such as adware and hijackers may be bundled with free programs. Remove the unwanted programs can get rid of the undesired advertisements or web-browser redirect.
Make sure you have closed all web browsers and other software. Next, remove any unrequested and suspicious apps from computer using the Finder.
Open Finder and click “Applications”.
Look around the entire list of programs installed on your machine. Most probably, one of them is the ExploreDivision adware. Choose the dubious application or the application that name is not familiar to you and delete it.
Drag the questionable program from the Applications folder to the Trash.
Most important, don’t forget, select Finder -> Empty Trash.
Remove ExploreDivision from Google Chrome
Reset Google Chrome settings to remove ExploreDivision adware. If you’re still experiencing problems with adware removal, you need to reset Google Chrome browser to its original state. This step needs to be performed only if unwanted ads has not been removed by the previous steps.
Open the Google Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal dotes (
). It will open the drop-down menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
Carefully browse through the list of installed extensions. 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 otherwise, just go to the step below.
Open the Chrome main menu again, click to “Settings” option.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Advanced” link. Now scroll down until the Reset settings section is visible, like below and click the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
Confirm your action, press the “Reset” button.
Delete ExploreDivision adware from Firefox
Resetting Firefox browser will reset all the settings to their default values and will remove ExploreDivision ads, malicious add-ons and extensions. However, your saved passwords and bookmarks will not be changed, deleted or cleared.
Start the Firefox and click the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the internet browser screen. Next, press the question-mark icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu. It will display the slide-out menu.
Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you are unable to access the Help menu, then type “about:support” in your address bar and press Enter. It bring up the “Troubleshooting Information” page as shown in the following example.
Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation dialog box. The Firefox will start a process to fix your problems that caused by the ExploreDivision adware. Once, it is finished, click the “Finish” button.
Remove ExploreDivision adware from Safari
By resetting Safari browser you revert back your internet browser settings to its default state. This is good initial when troubleshooting problems that might have been caused by ExploreDivision .
Click Safari menu and select “Preferences”.
It will open the Safari Preferences window. Next, click the “Extensions” tab. Look for unknown and suspicious add-ons on left panel, select it, then click the “Uninstall” button. Most important to get rid of 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”.
Automatic Removal of ExploreDivision adware
Manual removal steps does not always help to completely remove the adware software, as it is not easy to identify and delete components of adware and all malicious files from hard disk. Therefore, it’s recommended that you use malware removal tool to completely remove ExploreDivision ads off your web-browser. Several free malware removal tools are currently available that can be used against the adware. The optimum solution would be to run MalwareBytes.
Use MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) to remove ExploreDivision adware
We suggest using the MalwareBytes AntiMalware. You can download and install MalwareBytes to detect adware and thereby remove ExploreDivision ads from your web-browsers. When installed and updated, this free malware remover automatically identifies and removes all threats present on the computer.
- MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) can be downloaded from the following link.
Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
20842 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: September 10, 2020
- Once downloading is finished, please close all software and open windows on your machine. Run the downloaded file. Follow the prompts.
- The MalwareBytes will launch and show the main window.
- Further, click the “Scan” button to begin scanning your MAC for the ExploreDivision adware. This task may take some time, so please be patient. When a threat is detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.
- Once MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) completes the scan, MalwareBytes Free will open a list of found threats.
- Review the scan results and then click the “Remove Selected Items” button.
- Close the Anti Malware and continue with the next step.
How to stay safe online
We recommend to install an ad-blocking application. The ad-blocker utility like AdGuard is a application which basically removes advertising from the Internet and blocks access to malicious websites. Moreover, security experts says that using ad-blocking programs is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Net.
Download AdGuard on your computer from the link below.
3677 downloads
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: January 17, 2018
After the download is complete, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.
Each time, when you run your MAC OS, AdGuard will start automatically and stop annoying pop-up advertisements, block harmful and misleading webpages.
Finish words
Now your Apple Mac should be free of the ExploreDivision adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted popup advertisements and undesired malicious web pages) and MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your MAC for new malicious software, browser hijackers and adware software). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac operating system. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new hijackers, malicious programs and adware are released.
If you are still having problems while trying to delete ExploreDivision ads from your web-browser, then ask for help here.
