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

What is SearchForWords

According to security researchers, SearchForWords is a potentially unwanted app (PUA) that falls under the category of Adware . Adware’s basic purpose is to show advertisements. These advertisements are often shown as sponsored links, pop ups or push notifications. Clicks on the advertisements produce a monetary payoff for the software creators. Adware can work like Spyware, since it sends user data such as searches and trends to advertisers.

Does adware steal your confidential information? Adware software may monetize its functionality by collecting user info from your browsing sessions. This privacy info, later, can be easily transferred third party companies. This puts your user information at a security risk.

To find out how to delete SearchForWords adware, we recommend to read the tutorial added to this post below. The guide was prepared by experienced security specialists who discovered a solution to remove the adware out of the computer.

How does SearchForWords get on your MAC

In many cases, adware software spreads along with the installation packages from file sharing and torrents web-sites. So, install free software 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 install, choose the Custom or Advanced install mode. Next, press ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install bundled apps. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any apps or otherwise you can end up with another unwanted program on your MAC like this adware.

Threat Summary

Name	SearchForWords, SearchForWords 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	ApplicUnwnt, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, OSX.Trojan.Gen and Adware/Adload!OSX
Distribution	Free software installers, fake software updaters, dubious pop-up advertisements and torrent downloads
Symptoms	Every time you perform an Internet search, your web-browser is redirected to another web-site, advertising banners appear on web pages that you are visiting, unexpected program installed without your consent, new extensions suddenly installed on your internet browser, your web-browser startpage has changed without your permission, low ping but slow Internet.
Removal	SearchForWords removal guide

How to remove SearchForWords adware

The adware software is a form of malicious software that you might have difficulty in removing it from your Apple Mac. Luckily, you’ve found the effective SearchForWords adware removal instructions in this post. Both the manual removal way and the automatic removal solution will be provided below and you can just select the one that best for you. If you have any questions or need assist then type a comment below. Certain of the steps below will require you to shut down this webpage. So, please read the steps carefully, after that bookmark it or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove SearchForWords, perform the following steps:

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

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

SearchForWords 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 device. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile related to SearchForWords.

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

Delete SearchForWords related programs through the Finder

Try to identify and delete the program that causes the appearance of annoying advertisements or web browser redirect, using the Applications list which is located in the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Carefully browse through the list of installed apps and remove all questionable and unknown programs.

When you’ve found anything dubious that may be the SearchForWords adware or other PUP, then right click this application and choose “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.

Remove SearchForWords related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SearchForWords 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you carefully followed the previous steps, then you should be able to delete SearchForWords. Of course, very often browser hijackers, adware and PUPs 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, browser hijackers and adware. Therefore, we recommend you to run MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) to scan the Mac device.

Please go to the link below to download MalwareBytes.

When the downloading process is complete, run it and follow the prompts. Click the “Scan” button to begin scanning your machine for the SearchForWords . When a malware, adware software or potentially unwanted applications are found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Make sure to check mark the threats which are unsafe and then click the “Quarantine” button.

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

Remove SearchForWords from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

This step will show you how to delete malicious plugins. This can delete SearchForWords adware and fix some browsing problems, especially after adware infection.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right hand corner, click on ‘three vertical dots’, and this will open up the main menu on Chrome. Select ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove SearchForWords 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 problems with SearchForWords 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

Enabling an ad blocking application like AdGuard is an effective way to alleviate the risks. Additionally, ad blocker applications will also protect you from malicious advertisements and webpages, and, of course, block redirection chain to misleading, scam and similar webpages.

Download AdGuard on your MAC system from the link below.

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 tutorial. Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will help you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you launch your MAC OS, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted ads, block malicious and misleading websites.

To sum up

After completing the steps shown above, your machine should be clean from this adware software and other malware. The Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox will no longer display any unwanted ads when you browse the Net. 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.

Please create a new question by using the “Ask Question” button in the Questions and Answers. Try to give us some details about your problems, so we can try to help you more accurately. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the SearchForWords adware.