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

What is DeployUpdater

DeployUpdater is an Adware application that targets Apple computers. Adware is a form of malicious software that is designed to display constant pop ups and/or annoying advertising using intrusive and at times dangerous ways. Adware can also include other forms of malicious software. It can steal user info from the machine and pass it on to third parties. Adware has also been the basis for hacking to gain access to the MAC.

DeployUpdater can show constant pop ups, fake alerts, push notifications and unwanted ads, redirect your browser to scam webpages; slow down your MAC; modify web browser settings. Even worse, it can collect personal info, including:

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

The instructions below explaining steps to get rid of DeployUpdater. Feel free to use it for removal of the adware that can attack Safari, Firefox and Chrome and other popular internet browsers. The steps will help you uninstall the adware and get rid of unwanted advertisements.

How does DeployUpdater get on your machine

Adware usually gets on Apple computers together with certain free apps that users download off of the World Wide Web. So, think back, have you ever download and run any free software. In order to avoid adware infection, in the Setup wizard, you should be be proactive and carefully read the ‘Terms of use’, the ‘license agreement’ and other installation screens, as well as to always choose the ‘Manual’ or ‘Advanced’ install mode, when installing anything downloaded from the World Wide Web.

Threat Summary

Name	DeployUpdater
Type	adware software, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	OSX.Trojan.Gen, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware/Adload!OSX, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Adware.MAC.Generic and ApplicUnwnt
Distribution	Free software installers, shady pop-up ads, fake software updaters and torrent downloads
Symptoms	The website links redirect to a web-sites different from what you expected, popups and new tabs are loaded without your request, new entries appear in your Applications folder, unwanted web browser extensions or toolbars keep coming back, unwanted changes in your web browser such as displaying new tabs you did not open, slow Internet or slow browsing.
Removal	DeployUpdater removal guide

How to remove DeployUpdater

There exist several free adware software removal tools. Also it is possible to get rid of DeployUpdater manually. But we suggest to combine all these ways below into the one removal algorithm. Follow the steps of the instructions. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to exit your internet browser or restart your MAC.

To remove DeployUpdater, execute the following steps:

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

Remove profiles created by DeployUpdater

DeployUpdater 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 DeployUpdater.

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

Remove DeployUpdater associated software by using the Finder

Some of browser hijackers, PUPs and adware can be removed using the Move to Trash utility which may be found in the Finder. So, if you’re running any version of Mac OS and you have noticed an unwanted application, then first try to get rid of it through the Finder.

Make sure you have closed all internet browsers and other apps. Next, remove any unwanted and suspicious applications from MAC OS using the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Look around the entire list of software installed on your machine. Most likely, one of them is the DeployUpdater adware software. Choose the questionable program or the program that name is not familiar to you and delete it.

Drag the questionable program from the Applications folder to the Trash.

Most important, don’t forget, select Finder -> Empty Trash.

Remove DeployUpdater related files and folders

Now you need to try to find DeployUpdater 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.

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

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

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

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

Check for DeployUpdater 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 DeployUpdater 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.installapp.system.plist, com.search.system.plist, com.DeployUpdater.system.plist and com.machelper.system.plist. In most cases, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs 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 get rid of DeployUpdater. Of course, very often adware software, potentially unwanted programs and browser hijackers 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 adware, potentially unwanted programs and browser hijackers. Therefore, we recommend you to run MalwareBytes to scan the Mac device.

Installing the MalwareBytes Free is simple. First you will need to download MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) on your machine from the following link.

When the downloading process is done, close all windows on your MAC. Further, run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

The MalwareBytes AntiMalware will automatically start and you can see its main window as displayed in the figure below.

Next, press the “Scan Now” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the DeployUpdater adware software. This procedure can take quite a while, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes is checking, you can see count of objects it has identified either as being malicious software.

Once the scan is finished, you can check all threats found on your machine. Review the scan results and then click the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes AntiMalware will remove DeployUpdater adware software and move the selected threats to the Quarantine.

Remove DeployUpdater from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Annoying DeployUpdater adware or other symptoms of adware in your web-browser is a good reason to find and delete harmful extensions. This is an easy method to restore internet browsers settings and not lose any important information.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top-right corner, expand the 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 remove DeployUpdater 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 issues with DeployUpdater 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

We recommend to install an ad blocking program. The ad blocker tool such as AdGuard is a application which basically removes advertising from the Net and stops access to malicious web sites. Moreover, security experts says that using adblocker apps is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Web.

Download AdGuard by clicking on the link below.

When the download is finished, 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 click “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you run your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop annoying popup advertisements, block malicious and misleading webpages.

Finish words

We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted popups and unwanted malicious web-pages) and MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your MAC OS for new adware softwares and other malware).

If you are still having problems while trying to get rid of DeployUpdater adware from the Safari, Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, then ask for help here here.