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

What is SearchWebAid

According to security experts, SearchWebAid is an application that falls under the category of Adware. Adware is a type of malicious software. It is developed to bombard you with annoying advertisements and pop up windows that could potentially be dangerous for your MAC. If you get adware on your computer, it can modify web browser settings and install malicious browser plugins.

Does the SearchWebAid adware steal your personal information? It is able to gather your browsing history and confidential information, including passwords and credit card numbers. In the future, confidential info can be transferred to third parties. We recommend to delete SearchWebAid adware, as soon as you found this problem, as it can redirect your internet browser to web-resources which may load other unwanted software on your Mac.

How does SearchWebAid get on your machine

Adware gets on your MAC together with various free apps. This means that you need to be very careful when installing software downloaded from the Internet. Be sure to read the Terms of Use and the Software license, select only the Manual, Advanced or Custom setup mode, switch off all unnecessary internet browser add-ons and programs are offered to install.

Threat Summary

Name	SearchWebAid, SearchWebAid 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, OSX.Trojan.Gen, MacOS.Agent-MT, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, ApplicUnwnt, Adware/Adload!OSX, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and Adware.MAC.Generic
Distribution	Freeware installers, malicious pop-up advertisements, torrent downloads and fake updaters
Symptoms	Your web browser is redirected to web-pages you did not want, you experience a large number of of unexpected pop-up ads, there is an unexpected program in the ‘Applications’ section of the Finder, new toolbars suddenly added on your browser, your internet browser settings are being altered without your request, slow Internet or slow browsing.
Removal	SearchWebAid removal guide

How to Remove SearchWebAid adware (removal tutorial)

Without a doubt, the adware is harmful to your MAC. So you need to quickly and completely delete SearchWebAid. To remove this adware, you can use the removal guidance that is given below or free malicious software removal tools like MalwareBytes. We advise you use automatic removal method which will help you to remove SearchWebAid easily and safely. Manual removal is best used only if you’re well versed in MACs or in the case where adware is not deleted automatically. Read this manual carefully, bookmark it or open this page on your smartphone, because you may need to exit your browser or restart your Apple Mac.

To remove SearchWebAid, follow the steps below:

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

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

SearchWebAid can make changes to the Mac system such as malicious changes to browser settings, and the addition of malicious system profiles. You need to check the system preferences, find and remove malicious profiles and ensure your settings are as you expect.

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

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

Delete SearchWebAid associated software by using the Finder

Check the list of installed apps and uninstall all unknown or questionable software. This is an important step, it so often happens that adware, PUPs and browser hijackers are built into free applications, so by removing these applications you can get rid of web browser redirects and unwanted ads.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Very carefully look around the entire list of software installed on your MAC system. Most likely, one of them is the SearchWebAid . Once you have found a dubious, unwanted or unused application, right click to it and choose “Move to Trash”. Another method is drag the application from the Applications folder to the Trash.

Don’t forget, choose Finder -> “Empty Trash”.

Remove SearchWebAid related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SearchWebAid 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.

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

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

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

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

Check for SearchWebAid 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 SearchWebAid 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.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist, com.SearchWebAid.system.plist and com.search.system.plist. In most cases, browser hijackers, PUPs and adware 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 SearchWebAid. Of course, very often adware, browser hijackers 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, adware and browser hijackers. Therefore, we suggest you to use MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to scan the Mac device.

Visit the following page to download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM).

After the downloading process is finished, close all apps and windows on your machine. Open a directory in which you saved it. Run the saved file and follow the prompts.

Once installation is done, you’ll see window as shown in the figure below.

Now click the “Scan” button to begin checking your machine for the SearchWebAid adware. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your MAC system and the speed of your machine. When a threat is detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.

When MalwareBytes is done scanning your MAC, MalwareBytes Free will open a list of found threats. In order to delete all threats, simply press “Quarantine” button.

The Malwarebytes will now get rid of SearchWebAid adware software.

Remove SearchWebAid from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Remove unwanted plugins is a simple method to get rid of SearchWebAid adware software and restore browser’s settings that have been replaced by adware.

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. When the drop-down menu appears, select ‘More tools’ and click on ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove SearchWebAid adware software 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 SearchWebAid 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 blocker application like AdGuard is an effective way to alleviate the risks. Additionally, ad blocker software will also protect you from malicious ads and web sites, and, of course, block redirection chain to misleading, scam and similar web-pages.

1. Download AdGuard on your MAC system from the link below.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3687 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. When the download is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. After the installation is finished, click “Skip” to close the installation application and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will allow you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you launch your MAC OS, AdGuard will run automatically and stop annoying ads, block harmful and misleading websites.

Finish words

After completing the few simple steps outlined above, your MAC OS should be clean from this adware and other malware. The Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox will no longer display any unwanted ads when you surf the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step tutorial does not help you, then you have caught a new adware, 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 SearchWebAid adware.