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

What is MainAdviseSearch

MainAdviseSearch is a malicious app belonging to the Adware catrgory. Adware is “advertising malware”. It is designed just to display constant popup windows and/or annoying adverts using intrusive and at times dangerous methods. Adware can also include other types of malware. It can steal sensitive info from the MAC and pass it on to third parties. Adware has also been the basis for hacking to gain access to the Mac computer.

MainAdviseSearch can be used to collect your browsing history and confidential data, including passwords and credit card numbers. In the future, your sensitive info can be sold to third party companies.

Adware software usually gets onto MAC computers by being attached to freeware. So, when you installing free software, carefully read the disclaimers, choose the Custom or Advanced install option to watch for additional applications that are being installed, because certain of the programs are potentially unwanted applications and adware.

Threat Summary

Name	MainAdviseSearch, MainAdviseSearch 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	MacOS.Agent-MT, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Adware/Adload!OSX, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Adware.MAC.Generic, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and ApplicUnwnt
Distribution	Free software installers, fake update tools, torrent downloads and malicious popup ads
Symptoms	Every time you perform an Internet search, your web-browser is redirected to another web site, you experience lots of of unexpected advertising popups, there is an unwanted program in the ‘Applications’ section of the Finder, new toolbars suddenly installed on your web-browser, unexpected changes in your web browser such as using a new default search provider, your web browser slows to a crawl.
Removal	MainAdviseSearch removal guide

How to remove MainAdviseSearch

As with uninstalling adware, malicious software or PUPs, there are few steps you can do. We advise trying them all. If you do only one part of the tutorial, then it should be use malicious software removal tool, because it should delete adware and stop any further infection. But to completely remove MainAdviseSearch you will have to at least reset your web-browser settings such as home page, search provider and new tab page to default state, remove all unwanted and suspicious software, and remove adware by malicious software removal tools. Some of the steps will require you to restart your MAC system or exit this website. So, read this guidance carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove MainAdviseSearch, complete the following steps:

1. Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
2. Check the list of installed applications
3. Remove MainAdviseSearch related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove MainAdviseSearch from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

MainAdviseSearch 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 software.

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 device. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile associated with MainAdviseSearch.

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

Check the list of installed applications

The next step in uninstalling PUPs, adware and browser hijackers by yourself is to go into the Finder, then Applications. Take a look at the list of software on your Mac and see if there are any suspicious and unknown apps. If you see any, you need to uninstall it. Of course, before doing so, you can do an Net search to find details on the program. If it is a adware software, PUP and browser hijacker, you will likely find information that says so.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Carefully browse through the list of installed software and remove all questionable and unknown apps.

Once you have found anything dubious that may be the MainAdviseSearch adware or other PUP, then right click this program and select “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.

Remove MainAdviseSearch related files and folders

Now you need to try to find MainAdviseSearch 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.

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

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

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

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

Check for MainAdviseSearch 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 MainAdviseSearch 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.MainAdviseSearch.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist, com.search.system.plist and com.machelper.system.plist. In most cases, potentially unwanted programs, browser hijackers and adware software 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 MainAdviseSearch. Of course, very often PUPs, adware 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 browser hijackers, adware and potentially unwanted programs. Therefore, we suggest you to use MalwareBytes to scan the Mac device.

MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) can be downloaded from the following link.

After the downloading process is complete, close all software and windows on your MAC. Open a directory in which you saved it. Run the saved file and follow the prompts.

Once installation is finished, you will see window similar to the one below.

Now click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this utility for the MainAdviseSearch adware. While the tool is scanning, you can see how many objects and files has already scanned.

When the scan get completed, MalwareBytes will show a scan report. All detected threats will be marked. You can delete them all by simply click “Quarantine” button.

The Malwarebytes will now start to remove MainAdviseSearch .

Remove MainAdviseSearch from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you’re still getting MainAdviseSearch adware, then you can try to get rid of it by uninstalling malicious add-ons.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
Click on ‘three dots menu’ button at the top right corner of the 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 delete MainAdviseSearch by reset 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 issues with MainAdviseSearch 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

We recommend to install an ad blocking program. The ad-blocking utility such as AdGuard is a program which basically removes advertising from the World Wide Web and blocks access to malicious webpages. Moreover, security experts says that using ad blocker apps is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Internet.

1. AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3677 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. After downloading is complete, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. When the install is done, click “Skip” to close the setup application and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will assist 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 run your MAC, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop intrusive advertisements, block harmful and misleading webpages.

To sum up

Now your computer should be free of the MainAdviseSearch adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted advertisements and intrusive malicious web-sites) and MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) (to periodically scan your machine for new malware, hijackers and adware software). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac OS. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new hijackers, harmful applications and adware software are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to remove MainAdviseSearch from your internet browser, then ask for help here.