How to uninstall HerculesLookup app/extension from Mac

What is HerculesLookup

According to security researchers, HerculesLookup is a potentially unwanted program (PUP) that falls under the category of Adware . Many PC users consider adware, browser hijackers, spyware, malware as the same thing. They are all forms of malicious software that each behave differently. The word ‘adware’ is a combination of two words ‘ad’ and ‘software’. Adware presents ads on an affected MAC. Not very dangerous for users, but very profitable for the the software producers.

Even worse, adware may gather your Net browsing 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 privacy data theft. This is another reason why the HerculesLookup adware software should be removed immediately.

In this post we will discuss how can you get rid of HerculesLookup adware from the computer manually or with free adware removal tools compatible with modern Mac operating systems.

How does HerculesLookup get on your MAC OS

Adware actively distributed with free software, along with the setup package of these programs. Therefore, it is very important, when installing an unknown program even downloaded from well-known site, read the Terms of use and the Software license, as well as to select the Manual, Advanced or Custom install mode. In this method, you can disable the install of additional browser extensions and software and protect your computer from adware software.

Threat Summary

Name	HerculesLookup, HerculesLookup 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), pop-up virus, popup ads, pop-ups
Symptoms	pop ups and new tab pages are loaded without your request you keep getting redirected to suspicious web-sites there is an unwanted application in the ‘Applications’ section of Finder undesired toolbars your web-browser start page or search provider keeps changing or is not set to Google anymor slow Internet browsing speeds your MAC OS starts performing very slowly
Removal	HerculesLookup removal guide

How to remove HerculesLookup

Adware is a form of malicious software that you might have difficulty in removing it from your machine. Happily, you have found the effective HerculesLookup adware removal guide in this article. Both the manual removal solution and the automatic removal method will be provided below and you can just select the one that best for you. If you’ve any questions or need help then type a comment below. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to close your web browser or reboot your Apple Mac.

To remove HerculesLookup, perform the steps below:

1. Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
2. Remove HerculesLookup related programs through the Finder
3. Remove HerculesLookup related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove HerculesLookup from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online
7. To sum up

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

HerculesLookup 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.

Click the System Preferences icon ( ) in the Dock, or choose Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, click Profiles, then select a profile associated with HerculesLookup.

Click the minus button ( – ) located at the bottom-left of the Profiles screen to remove the profile.
Note: if you do not see Profiles in the System Preferences, that means there are no profiles installed on your Mac device, which is normal.

Remove HerculesLookup related programs through the Finder

In order to remove HerculesLookup you need to do is to remove unknown and questionable programs from your Apple Mac using the Finder. When deleting adware, PUPs and browser hijackers, check the list of installed apps and try to find questionable applications and delete them all. Pay special attention to recently installed applications, as it’s most probably that HerculesLookup сame along with it.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

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

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

Remove HerculesLookup related files and folders

Now you need to try to find HerculesLookup 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.

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 HerculesLookup 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.machelper.plist, macsearch.plist, installapp.plist, search.plist and HerculesLookup.plist. Most often, adware, potentially unwanted programs and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.

Check for HerculesLookup 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 folder. Move all suspicious folders to the Trash.

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you carefully followed the previous steps, then you should be able to remove HerculesLookup. Of course, very often browser hijackers, adware software and PUPs 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, potentially unwanted programs and adware. Therefore, we recommend you to use MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) to scan the Mac device.

Click the link below to download the latest version of MalwareBytes Free for Mac.

When the downloading process is finished, run it and follow the prompts. Click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the HerculesLookup adware. A scan may take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the count of files on your machine and the speed of your computer. While the MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) program is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat. Once you have selected what you wish to remove from your machine click the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes is a free program that you can use to delete all detected folders, files, malicious services and so on.

Remove HerculesLookup from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Remove unwanted addons is a simple method to get rid of HerculesLookup adware and return web browser’s settings that have been modified by adware.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top-right corner, expand the Google Chrome menu. 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 remove HerculesLookup 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 HerculesLookup 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

The AdGuard is a very good ad-blocker program for the Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of intrusive ads, popunders, pop-ups, undesired newtab pages, and even full page ads and web site overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can block malicious web sites automatically or by using a custom filter rule.

AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.

After the downloading process is complete, 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. Press “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will help you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you run your MAC, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop unwanted pop ups, block harmful and misleading webpages.

To sum up

After completing the steps shown above, your MAC system should be clean from HerculesLookup adware and other malware. The Chrome, Safari and Firefox will no longer redirect you to various unwanted web sites and online ads. Unfortunately, if the few simple steps does not help you, then you have caught a new adware software, and then the best way – ask for help here.