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

What is ExcitingCentral

According to security specialists, ExcitingCentral is a malicious application that falls under the category of Adware. Adware is a type of malicious software developed to throw advertisements up on web browser screen. The ExcitingCentral adware generates profit for its author by often showing a large number of advertisements and popup deals. You might experience a change in your start page or search provider, new tabs opening or even a redirect to malicious and scam sites.

The worst is, the adware software can install a component which enables its author to track which webpages you visit, which products you look at upon those pages. They are then able to select the type of advertisements they show you. So, if you had an adware on your machine, there is a good chance you have another that is gathering and sharing your personal information with third parties, without your say-so.

The guide below explaining steps to delete ExcitingCentral. Feel free to use it for removal of the adware that may attack Mozilla Firefox, Chrome and Safari and other popular web browsers. The steps will help you remove the adware and thus clean your browser from any unwanted ads.

How does ExcitingCentral get on your Apple Mac

In most cases, adware comes along with the installers from file sharing and torrents web-sites. So, install freeware is a a good chance that you will find a bundled adware software. If you don’t know how to avoid it, then use a simple trick. During the install, choose the Custom or Advanced setup method. Next, click ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install additional apps. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any applications or otherwise you may end up with another unwanted program on your MAC system like this adware.

Threat Summary

Name	ExcitingCentral, ExcitingCentral 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Adware.MAC.Generic, OSX.Trojan.Gen, ApplicUnwnt, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Adware/Adload!OSX, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A and MacOS.Agent-MT
Distribution	Free software installers, torrent downloads, fake updaters and malicious pop-up advertisements
Symptoms	The web site links redirect to a webpages different from what you expected, popups and new tab pages are loaded without your request, unwanted program installed without your say-so, unexpected web browser plugins or toolbars keep coming back, your Apple Mac settings are being altered without your request, low ping but slow Internet.
Removal	ExcitingCentral removal guide

How to Remove ExcitingCentral adware (removal tutorial)

There present several free adware software removal tools. Also it is possible to delete ExcitingCentral manually. But we suggest to combine all these solutions below into the one removal algorithm. Follow the steps of the instructions. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to exit your web browser or restart your MAC.

To remove ExcitingCentral, execute the following steps:

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

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

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

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

Uninstall ExcitingCentral associated software by using the Finder

It’s of primary importance to identify and remove browser hijackers, adware software and potentially unwanted programs through ‘Applications’ section of your Finder.

Make sure you have closed all browsers and other applications. Next, uninstall any unknown and suspicious programs from MAC using the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Look around the entire list of programs installed on your MAC OS. Most probably, one of them is the ExcitingCentral adware. Select the suspicious program or the program that name is not familiar to you and uninstall it.

Drag the suspicious application from the Applications folder to the Trash.

Most important, don’t forget, choose Finder -> Empty Trash.

Remove ExcitingCentral related files and folders

Now you need to try to find ExcitingCentral 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

Manual ExcitingCentral removal requires some computer skills. Some files and system entries that created by the adware may be not completely removed. We recommend that use MalwareBytes to scan the Mac. Moreover, this program will help you to get rid of toolbars, potentially unwanted programs, browser hijackers and adware that your machine can be affected too.

1. Visit the following page to download MalwareBytes Free.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20841 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. After the downloading process is done, close all programs and windows on your Apple Mac. Open a file location. Run the downloaded file and follow the prompts.
3. Click the “Scan” button . MalwareBytes AntiMalware program will scan through the whole computer for the ExcitingCentral adware software. Depending on your MAC system, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour.
4. After the system scan is done, the results are displayed in the scan report. All detected threats will be marked. You can remove them all by simply click “Quarantine”.

Remove ExcitingCentral from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you’re still getting ExcitingCentral adware, then you can try to get rid of it by uninstalling harmful extensions.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
Click on ‘three dots menu’ button at the top right corner of the Chrome window. Select ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to get rid of ExcitingCentral 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 problems with ExcitingCentral 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

To put it simply, you need to use an ad blocker utility (AdGuard, for example). It’ll block and protect you from harmful web sites, unwanted ads and pop-ups. To be able to do that, the ad blocking program uses a list of filters. Each filter is a rule that describes a malicious website, an advertising content, a banner and others. The ad-blocking program automatically uses these filters, depending on the web-sites you are visiting.

AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.

When downloading is finished, 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 guidance. Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your Apple Mac, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop intrusive pop up advertisements, block harmful and misleading web sites.

Finish words

Now your MAC should be free of the ExcitingCentral adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted ads and intrusive malicious web-pages) and MalwareBytes (to periodically scan your machine for new adware softwares and other malicious software).

If you are still having problems while trying to delete ExcitingCentral from the Chrome, Safari and Firefox, then ask for help here here.