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

What is OfficialDesign

OfficialDesign is an adware application that targets Mac computers. Adware is not as dangerous as such as a Trojan horse or Ransomware, but its presence can bring various pop up windows and/or unwanted adverts. Actually authors of adware is associated with some third-party ad networks and by showing adverts to users they earn profit for yourself. These adverts not only bother your browsing experience but also redirect your web-browser to unsafe and scam pages.

Does adware steal your confidential information? Adware can analyze the location and which Internet web pages you visit, and then present ads to the types of content, goods or services featured there. Adware creators can collect and sell your browsing information and behavior to third parties.

How does OfficialDesign get on your machine

Adware commonly comes on MAC computers with freeware. Most commonly, it comes without the user’s knowledge. Therefore, many users aren’t even aware that their machine has been infected by potentially unwanted software and adware. Please follow the easy rules in order to protect your computer from adware and potentially unwanted apps: don’t install any suspicious software, read the user agreement and choose only the Custom, Manual or Advanced install mode, don’t rush to click the Next button. Also, always try to find a review of the program on the World Wide Web. Be careful and attentive!

Threat Summary

Name	OfficialDesign, OfficialDesign 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Adware.MAC.Generic, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Adware/Adload!OSX, MacOS.Agent-MT, ApplicUnwnt and Program:MacOS/Vigram.A
Distribution	Freeware installers, fake software updaters, misleading popup ads and torrent downloads
Symptoms	You keep getting redirected to suspicious websites, advertising banners appear in places they shouldn’t be, your MAC starts automatically installing unexpected programs, unwanted web-browser addons or toolbars keep coming back, unwanted changes in your web-browser such as using a new default search engine, low ping but slow Internet.
Removal	OfficialDesign removal guide

How to Remove OfficialDesign adware (removal guidance)

There present several free adware removal tools. Also it is possible to delete OfficialDesign manually. But we advise to combine all these methods below into the one removal algorithm. Follow the steps of the guidance. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to exit your web-browser or restart your MAC.

To remove OfficialDesign, follow the steps below:

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

Remove profiles created by OfficialDesign

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

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

Remove OfficialDesign associated software by using the Finder

In the next step, you need to check the list of installed programs on your Mac computer and remove all unused, unknown and dubious software.

1. Open the Finder.
2. Click “Applications”.
3. It will open a list of all apps installed on the Apple Mac.
4. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall dubious and unknown apps. Pay maximum attention to the program you installed last.
5. Drag the suspicious program from the Applications folder to the Trash.
6. Empty Trash.

Remove OfficialDesign related files and folders

Now you need to try to find OfficialDesign 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.

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

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

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

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

Check for OfficialDesign 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 OfficialDesign 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.OfficialDesign.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.search.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist and com.macsearch.system.plist. In most cases, browser hijackers, adware and PUPs 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 OfficialDesign. Of course, very often adware software, browser hijackers and PUPs hides on a Mac device, 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 use MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to scan the Mac.

Download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) on your MAC from the link below.

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

Once install is finished, you will see window as displayed below.

Now click the “Scan” button to scan for OfficialDesign adware software. While the MalwareBytes Anti-Malware application is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.

When MalwareBytes AntiMalware completes the scan, MalwareBytes Free will show a list of all items found by the scan. All found threats will be marked. You can remove them all by simply click “Quarantine” button.

The Malwarebytes will now delete OfficialDesign adware and move the selected threats to the program’s quarantine.

Remove OfficialDesign from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you are still getting OfficialDesign , then you can try to remove it by removing malicious extensions.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top-right corner, expand the Chrome menu. 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 OfficialDesign 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 OfficialDesign adware 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 also critical to protect your web browsers from harmful websites and advertisements by using an ad-blocker application such as AdGuard. Security experts says that it’ll greatly reduce the risk of malware, and potentially save lots of money. Additionally, the AdGuard can also protect your privacy by blocking almost all trackers.

Visit the following page to download AdGuard.

After the download is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.

Each time, when you launch your machine, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop unwanted popups, block harmful and misleading websites.

To sum up

Now your MAC should be free of the OfficialDesign adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop up ads and annoying malicious web-pages) and MalwareBytes AntiMalware (to periodically scan your MAC system for new malware, browser hijackers and adware). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac operating system. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijackers, harmful apps and adware are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to get rid of OfficialDesign from your web browser, then ask for help here.