How to uninstall SkilledPanelSearch app/extension from Mac

What is SkilledPanelSearch

SkilledPanelSearch is supposed to be an app that will improve the browsing experience, but according to security specialists, this app is adware. Adware is a type of software developed to throw advertisements up on your web-browser screen. Adware generates profit for its creator by constantly displaying a huge number of advertisements and pop up deals. You might experience a change in your home page or search engine, new tabs opening or even a redirect to unsafe web-sites.

Does SkilledPanelSearch steal your confidential information? It can gather personal info, including:

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

If you want to remove SkilledPanelSearch , you will not succeed, because it is very stubborn. Using the following guide, you surely can delete the adware completely from your MAC system.

How does SkilledPanelSearch get on your computer

Most often, adware spreads bundled with the installers from file sharing and torrents web-sites. So, install free programs is a a good chance that you will find a bundled adware. If you don’t know how to avoid it, then use a simple trick. During the installation, select the Custom or Advanced installation mode. Next, click ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install bundled software. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any applications or otherwise you may end up with another unwanted application on your computer such as this adware.

Threat Summary

Name	SkilledPanelSearch, SkilledPanelSearch 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Adware.MAC.Generic, ApplicUnwnt, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Adware/Adload!OSX, OSX.Trojan.Gen and MacOS.Agent-MT
Distribution	Freeware installers, fake software updaters, dubious pop up ads and torrent downloads
Symptoms	When you go to a web site, you’re occasionally redirected to another web-page that you do not intend to visit, you experience a ton of of unexpected pop-up advertisements, there is an unexpected program in the ‘Applications’ section of the Finder, new toolbars suddenly added on your browser, your web browser search engine has replaced without your permission, speed test good but internet slow.
Removal	SkilledPanelSearch removal guide

How to Remove SkilledPanelSearch adware (removal guide)

The adware is a form of malicious software that you might have difficulty in deleting it from your Apple Mac. Happily, you’ve found the effective SkilledPanelSearch removal guidance in this post. Both the manual removal solution and the automatic removal way will be provided below and you can just choose the one that best for you. If you’ve any questions or need assist 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 exit your browser or restart your MAC system.

To remove SkilledPanelSearch, perform the following steps:

1. Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
2. Remove SkilledPanelSearch related apps through the Finder
3. Remove SkilledPanelSearch related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove SkilledPanelSearch from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online
7. Finish words

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

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

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

Remove SkilledPanelSearch related apps through the Finder

In order to delete SkilledPanelSearch you need to do is to uninstall unknown and questionable applications from your MAC OS using the Finder. When deleting potentially unwanted programs, browser hijackers and adware, check the list of installed programs and try to find questionable programs and remove them all. Pay special attention to recently installed software, as it is most likely that SkilledPanelSearch сame along with it.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

It will display a list of all software installed on your Apple Mac. Scroll through the all list, and delete any suspicious and unknown applications. Right click to suspicious program and select “Move to Trash”. Another method 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, choose Finder -> Empty Trash.

Remove SkilledPanelSearch related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SkilledPanelSearch 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.

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

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

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 SkilledPanelSearch 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, com.net-preferences.plist, installapp.plist, search.plist, com.google.defaultsearch.plist, , macsearch.plist and com.SkilledPanelSearch.service.plist. Most often, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs and adware create several files with similar names.

Check for SkilledPanelSearch 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. Check the contents of suspicious folders, if there is a file with a name similar to com.SkilledPanelSearch.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders to the Trash.

Check for SkilledPanelSearch 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 SkilledPanelSearch 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.SkilledPanelSearch.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist and com.search.system.plist. In most cases, browser hijackers, adware software and potentially unwanted programs 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 SkilledPanelSearch. Of course, very often PUPs, browser hijackers and adware hides on a Mac computer, 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 PUPs, adware and browser hijackers. Therefore, we recommend you to run MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to scan the Mac device.

Installing the MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is simple. First you’ll need to download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) by clicking on the link below.

After the downloading process is done, run it and follow the prompts. Click the “Scan” button for checking your Apple Mac for the SkilledPanelSearch adware software. While the MalwareBytes Anti Malware is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified either as being malicious software. In order to delete all threats, simply press the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) is a free program that you can use to remove all detected folders, files, malicious services and so on.

Remove SkilledPanelSearch from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Annoying SkilledPanelSearch adware software or other symptoms of adware in your web-browser is a good reason to find and get rid of malicious plugins. This is an easy way to recover web-browsers settings and not lose any important information.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right corner, click on Chrome’s main menu button, represented by three vertical dots. 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 SkilledPanelSearch adware 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 SkilledPanelSearch 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

One of the worst things is the fact that you cannot stop all harmful web-pages using only built-in Microsoft Windows capabilities. However, there is a program out that you can use to block annoying internet browser redirects, ads and popups in any modern web-browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Chrome. It’s called Adguard and it works very well.

Visit the following page to download the latest version of AdGuard for Apple Mac.

Once the downloading process is done, 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 guide that will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted ads, block malicious and misleading web-pages.

Finish words

Now your MAC OS should be clean of the SkilledPanelSearch adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop-up ads and intrusive harmful web-sites) and MalwareBytes (to periodically scan your Apple Mac for new adware softwares and other malware).

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