What is MegaUnit
According to security professionals, MegaUnit is an adware application that targets Mac computers. Adware is form of software designed to inject adverts into your Internet surfing or even desktop experience. Adware can be designed to alter your homepage, search provider, search results, or even add toolbars to your browser. Adware run in the background when you are online, and it can slow down your MAC and affect its performance.
Does adware steal your personal data? The MegaUnit app has the ability to gather a wide variety of marketing-type data about you to get profit. It can analyze your browsing, and gain access to your personal data and, subsequently, can sell it to third parties. Thus, there are more than enough reasons to delete the adware software from your MAC.
How does MegaUnit get on your computer
Adware gets onto computers by being attached to various free applications. This means that you need to be very careful when installing applications downloaded from the World Wide Web. Be sure to read the Terms of Use and the Software license, choose only the Manual, Advanced or Custom setup mode, switch off all unnecessary modules and applications are offered to install.
Threat Summary
Name | MegaUnit |
Type | adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac malware, Mac virus |
Detection Names | Adware.MAC.Generic, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Adware/Adload!OSX, ApplicUnwnt, MacOS.Agent-MT, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A and Osx.Adware.Cimpli |
Distribution | Freeware installers, dubious pop-up advertisements, fake updaters and torrent downloads |
Symptoms | You keep getting redirected to dubious web pages, popup ads won’t go away, unexpected program installed without your say-so, unwanted web browser toolbars, your browser settings are being changed without your request, speed test good but internet slow. |
Removal | MegaUnit removal guide |
How to remove MegaUnit from Mac computer
We can help you delete MegaUnit from your web-browsers, without the need to take your MAC to a professional. Simply follow the removal guide below if you currently have the adware on your MAC and want to remove it. If you have any difficulty while trying to remove MegaUnit , feel free to ask for our assist in the comment section below. Some of the steps will require you to restart your Apple Mac or close this web page. So, read this tutorial carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.
To remove MegaUnit, use the following steps:
- Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
- Check the list of installed apps
- Remove MegaUnit related files and folders
- Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
- Remove MegaUnit from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
- How to stay safe online
Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
MegaUnit 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 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 MegaUnit.
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 order to remove MegaUnit you need to do is to remove unknown and suspicious applications from your computer using the Finder. When removing adware software, PUPs and browser hijackers, check the list of installed programs and try to find suspicious programs and remove them all. Pay special attention to recently installed software, as it is most likely that MegaUnit сame along with it.
Open Finder and click “Applications”.
Carefully browse through the list of installed programs and remove all dubious and unknown programs.
After you have found anything dubious that may be the MegaUnit adware software or other PUP, then right click this program and select “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.
Remove MegaUnit related files and folders
Now you need to try to find MegaUnit 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.
MegaUnit creates several files, these files must be found and removed. Below is a list of files associated with this unwanted program.
- /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.MegaUnit.system.plist
- ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.MegaUnit.service.plist
- /Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/System/com.MegaUnit.system
- ~/Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/Services/com.MegaUnit.service.app
Some files created by MegaUnit 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 MegaUnit 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.google.defaultsearch.plist, , com.machelper.plist, com.MegaUnit.service.plist, macsearch.plist, search.plist, com.net-preferences.plist and installapp.plist. Most often, PUPs, adware and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.
Check for MegaUnit 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.MegaUnit.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders and files to the Trash.
Check for MegaUnit 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 MegaUnit 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.machelper.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist, com.MegaUnit.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist and com.search.system.plist. In most cases, PUPs, adware and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.
Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
You can get rid of MegaUnit related files automatically through the use of MalwareBytes Free. We recommend this free malicious software removal utility because it can easily remove toolbars, browser hijackers, adware software and potentially unwanted programs with all their components such as files, folders and system entries.
- Installing the MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) is simple. First you will need to download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware on your MS Windows Desktop by clicking on the link below.
Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
20841 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: September 10, 2020
- After the download is complete, close all software and windows on your MAC OS. Open a file location. Run the downloaded file and follow the prompts.
- Click the “Scan” button . MalwareBytes Free program will scan through the whole MAC OS for the MegaUnit . This process can take some time, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes Free program is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.
- Once the scan get completed, it will show the Scan Results. In order to delete all items, simply press “Quarantine”.
Remove MegaUnit from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
Remove unwanted plugins is a easy method to remove MegaUnit adware and restore internet browser’s settings that have been replaced by adware software.
Google Chrome | Mozilla Firefox |
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You can also try to remove MegaUnit adware by reset Google Chrome settings. |
If you are still experiencing issues with MegaUnit adware removal, you need to reset Firefox browser. |
Safari | |
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How to stay safe online
One of the worst things is the fact that you cannot stop all malicious web pages using only built-in Windows capabilities. However, there is a program out that you can use to block annoying internet browser redirects, advertisements and popups in any modern internet browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari. It’s named Adguard and it works very well.
Click the link below to download AdGuard.
3677 downloads
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: January 17, 2018
After the download is done, 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 guide. Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will help you get to know AdGuard better.
Each time, when you run your MAC system, AdGuard will run automatically and stop unwanted popup advertisements, block harmful and misleading web-sites.
To sum up
Now your computer should be free of the MegaUnit adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop-up ads and intrusive harmful web sites) and MalwareBytes (to periodically scan your MAC OS for new adwares and other malware).
If you are still having problems while trying to delete MegaUnit ads from the Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari, then ask for help here here.