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

What is ProcessRate

ProcessRate is an adware application that targets Mac platform. Adware can cause many issues such as intrusive advertisements and pop-ups on your web browser, irrelevant search results that redirect to scam webpages, web-browser crashes and slow loading web-pages. Adware usually gets installed as a part of some freeware. Do not be surprised, it happens, especially if you’re an active Internet user.

Does adware steal your personal data? ProcessRate has the ability to gather a wide variety of your user data such as what web sites you are opening, what you are looking for the Web and so on. This personal info, afterwards, may be transferred third party companies. Do not panic because we have got the solution. Here’s a instructions on how to remove ProcessRate adware from the MAC and get rid of unwanted ads from your browser.

How does ProcessRate get on your MAC system

Adware can be spread with the help of trojan horses and other forms of malware, but in most cases, adware comes as a part of certain free software. Many creators of free applications include third-party apps in their installer. Sometimes it is possible to avoid the installation of any adware: carefully read the Terms of Use and the Software license, choose only Manual, Custom or Advanced installation mode, disable all checkboxes before clicking Install or Next button while installing new free applications.

Threat Summary

Name	ProcessRate
Type	adware software, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Adware.MAC.Generic, ApplicUnwnt, MacOS.Agent-MT, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload and Adware/Adload!OSX
Distribution	Freeware installers, malicious popup ads, torrent downloads and fake updaters
Symptoms	Every time you perform an Internet search, your browser is redirected to another web-page, unclosable window appear and recommend fake Jave updates, your Apple Mac starts automatically installing unwanted apps, unwanted web browser toolbars, unwanted changes in your browser such as displaying new tabs you didn’t open, low ping but slow Internet.
Removal	ProcessRate removal guide

How to remove ProcessRate adware software

In most cases adware requires more than a simple uninstall through the use of the Finder in order to be fully removed. For that reason, our team developed several removal methods that we have combined in a detailed tutorial. Therefore, if you’ve the intrusive ProcessRate adware on your MAC and are currently trying to have it removed then feel free to follow the tutorial below in order to resolve your problem. Read this manual carefully, bookmark it or open this page on your smartphone, because you may need to close your web browser or reboot your MAC system.

To remove ProcessRate, complete the steps below:

1. Remove profiles created by ProcessRate
2. Remove ProcessRate related software through the Finder
3. Remove ProcessRate related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove ProcessRate from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove profiles created by ProcessRate

ProcessRate 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 ProcessRate.

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

Remove ProcessRate related software through the Finder

In order to get rid of adware, PUPs and browser hijackers, open the Finder and click on “Applications”. Check the list of installed apps. For the ones you do not know, run an Internet search to see if they are adware software, PUPs and browser hijackers. If yes, remove them off. Even if they are just a software that you do not use, then uninstalling them off will increase your MAC start up time and speed dramatically.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

It will show a list of all software installed on your machine. Scroll through the all list, and delete any suspicious and unknown applications. Right click to questionable program and choose “Move to Trash”. Another solution 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 ProcessRate related files and folders

Now you need to try to find ProcessRate 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.

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

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

Some files created by ProcessRate 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 ProcessRate 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, com.ProcessRate.service.plist, com.net-preferences.plist, com.google.defaultsearch.plist, , com.machelper.plist, installapp.plist and search.plist. Most often, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs and adware create several files with similar names.

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

Check for ProcessRate 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 ProcessRate 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.search.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist and com.ProcessRate.system.plist. In most cases, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs and adware create several files with similar names.

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

We suggest using MalwareBytes Anti-Malware to scan the Apple computer for browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs and adware. This free tool is an advanced malicious software removal application created by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This program uses the world’s most popular anti malware technology. It is able to help you get rid of PUPs and other security threats from your Mac for free.

Installing the MalwareBytes is simple. First you’ll need to download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware on your computer from the following link.

Once downloading is done, close all software and windows on your MAC system. Run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

The MalwareBytes will automatically start and you can see its main screen as displayed below.

Now click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the ProcessRate adware. While the MalwareBytes AntiMalware program is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.

As the scanning ends, MalwareBytes will create a list of unwanted apps and adware software. Make sure to check mark the items which are unsafe and then press the “Quarantine” button. The MalwareBytes AntiMalware will get rid of ProcessRate adware.

Remove ProcessRate from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you’re still getting ProcessRate , then you can try to remove it by removing malicious add-ons.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top-right corner, expand the Google Chrome menu. 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 ProcessRate 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 ProcessRate adware software removal, you need to reset Mozilla 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

One of the worst things is the fact that you cannot block all harmful web-sites using only built-in MS Windows capabilities. However, there is a application out that you can use to block annoying web-browser redirects, advertisements and pop ups in any modern browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Chrome. It’s named Adguard and it works very well.

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. When the downloading process is finished, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. After the install is done, press “Skip” to close the installation program 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 launch your Apple Mac, AdGuard will start automatically and stop intrusive ads, block harmful and misleading web sites.

Finish words

Once you have removed the ProcessRate adware software using the tutorial, Chrome, Firefox and Safari will no longer any unwanted ads. Unfortunately, if the guide does not help you, then you have caught a new adware, and then the best way – ask for help here.