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

What is SampleSkilled

SampleSkilled is an adware application aimed at Mac OS systems. Adware is type of malware which displays unwanted advertisements, redirects search results to advertising webpages and gathers privacy information for marketing purposes. Adware can display banner advertisements, full-screen ads, pop-ups, videos, or other varieties of online advertising. SampleSkilled can attack your MAC OS’s internet browsers such as Safari, Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Maybe you approve the idea that the ads or pop ups is just a small problem. But these unwanted advertisements eat computer resources and slow down your Mac performance.

The worst is, SampleSkilled has the ability to collect lots of marketing-type data about you (your ip address, what is a web-page you are viewing now, what you are looking for on the World Wide Web, which links you are clicking), which can later transfer to third parties. So, we recommend you remove it ASAP. This will also prevent the adware from tracking your online activities. A full SampleSkilled removal can be easily carried out using manual or automatic solution listed below.

How does SampleSkilled get on your computer

Adware actively distributed with free apps, together with the installer of these applications. Therefore, it is very important, when installing an unknown application even downloaded from well-known website, read the Terms of use and the Software license, as well as to select the Manual, Advanced or Custom setup option. In this mode, you can disable the installation of unneeded web-browser add-ons and apps and protect your machine from adware software.

Threat Summary

Name	SampleSkilled, SampleSkilled 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, ApplicUnwnt, Adware/Adload!OSX, OSX.Trojan.Gen and Program:MacOS/Vigram.A
Distribution	Freeware installers, fake update tools, misleading pop up ads and torrent downloads
Symptoms	Your web browser is redirected to webpages you did not want, advertising banners appear on web sites that you are visiting, new entries appear in your Applications folder, new icons on your desktop, your web browser home page has replaced and you are unable to change it back, speed test good but internet slow.
Removal	SampleSkilled removal guide

How to remove SampleSkilled from Mac device

Fortunately, we have an effective method that will help you manually or/and automatically remove SampleSkilled from your browser and bring your web-browser settings, including newtab, default search provider and home page, back to normal. Below you’ll find a removal tutorial with all the steps you may need to successfully get rid of adware and its traces. 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 restart your machine.

To remove SampleSkilled, use the following steps:

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

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

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

In System Preferences, click Profiles, then select a profile related to SampleSkilled.

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.

Remove SampleSkilled associated software by using the Finder

Check the list of installed programs on your Mac device and uninstall all unknown and recently installed software. If you see an unknown program with incorrect spelling or varying capital letters, it have most likely been installed by malware and you should clean it off first with malware removal tool such as MalwareBytes Free.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

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

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

Remove SampleSkilled related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SampleSkilled 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

We suggest using MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) to scan the Mac for adware software, PUPs and browser hijackers. This free utility is an advanced malicious software removal application designed by (c) Malwarebytes lab. This application uses the world’s most popular anti malware technology. It’s able to help you delete ransomware and other security threats from your Mac for free.

1. Installing the MalwareBytes Free is simple. First you will need to download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) on your Microsoft Windows Desktop from the link below.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20984 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. Once the downloading process is complete, close all software and windows on your MAC OS. Open a file location. Run the downloaded file and follow the prompts.
3. Press the “Scan” button . MalwareBytes AntiMalware program will scan through the whole computer for the SampleSkilled adware. A scan may take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your MAC OS and the speed of your Apple Mac. While the utility is scanning, you may see how many objects and files has already scanned.
4. Once the scan is complete, MalwareBytes will open a list of found items. Make sure to check mark the threats that are unsafe and then press “Quarantine”.

Remove SampleSkilled from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you are still seeing SampleSkilled that won’t go away, you might have harmful extensions installed on your browser. Check your browser for unwanted addons using the steps below.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top-right corner, expand the Google Chrome menu. 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 delete SampleSkilled 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 SampleSkilled 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

It is important to use ad-blocking programs such as AdGuard to protect your MAC OS from harmful web-sites. Most security experts says that it’s okay to stop advertisements. You should do so just to stay safe! And, of course, the AdGuard can to block misleading and other unwanted websites.

Download AdGuard on your machine by clicking on the following link.

After the downloading process is done, run the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.

Each time, when you launch your Apple Mac, AdGuard will run automatically and stop unwanted ads, block malicious and misleading web-pages.

To sum up

Now your computer should be clean of the SampleSkilled adware. We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) (to periodically scan your MAC system for new adware softwares and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you stop annoying pop ups and malicious webpages). Moreover, to prevent any adware, please stay clear of unknown and third party applications.

If you need more help with SampleSkilled related issues, go to here.