How to uninstall OriginalSearchTech app/extension from Mac

What is OriginalSearchTech

According to security professionals, OriginalSearchTech is a potentially unwanted application (PUA) that falls under the category of Adware. Adware is type of malicious software which shows unwanted advertisements on a MAC, redirects search requests to advertising web sites and gathers confidential information for marketing purposes. Adware software can show banner advertisements, full-screen advertisements, popups, videos, or other varieties of online advertising. These intrusive ads eat machine resources and slow down your MAC performance. The OriginalSearchTech adware can attack your MAC system’s browsers such as Chrome, Safari and Firefox.

Does the OriginalSearchTech adware steal your confidential data? It can install a component which enables its developer to track which web sites you visit, which products you look at upon those pages. They are then able to choose the type of advertisements they show you. So, if you had adware on your Apple Mac, there is a good chance you have another that is gathering and sharing your data with third parties, without your knowledge.

Thus, the OriginalSearchTech does not really have beneficial features. So, we advise you get rid of it without a wait. This will also prevent the adware software from tracking your online activities. A full OriginalSearchTech removal can be easily carried out using manual or automatic way listed below.

How does OriginalSearchTech get on your computer

The most common way to get adware is a freeware setup package. In most cases, a user have a chance to disable all bundled applications, but some installation packages are developed to confuse the average users, in order to trick them into installing potentially unwanted apps and adware software. Anyway, easier to prevent adware rather than clean up your Mac after one. So, keep your web browser updated (turn on automatic updates), double check free software before you run it (do a google search, scan a downloaded file with VirusTotal), avoid suspicious and unknown websites.

Threat Summary

Name	OriginalSearchTech, “Original Search Tech virus’, OriginalSearchTech 1.0 app
Type	adware software, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware/Adload!OSX, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, ApplicUnwnt, Adware.MAC.Generic, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and Program:MacOS/Vigram.A
Distribution	Freeware installers, torrent downloads, fake software updaters and suspicious pop up ads
Symptoms	When you go to a webpage, you are frequently redirected to another web-site that you do not intend to visit, browser pop-ups appear and recommend fake updates and other unwanted applications, there is an unwanted program in the ‘Applications’ section of the Finder, an unexpected toolbar appears in your web-browser, unwanted changes in your web browser like displaying new tabs you did not open, slow Internet or slow browsing.
Removal	OriginalSearchTech removal guide

How to remove OriginalSearchTech from Mac

As with removing adware software, malware or potentially unwanted programs, there are few steps you may do. We suggest trying them all. If you do only one part of the tutorial, then it should be use malware removal utility, because it should remove adware and stop any further infection. But to completely delete OriginalSearchTech adware you’ll have to at least reset your web browser settings such as new tab, search provider and home page to default state, delete all unwanted and suspicious programs, and delete adware with malware removal utilities. Certain of the steps will require you to reboot your MAC OS or exit this web site. So, read this tutorial carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove OriginalSearchTech, follow the steps below:

1. Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
2. Remove OriginalSearchTech associated software by using the Finder
3. Remove OriginalSearchTech related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove OriginalSearchTech from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online
7. To sum up

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

OriginalSearchTech can make changes to the Mac system such as malicious changes to browser settings, and the addition of malicious system profiles. You need to check the system preferences, find and remove malicious profiles and ensure your settings are as you expect.

Click the System Preferences icon ( ) in the Dock, or choose Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, click Profiles, then select a profile associated with OriginalSearchTech.

Click the minus button ( – ) located at the bottom-left of the Profiles screen to remove the profile.
Note: if you do not see Profiles in the System Preferences, that means there are no profiles installed on your Mac device, which is normal.

Remove OriginalSearchTech associated software by using the Finder

In order to remove OriginalSearchTech you need to do is to remove unknown and dubious programs from your MAC system using the Finder. When deleting potentially unwanted programs, adware and browser hijackers, check the list of installed applications and try to find suspicious applications and uninstall them all. Pay special attention to recently installed programs, as it’s most likely that OriginalSearchTech сame along with it.

Open Finder and click “Applications” as shown in the figure below.

You will see a list of apps installed on your computer. We recommend to pay maximum attention to the program you installed last. Most likely, it is the OriginalSearchTech . If you’re in doubt, you can always check the program by doing a search for her name in Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Once the program which you need to remove is found, simply right click on its name, and select “Move to Trash”.

Don’t forget, select Finder, then “Empty Trash”.

Remove OriginalSearchTech related files and folders

Now you need to try to find OriginalSearchTech related files and folders, and then delete them manually. You need to look for these files in certain directories. To quickly open them, we recommend using the “Go to Folder…” command.

