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

What is BrowserLaptop

BrowserLaptop is an adware application that targets Apple computers. By definition, adware is a piece of software that displays advertisements on a computer. However, people basically use the word ‘adware’ to describe a type of malicious software that displays unwanted ads to the user. Adware software can display banner ads, full-screen advertisements, popups, videos, push notifications, or other varieties of online ads. Most commonly, adware software do not have any uninstall procedures and can use technologies that are similar to those used by malicious software to penetrate Apple computers.

Does adware steal your personal data? BrowserLaptop is able to gather marketing-type data about you such as what web sites you are opening, what you are looking for the World Wide Web and so on. This personal data, afterwards, may be sold to third party companies.

Adware is usually written in ways common to malicious software, spyware and browser hijackers. In order to get rid of the adware, you will need execute the following steps or use free adware removal tool listed below.

How does BrowserLaptop get on your Apple Mac

In most cases, adware gets onto MAC computers by being attached to the setup files from file sharing and torrents websites. So, install freeware is a a good chance that you will find a bundled adware. If you don’t know how to avoid it, then use a simple trick. During the setup, select the Custom or Advanced setup type. Next, press ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install optional applications. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any software.

Threat Summary

Name	BrowserLaptop
Type	adware software, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Adware.MAC.Generic, Adware/Adload!OSX, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, MacOS.Agent-MT, OSX.Trojan.Gen and ApplicUnwnt
Distribution	Freeware installers, dubious pop-up advertisements, torrent downloads and fake update tools
Symptoms	You keep getting redirected to unfamiliar webpages, pop-up ads won’t go away, there is an unwanted program in the ‘Applications’ section of the Finder, new icons on your desktop, unexpected changes in your browser like displaying new tabs you didn’t open, speed test good but internet slow.
Removal	BrowserLaptop removal guide

How to remove BrowserLaptop from Mac

Fortunately, it is not hard to remove BrowserLaptop. In the following guide, we will provide two methods to uninstall this adware. One is the manual removal method and the other is automatic removal method. You can select the method that best fits you. Please follow the removal instructions below to remove BrowserLaptop adware software right now!

To remove BrowserLaptop, execute the steps below:

1. Remove profiles created by BrowserLaptop
2. Check the list of installed programs
3. Remove BrowserLaptop related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove BrowserLaptop from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove profiles created by BrowserLaptop

BrowserLaptop 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 associated with BrowserLaptop.

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 device, which is normal.

Check the list of installed programs

Some of PUPs, adware and browser hijackers can be uninstalled using the Move to Trash utility which is located in the Finder. So, if you’re using any version of Mac OS and you have noticed an unwanted program, then first try to delete it through the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Carefully browse through the list of installed apps and get rid of all dubious and unknown software.

Once you have found anything questionable that may be the BrowserLaptop adware or other potentially unwanted program, then right click this program and select “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.

Remove BrowserLaptop related files and folders

Now you need to try to find BrowserLaptop 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.

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

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

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

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

Check for BrowserLaptop 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 BrowserLaptop 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.installapp.system.plist, com.search.system.plist, com.BrowserLaptop.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist and com.machelper.system.plist. In most cases, adware software, potentially unwanted programs 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 BrowserLaptop. Of course, very often PUPs, adware software and browser hijackers hides on a Mac, 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, browser hijackers and PUPs. Therefore, we advise you to use MalwareBytes to scan the Mac device.

MalwareBytes can be downloaded from the following link.

When the downloading process is finished, close all applications and windows on your computer. Run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

The MalwareBytes AntiMalware will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown in the following example.

Now press the “Scan” button for scanning your computer for the BrowserLaptop . This process can take some time, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes AntiMalware utility is scanning, you can see number of objects it has identified as being affected by malware.

After finished, it will open the Scan Results. Review the results once the utility has complete the system scan. If you think an entry should not be quarantined, then uncheck it. Otherwise, simply press the “Quarantine” button. The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will start to get rid of BrowserLaptop adware.

Remove BrowserLaptop from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Annoying BrowserLaptop adware or other symptoms of adware software in your browser is a good reason to find and remove harmful addons. This is an easy method to recover web-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. Select ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove BrowserLaptop adware software 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 BrowserLaptop 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’s important to use ad blocking apps like AdGuard to protect your MAC system from harmful webpages. Most security experts says that it is okay to block ads. You should do so just to stay safe! And, of course, the AdGuard can to block misleading and other unwanted web sites.

1. Installing the AdGuard is simple. First you’ll need to download AdGuard on your MAC from the following link.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3686 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. After downloading is finished, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. After the install is done, click “Skip” to close the installation program 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, AdGuard will run automatically and stop intrusive advertisements, block malicious and misleading webpages.

To sum up

We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop-up ads and annoying harmful websites) and MalwareBytes AntiMalware (to periodically scan your MAC OS for new adwares and other malicious software).

If you are still having problems while trying to delete BrowserLaptop ads from the Safari, Chrome and Firefox, then ask for help here.