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

What is ActiveProgram

According to security experts, ActiveProgram is an Adware application that targets Mac platform. Adware is type of malware that can cause issues for your Mac. It can generate numerous additional pop-up, banner, pop-under and in-text link ads flooding on your internet browser; gather your confidential information like login details, online searches, etc; run in the background and drag down your computer running speed; give more chances for other adware, potentially unwanted apps even malicious software to get on your machine.

Does ActiveProgram steal your privacy data? The adware can gather and transmit personal info without your knowledge. It can be used to track information about webpages visited, internet browser and system information, and your MAC IP address.

How does ActiveProgram get on your machine

Adware comes bundled with various free software. This means that you need to be very careful when installing software downloaded from the Internet, even from well-known download sites. Be sure to read the Terms of Use and the Software license, choose only the Manual, Advanced or Custom installation type, switch off all bundled modules and apps are offered to install.

Threat Summary

Name	ActiveProgram
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, ApplicUnwnt, Adware.MAC.Generic, Adware/Adload!OSX, OSX.Trojan.Gen and MacOS.Agent-MT
Distribution	Free software installers, torrent downloads, dubious pop up ads and fake software updaters
Symptoms	When you go to a website, you’re often redirected to another web site that you do not intend to visit, internet browser popups appear and recommend fake security software, unwanted application installed without your say-so, an unwanted toolbar appears in your web browser, your web-browser start page has modified and you cannot change it back, low ping but slow Internet.
Removal	ActiveProgram removal guide

How to Remove ActiveProgram adware (removal steps)

Fortunately, we’ve an effective method which will help you manually or/and automatically remove ActiveProgram from your web browser and bring your web browser settings, including search provider, homepage and new tab page, back to normal. Below you will find a removal guide with all the steps you may need to successfully delete the 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 reboot your MAC.

To remove ActiveProgram, use the steps below:

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

Remove profiles created by ActiveProgram

ActiveProgram can install a configuration profile on the Mac 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 the System Preferences icon ( ) in the Dock, or choose Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, click Profiles, then select a profile associated with ActiveProgram.

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, which is normal.

Delete ActiveProgram associated software by using the Finder

In order to remove ActiveProgram you need to do is to remove unknown and suspicious programs from your MAC system using the Finder. When deleting browser hijackers, adware software and potentially unwanted programs, check the list of installed apps and try to find questionable programs and delete them all. Pay special attention to recently installed programs, as it’s most probably that ActiveProgram сame along with it.

Open Finder and click “Applications” as shown on the screen below.

You will see a list of apps installed on your MAC system. We recommend to pay maximum attention to the program you installed last. Most probably, it is the ActiveProgram . If you are in doubt, you can always check the program by doing a search for her name in Google, Yahoo or Bing.

When the program which you need to delete is found, simply right click on its name, and select “Move to Trash”.

Don’t forget, select Finder, then “Empty Trash”.

Remove ActiveProgram related files and folders

Now you need to try to find ActiveProgram 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.

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

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

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

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

Check for ActiveProgram 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 ActiveProgram 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.search.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist and com.ActiveProgram.system.plist. In most cases, adware software, PUPs 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 get rid of ActiveProgram. Of course, very often adware, 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 browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs and adware software. Therefore, we suggest you to use MalwareBytes Free to scan the Mac.

Please go to the following link to download MalwareBytes Free.

Once downloading is done, close all apps and windows on your machine. Run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

The MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) will automatically start and you can see its main screen as displayed on the screen below.

Now click the “Scan” button to start checking your machine for the ActiveProgram adware. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your MAC. While the MalwareBytes Free program is checking, you may see how many objects it has identified as threat.

When MalwareBytes AntiMalware is complete scanning your machine, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will show you the results. Make sure all threats have ‘checkmark’ and press the “Quarantine” button. The MalwareBytes Anti Malware will remove ActiveProgram adware software and move the selected threats to the program’s quarantine.

Remove ActiveProgram from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Annoying ActiveProgram or other symptoms of adware in your internet browser is a good reason to find and get rid of malicious extensions. This is an easy way to recover internet browsers settings and not lose any important information.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right hand corner, click on ‘three vertical dots’, and this will open up the main menu on Google 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 ActiveProgram 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 ActiveProgram 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

We suggest to install an ad blocking application. The ad blocker tool such as AdGuard is a program that basically removes advertising from the World Wide Web and blocks access to malicious web pages. Moreover, security experts says that using ad blocker apps is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Internet.

Download AdGuard from the link below.

After the downloading process 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 press “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your Apple Mac, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted ads, block harmful and misleading websites.

To sum up

We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (to periodically scan your computer for new adwares and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you stop annoying advertisements and harmful webpages). Moreover, to prevent any adware, please stay clear of unknown and third party software.

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