How to uninstall NetFormatBoost app/extension from Mac (Virus removal guide)

What is NetFormatBoost

According to security professionals, NetFormatBoost is an adware app. Adware can make big problem to your MAC. Adware sometimes called ‘ad-supported’ software is malicious program which displays lots of adverts in form of pop-ups, discount offers, banners or even fake alerts on the browser. Adware can seriously affect your privacy, your computer’s performance and security. Adware can be installed onto your Apple Mac unknowingly (it is frequently web browser extension).

Does adware steal your personal data? Adware can monetize its functionality by gathering user data from your browsing sessions. This sensitive info, afterwards, can be easily sold to third parties. This puts your privacy information at a security risk.

The guidance below explaining steps to get rid of NetFormatBoost. Feel free to use it for removal of the adware that may attack Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox and other popular web browsers. The guide will help you remove the adware and thereby clean your internet browser from annoying advertisements.

How does NetFormatBoost get on your MAC

Adware come bundled with various free applications. This means that you need to be very careful when installing apps downloaded from the Internet. Be sure to read the Terms of Use and the Software license, select only the Manual, Advanced or Custom install type, switch off all additional modules and applications are offered to install.

Threat Summary

Name	NetFormatBoost, NetFormatBoost 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	OSX.Trojan.Gen, ApplicUnwnt, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Adware/Adload!OSX, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A and Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload
Distribution	Free software installers, fake update tools, suspicious pop up ads and torrent downloads
Symptoms	Your web browser is redirected to websites you did not want, advertising popups won’t go away, your machine starts automatically installing unexpected software, an unwanted toolbar appears in your browser, your internet browser startpage has modified and you cannot change it back, fast Internet but slow browsing speeds.
Removal	NetFormatBoost removal guide

How to Remove NetFormatBoost (removal guide)

According to IT security experts, NetFormatBoost removal can be complete manually and/or automatically. These tools which are listed below will help you delete adware software, harmful web-browser add-ons, malicious software and potentially unwanted apps . However, if you’re not willing to install other apps to remove NetFormatBoost adware, then use tutorial below to revert back your MAC OS settings to their previous states.

To remove NetFormatBoost, complete the following steps:

1. Remove profiles created by NetFormatBoost
2. Check the list of installed apps
3. Remove NetFormatBoost related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove NetFormatBoost from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove profiles created by NetFormatBoost

NetFormatBoost can install a configuration profile on the Mac system to block changes made to the browser settings. Therefore, you need to open system preferences, find and delete the profile installed by the adware.

Click Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, select Profiles. if there is no Profiles in the list of preferences, that means there are no profiles installed on the Mac computer. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile associated with NetFormatBoost.

To delete a malicious profile, click on the minus button ( – ) located at the bottom-left of the Profiles screen.

Check the list of installed apps

In the next step, you need to check the list of installed software on your Mac computer and remove all unused, unknown and suspicious apps.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

It will display a list of all programs installed on your MAC OS. Scroll through the all list, and delete any dubious and unknown programs. Right click to questionable program and select “Move to Trash”. Another method 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, select Finder -> Empty Trash.

Remove NetFormatBoost related files and folders

Now you need to try to find NetFormatBoost 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.

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

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

Some files created by NetFormatBoost 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 NetFormatBoost 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: macsearch.plist, search.plist, com.NetFormatBoost.service.plist, com.machelper.plist, com.google.defaultsearch.plist, , installapp.plist and com.net-preferences.plist. Most often, browser hijackers, PUPs and adware software create several files with similar names.

Check for NetFormatBoost 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.NetFormatBoost.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders and files to the Trash.

Check for NetFormatBoost 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 NetFormatBoost 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.NetFormatBoost.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist and com.search.system.plist. In most cases, PUPs, browser hijackers and adware create several files with similar names.

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you carefully followed the previous steps, then you should be able to get rid of NetFormatBoost. Of course, very often adware, PUPs and browser hijackers hides on a Mac device, disguising itself as legitimate apps and files. Therefore, in some cases, it is difficult for an inexperienced user to decide whether a particular file is part of adware software, browser hijackers and potentially unwanted programs. Therefore, we advise you to use MalwareBytes to scan the Mac device.

1. Download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) on your MAC system by clicking on the following link.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20845 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. After downloading is complete, close all software and windows on your computer. Open a file location. Run the downloaded file and follow the prompts.
3. Click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this utility for the NetFormatBoost . A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your machine and the speed of your MAC system. When a threat is detected, the count of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is complete.
4. After finished, you can check all threats found on your computer. Make sure all items have ‘checkmark’ and click “Quarantine”.

Remove NetFormatBoost from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Remove unwanted extensions is a simple solution to delete NetFormatBoost adware software and revert back web-browser’s settings that have been changed by adware software.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right corner, click on Chrome’s main menu button, represented by three vertical dots. Select ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to delete NetFormatBoost 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 NetFormatBoost adware 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 web browsers from malicious websites and advertisements 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 can also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.

1. AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3681 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. Once downloading is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. Once the setup is complete, click “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will help you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you launch your machine, AdGuard will start automatically and stop annoying ads, block harmful and misleading websites.

To sum up

Once you’ve finished the few simple steps above, your MAC should be free from adware software and other malware. The Google Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox will no longer redirect you to various unwanted web pages and online ads. Unfortunately, if the guidance does not help you, then you have caught a new adware software, and then the best way – ask for help here.