How to uninstall OperativeDock app/extension from Mac

What is OperativeDock

According to security professionals, OperativeDock is a potentially unwanted application (PUA) that belongs to the Adware group . Adware is a term that originates from ‘ad supported’ software. In many cases, ‘adware’ is considered by many to be synonymous with ‘malware’. Its purpose is to earn money for its owner by displaying unwanted advertisements to a user while the user is surfing the Internet.

The worst is, adware can gather personal info, including:

• IP addresses;
• URLs visited;
• search queries/terms;
• clicks on links and advertisements;
• web-browser version information.

Take a deep breath. Learn everything you should know about OperativeDock removal, how to remove annoying advertisements from your web-browser and machine. Find the best free adware and malicious software removal utilities here!

How does OperativeDock get on your MAC OS

Adware usually is bundled with another application in the same install package. The risk of this is especially high for the various free software downloaded from the World Wide Web. The developers of the apps are hoping that users will run the quick installation option, that is simply to press the Next button, without paying attention to the information on the screen and do not carefully considering every step of the setup procedure. Thus, adware can infiltrate your Apple Mac without your knowledge. Therefore, it’s very important to read everything that the program says during installation, including the ‘Terms of Use’ and ‘Software license’. Use only the Manual, Custom or Advanced installation mode. This method will allow you to disable all optional and unwanted apps and components.

Threat Summary

Name	OperativeDock, OperativeDock 1.0 app
Type	adware software, potentially unwanted application (PUA), pop-up ads, popup virus, popups
Symptoms	you experience a large amount of of unexpected advertisements webpage links reroute to webpages different from what you expected unexpected program installed without your knowledge unexpected web browser extensions or toolbars keep coming back your internet browser start page has changed and you are unable to modify it back slow browsing Internet your web-browser became slower than normal
Removal	OperativeDock removal guide

How to Remove OperativeDock adware (removal tutorial)

When the adware software gets installed on your MAC OS without your knowledge, it’s not easy to delete. Most often, there is no Uninstall program that simply delete the adware software from your MAC OS. So, we recommend using well-proven free specialized tool such as MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM). But the best method to delete OperativeDock will be to perform several manual steps, after that additionally use antimalware utilities.

To remove OperativeDock, execute the steps below:

1. Remove profiles created by OperativeDock
2. Check the list of installed apps
3. Remove OperativeDock related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove OperativeDock from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online
7. To sum up

Remove profiles created by OperativeDock

OperativeDock 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 OperativeDock.

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 computer, which is normal.

Check the list of installed apps

It’s of primary importance to identify and delete adware, browser hijackers and PUPs through ‘Applications’ section of your Finder.

Make sure you have closed all browsers and other applications. Next, uninstall any unwanted and suspicious software from computer using the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

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

Drag the questionable program from the Applications folder to the Trash.

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

Remove OperativeDock related files and folders

Now you need to try to find OperativeDock 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 OperativeDock 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: OperativeDock.plist, installapp.plist, macsearch.plist, search.plist and com.machelper.plist. Most often, potentially unwanted programs, browser hijackers and adware create several files with similar names.

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

We recommend using MalwareBytes AntiMalware. You may download and install MalwareBytes Free to locate and get rid of OperativeDock associated apps from your Mac computer. When installed and updated, the malware remover automatically searches for and removes all security threats exist on the MAC OS.

Download MalwareBytes Free on your MAC system from the link below.

After the download is finished, close all programs and windows on your MAC OS. Run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

The MalwareBytes Free will automatically start and you can see its main screen as displayed in the following example.

Now click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the OperativeDock . A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your machine. While the MalwareBytes Anti-Malware tool is scanning, you can see number of objects it has identified as being affected by malicious software.

When the scan get finished, MalwareBytes Free will show a list of all threats detected by the scan. Make sure to check mark the items which are unsafe and then click the “Quarantine” button. The MalwareBytes AntiMalware will remove OperativeDock adware software and move the selected threats to the Quarantine.

Remove OperativeDock from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

This step will show you how to remove harmful extensions. This can get rid of OperativeDock and fix some surfing problems, especially after adware software infection.

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 OperativeDock adware 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 OperativeDock adware 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

To put it simply, you need to use an ad blocker tool (AdGuard, for example). It will block and protect you from malicious web-sites, unwanted advertisements and popups. To be able to do that, the ad-blocker program uses a list of filters. Each filter is a rule that describes a malicious webpage, an advertising content, a banner and others. The ad-blocker program automatically uses these filters, depending on the websites you are visiting.

Please go to the link below to download AdGuard.

When the downloading process 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 instructions that will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

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

To sum up

Now your MAC should be clean of the OperativeDock adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted popup advertisements and intrusive harmful web-sites) and MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) (to periodically scan your MAC OS for new adware softwares and other malicious software).

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