How to uninstall PublicCharacterSearch app/extension from Mac – Removal guide

PublicCharacterSearch is a potentially unwanted program (PUP) that belongs to the Adware family. Is Adware dangerous? Adware is ‘advertising supported’ software that tries to generate profit by redirecting you to unwanted web-pages or online advertising. It has different ways of earning money including showing up ads on the web browser forcefully. Most of adware gets installed when you are downloading free applications or browser add-ons (extensions).

Does adware steal your confidential data? Adware software can gather your World Wide Web surfing activity by saving URLs visited, IP addresses, web-browser version and type, cookie information, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and web-pages visited. Such kind of behavior can lead to serious security problems or confidential info theft. This is another reason why the PublicCharacterSearch adware should be uninstalled sooner.

Threat Summary

Name	PublicCharacterSearch, Public Character Search 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), pop ups, popup advertisements, popup virus
Symptoms	advertising banners appear in places they shouldn’t be every time you perform an Internet search, your web-browser is redirected to another website unexpected programs installed without your consent unwanted internet browser extensions or toolbars keep coming back unwanted changes in your web browser such as using a new default search engine fast Internet but slow browsing speeds CPU usage seems unusually high
Removal	PublicCharacterSearch removal guide

How does the PublicCharacterSearch adware get on your MAC

Adware such as PublicCharacterSearch usually gets onto MAC OS by being attached to certain free software that you download off of the Net. So, think back, have you ever download and run any freeware. In order to avoid infection, in the Setup wizard, you should be be proactive and carefully read the ‘Terms of use’, the ‘license agreement’ and other installation screens, as well as to always select the ‘Manual’ or ‘Advanced’ setup type, when installing anything downloaded from the Web.

Thus, the PublicCharacterSearch adware is quite dangerous. So, we suggest you remove it from your MAC system immediately. Follow the tutorial presented below to delete PublicCharacterSearch from the Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Chrome.

How to Remove PublicCharacterSearch adware

There are a few ways that can be used to delete PublicCharacterSearch adware. But, not all PUPs such as this adware can be completely removed utilizing only manual solutions. In most cases you are not able to uninstall any adware software using standard Mac options. In order to remove PublicCharacterSearch you need complete a few manual steps and use reliable removal utilities. Most IT security professionals states that MalwareBytes utility is a right choice. The free program is able to detect and remove PublicCharacterSearch adware from your MAC and return your web browser settings to defaults.

To remove PublicCharacterSearch, perform the steps below:

1. Manual PublicCharacterSearch adware software removal
   • Remove adware through the Finder
   • Remove PublicCharacterSearch adware from Chrome
   • Get rid of PublicCharacterSearch adware from Safari
   • Remove PublicCharacterSearch from Firefox by resetting internet browser settings
2. Automatic Removal of PublicCharacterSearch adware
   • Remove PublicCharacterSearch adware software with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM)
3. How to stay safe online
4. Finish words

Manual PublicCharacterSearch adware software removal

This part of the blog post is a step-by-step guide that will show you how to remove PublicCharacterSearch adware manually. You just need to follow every step. In this case, you do not need to download any additional utilities.

Remove adware through the Finder

First, you should try to identify and delete the program that causes the appearance of undesired ads or browser redirect, using the ‘Applications’ list that located in the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

It will show a list of all apps installed on your machine. Scroll through the all list, and remove any dubious and unknown programs. Right click to questionable program and choose “Move to Trash”. Another method is drag the application 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 PublicCharacterSearch adware from Chrome

If adware, other application or extensions changed your Google Chrome settings without your knowledge, then you can get rid of PublicCharacterSearch ads and revert back your web-browser settings in Chrome at any time. When using the reset feature, your personal information such as passwords, bookmarks, browsing history and web form auto-fill data will be saved.

1. First start the Chrome and click Menu button (small button in the form of three dots).
2. It will open the Google Chrome main menu. Select More Tools, then press Extensions.
3. You’ll see the list of installed add-ons. If the list has the add-on labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following guide: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
4. Now open the Google Chrome menu once again, press the “Settings” menu.
5. You will see the Google Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and click “Advanced” link.
6. Scroll down again and click the “Reset” button.
7. The Google Chrome will show the reset profile settings page as on the image above.
8. Next press the “Reset” button.
9. Once this process is complete, your internet browser’s new tab page, start page and default search engine will be restored to their original defaults.
10. To learn more, read the blog post How to reset Chrome settings to default.

Get rid of PublicCharacterSearch adware from Safari

By resetting Safari browser you revert back your internet browser settings to its default state. This is first when troubleshooting problems that might have been caused by PublicCharacterSearch .

Run Safari web browser. Next, select Preferences from the Safari menu.

First, click the “Security” tab. Here, select “Block pop-up windows”. It will stop some types of popups.

Now, click the “Extensions” icon. Look for questionable extensions on left panel, select it, then click the “Uninstall” button. Most important to remove all dubious plugins from Safari.

Once complete, check your start page and search engine settings. Click “General” icon. Make sure that the “Homepage” field contains the website you want or is empty.

Make sure that the “Search engine” setting shows your preferred search engine. In some versions of Safari, this setting is in the “Search” tab.

Remove PublicCharacterSearch from Firefox by resetting internet browser settings

This step will allow you remove PublicCharacterSearch ads, third-party toolbars, disable malicious plugins and restore your default startpage, new tab page and search engine settings.

Click the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and click the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu such as the one below.

A small menu will appear, click the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, press “Refresh Firefox” button as shown on the screen below.

Follow the onscreen procedure to revert back your Mozilla Firefox web browser settings to their original settings.

Automatic Removal of PublicCharacterSearch adware

If you are unsure how to remove PublicCharacterSearch adware software easily, consider using automatic adware removal applications which listed below. It will identify the PublicCharacterSearch and uninstall it from your MAC system for free.

Remove PublicCharacterSearch adware software with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM)

You can get rid of PublicCharacterSearch automatically through the use of MalwareBytes. We suggest this free malware removal utility because it can easily get rid of browser hijacker, adware software, potentially unwanted programs and toolbars with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.

MalwareBytes Anti Malware can be downloaded from the following link.

After downloading is complete, close all apps and windows on your MAC. Run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

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

Now press the “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this utility for the PublicCharacterSearch adware. This task can take quite a while, so please be patient.

Once MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) has completed scanning your Apple Mac, MalwareBytes AntiMalware will display a list of all items found by the scan. You may delete items (move to Quarantine) by simply click “Remove Selected Items” button. The MalwareBytes Free will delete PublicCharacterSearch and move threats to the program’s quarantine.

How to stay safe online

In order to increase your security and protect your machine against new undesired ads and malicious webpages, you need to run ad-blocker application that stops an access to malicious advertisements and web pages. Moreover, the program may stop the open of intrusive advertising, that also leads to faster loading of web-pages and reduce the consumption of web traffic.

Visit the following page to download AdGuard.

After the download is done, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.

Each time, when you run your MAC system, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted advertisements, block harmful or misleading web-pages.

Finish words

Now your MAC should be clean of the PublicCharacterSearch adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted popups and annoying harmful webpages) and MalwareBytes (to periodically scan your computer for new malicious software, hijackers and adware). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac OS. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijackers, malicious applications and adware are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to delete PublicCharacterSearch ads from your web-browser, then ask for help here.