OriginalSearchTech creates several files, these files must be found and removed. Below is a list of files associated with this unwanted program.

• /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.OriginalSearchTech.system.plist
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.OriginalSearchTech.service.plist
• /Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/System/com.OriginalSearchTech.system
• ~/Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/Services/com.OriginalSearchTech.service.app

Some files created by OriginalSearchTech are hidden from the user. To find and delete them, you need to enable “show hidden files”. To do this, use the shortcut CMD + SHIFT + . Press once to show hidden files and again to hide them. There is another way. Click Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal. In Terminal, paste the following text: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Press Enter. Hold the ‘Option/alt’ key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.

Click on the Finder icon. From the menu bar, select Go and click “Go to Folder…”. As a result, a small window opens that allows you to quickly open a specific directory.

Check for OriginalSearchTech generated files in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchAgents

This will open the contents of the “/Library/LaunchAgents” folder. Look carefully at it and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files: com.net-preferences.plist, com.OriginalSearchTech.service.plist, installapp.plist, com.machelper.plist, com.google.defaultsearch.plist, , search.plist and macsearch.plist. Most often, PUPs, adware and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.

Check for OriginalSearchTech generated files in the /Library/Application Support folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/Application Support

This will open the contents of the “Application Support” folder. Look carefully at its contents, pay special attention to recently added/changed folders and files. Check the contents of suspicious folders, if there is a file with a name similar to com.OriginalSearchTech.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders and files to the Trash.

Check for OriginalSearchTech generated files in the “~/Library/LaunchAgents” folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
~/Library/LaunchAgents

Proceed in the same way as with the “/Library/LaunchAgents” and “/Library/Application Support” folders. Look for suspicious and recently added files. Move all suspicious files to the Trash.

Check for OriginalSearchTech generated files in the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Carefully browse the entire list of files and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files to be deleted: com.search.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist, com.OriginalSearchTech.system.plist and com.installapp.system.plist. In most cases, browser hijackers, PUPs and adware create several files with similar names.

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

We advise using MalwareBytes Free. You can download and install MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to search for and delete OriginalSearchTech related software from your Mac computer. When installed and updated, the malware remover automatically detects and removes all security threats exist on the Apple Mac.

1. Download MalwareBytes from the link below.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20843 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. After the downloading process is finished, please close all software and open windows on your MAC. Run the downloaded file. Follow the prompts.
3. The MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) will start and open the main window.
4. Further, click the “Scan” button . MalwareBytes program will scan through the whole MAC for the OriginalSearchTech adware software. This task may take quite a while, so please be patient.
5. After the scanning is complete, MalwareBytes will display a screen which contains a list of malware that has been detected.
6. Once you have selected what you wish to remove from your machine press the “Remove Selected Items” button.
7. Close the Anti Malware and continue with the next step.

Remove OriginalSearchTech from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you’re still getting OriginalSearchTech adware, then you can try to delete it by deleting harmful add-ons.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
Click on ‘three dots menu’ button at the top right corner of the Google Chrome window. In the menu go to ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove OriginalSearchTech adware by reset Google Chrome settings.	Click on ‘menu’ button and select ‘Add-ons’. Go to ‘Extensions’ tab. To uninstall an add-on, click on ‘Remove’ button next to it. If you are still experiencing problems with OriginalSearchTech adware software removal, you need to reset Firefox browser.
Safari
On the top menu select ‘Safari’, then ‘Preferences’. Select ‘Extensions’ tab. Select an extension you want to delete and click ‘Uninstall’ button next to it.

How to stay safe online

It is also critical to protect your browsers from malicious web-sites and ads by using an ad-blocking program like AdGuard. Security experts says that it’ll greatly reduce the risk of malicious software, and potentially save lots of money. Additionally, the AdGuard may also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.

1. Installing the AdGuard is simple. First you will need to download AdGuard from the following link. Save it to your Desktop.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3678 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. When downloading is complete, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. When the setup is finished, press “Skip” to close the setup application and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will help you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you start your MAC system, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted ads, block malicious and misleading web pages.

To sum up

Once you’ve complete the guide shown above, your machine should be clean from this adware and other malicious software. The Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox will no longer open any unwanted ads when you surf the Net. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step guide does not help you, then you have caught a new adware software, and then the best way – ask for help.

Please create a new question by using the “Ask Question” button in the Questions and Answers. Try to give us some details about your problems, so we can try to help you more accurately. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the OriginalSearchTech adware.