How To Remove MicroLookup Adware From Mac OS

Complete Guideline To Delete MicroLookup

MicroLookup is a notorious computer infection that causes issues with the internet speed and Mac users’ online activities. It’s a nasty adware that also includes traits of browser hijackers and manages to change the search engine, home page, new tab settings and other preferences on the browser. The aim of this nasty adware is to penetrate various systems and inject advertisements, sponsored content on the search results list. This is how users get exposed to malicious and possibly dangerous online content. It’s not a destructive computer virus, but there are many issues that advertisers, third-party companies, PUP distributors, content creators can trigger.

Depth Analysis of MicroLookup:

The main function of MicroLookup is to serve intrusive advertisements to its victims. It displays ads of various types such as coupons, banners, deals, offers, discounts etc. and tries to make people click on them in order to earn revenues via pay-per-click mechanism. Clicking on these adverts however may take you to potentially dangerous sites that are fully occupied with malevolent contents. This perilous hijacker does not use its own search engine but rather redirects all results to Yahoo. This behavior is very typical for browser hijacking apps as they generally use a genuine search provider for outcomes.

Nonetheless, results generated by MicroLookup search tool are far from being legitimate, as there are several sponsored links and ads injected into them.  As a result, the affected people have to visit websites they often don’t want to. With each redirection of the users on affiliated domains, the PUP creators earn commission in the meantime from the site owners. Another major symptom of this adware is its data tracking abilities. This malware gathers the technical details, search queries, visited pages, IP address, ISP, geolocation and other data to serve personalized advertisements.

MicroLookup can also steal your personal and confidential information relating to credit card and banking details and expose them to cyber crooks for evil motives. Scammers can misuse your sensitive details for deceptive transaction or purchases that might lead to severe privacy issues, identity theft and huge financial loss for you. It eats up enormous amount of memory resources and slows down the overall computer performance drastically. It causes the machine to respond in a very slow manner and take more than usual time to complete any task. And therefore, a quick MicroLookup removal is highly required.

Summarize Information

Name: MicroLookup 

Type: Mac virus, adware, Potentially unwanted program

Short Description: Displays intrusive ads and pop-ups, makes change to default browser’s settings, Redirects Mac users to affiliated sites, promotes sponsored products, services and programs and make online revenues for the creators.

Symptoms: Tons of annoying ads, home page, search engine, new tab settings, Fake pop-up messages, identity theft. Users are enforced to visit hijacker’s website and search the Internet using their search engines, slowness of infected system’s performance.

Distribution methods: Free software installers (bundling), Deceptive emails, malicious pop-ups ads, fake flash player installers.

Damage: Web browsing tracking (potential privacy issues), exhibition of unwanted ads, redirects to shady websites.

Removal: To get rid of this infection and other malware threats, our security researchers recommend scanning your device with an effective anti-malware tool is recommended.

Penetration of MicroLookup:

If you wonder how a PUP enters your system out of nowhere, you should check the apps you have installed in recent times. In most cases, adware, browser hijackers and other unwanted threats are bundled into a single software package. App developers make a considerable amount of effort in order to make people not notice optional components during the installation. This is because they use the pay-per-install monetization principle which means, the more users install the advertised programs, the more revenue is generated.

Tips To Prevent Adware Intrusion:

And therefore, it is vital to stay watchful during the installation of applications, especially those downloaded from third-party sites. Once the installation wizard is executed, you must read through each step carefully without missing any of them. It is also important to always select the Advanced or Custom mode instead of the Quick or Recommended ones if prompted and remove all the ticks from pre-ticked checkboxes. In case your computer is already infected with this PUP, you must remove MicroLookup from the Mac system without wasting any time.

Remove Files and Folders Related to MicroLookup

Open the “Menu” bar and click the “Finder” icon. Select “Go” and click on “Go to Folder…”

Step 1: Search the suspicious and doubtful malware generated files in /Library/LaunchAgents folder

Type /Library/LaunchAgents in the “Go to Folder” option

In the “Launch Agent” folder, search for all the files that you have recently downloaded and move them to “Trash”. Few of the examples of files created by browser-hijacker or adware are as follow, “myppes.download.plist”, “mykotlerino.Itvbit.plist”, installmac.AppRemoval.plist”, and “kuklorest.update.plist” and so on.

Step 2: Detect and remove the files generated by the adware in “/Library/Application” Support folder

In the “Go to Folder..bar”, type “/Library/Application Support”

Search for any suspicious newly added folders in “Application Support” folder. If you detect any one of these like “NicePlayer” or “MPlayerX” then send them to “Trash” folder.

Step 3: Look for the files generated by malware in /Library/LaunchAgent Folder:

Go to Folder bar and type /Library/LaunchAgents

You are in the “LaunchAgents” folder. Here, you have to search for all the newly added files and move them to “Trash” if you find them suspicious. Some of the examples of suspicious files generated by malware are “myppes.download.plist”, “installmac.AppRemoved.plist”, “kuklorest.update.plist”, “mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist” and so on.

Step4: Go to /Library/LaunchDaemons Folder and search for the files created by malware

Type /Library/LaunchDaemons in the “Go To Folder” option

In the newly opened “LaunchDaemons” folder, search for any recently added suspicious files and move them to “Trash”. Examples of some of the suspicious files are “com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist”, “com.avickUpd.plist”, “com.myppes.net-preference.plist”, “com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist” and so on.

Step 5: Use Combo Cleaner Anti-Malware and Scan your Mac PC

The malware infections could be removed from the Mac PC if you execute all the steps mentioned above in the correct way. However, it is always advised to be sure that your PC is not infected. It is suggested to scan the work-station with “Combo Cleaner Anti-virus”.

Once the file gets downloaded, double click on combocleaner.dmg installer in the newly opened window. Next is to open the “Launchpad” and press on “Combo Cleaner” icon. It is advised to wait until “Combo Cleaner” updates the latest definition for malware detection. Click on “Start Combo Scan” button.

A depth scan of your Mac PC will be executed in order to detect malware. If the Anti-virus scan report says “no threat found” then you can continue with guide further. On the other hand, it is recommended to delete the detected malware infection before continuing.

Now the files and folders created by the adware is removed, you have to remove the rogue extensions from the browsers.

Remove MicroLookup from Internet Browsers

Delete Doubtful and Malicious Extension from Safari

Go to “Menu Bar” and open “Safari” browser. Select “Safari” and then “Preferences”

In the opened “preferences” window, select “Extensions” that you have recently installed. All such extensions should be detected and click the “Uninstall” button next to it. If you are doubtful then you can remove all the extensions from “Safari” browser as none of them are important for smooth functionality of the browser.

In case if you continue facing unwanted webpage redirections or aggressive advertisements bombarding, you can reset the “Safari” browser.

“Reset Safari”

Open the Safari menu and choose “preferences…” from the drop-down menu.

Go to the “Extension” tab and set the extension slider to “Off” position. This disables all the installed extensions in the Safari browser

Next step is to check the homepage. Go to “Preferences…” option and choose “General” tab. Change the homepage to your preferred URL.

Also check the default search-engine provider settings. Go to “Preferences…” window and select the “Search” tab and select the search-engine provider that you want such as “Google”.

Next is to clear the Safari browser Cache- Go to “Preferences…” window and select “Advanced” tab and click on “Show develop menu in the menu bar.“

Go to “Develop” menu and select “Empty Caches”.

Remove website data and browsing history. Go to “Safari” menu and select “Clear History and Website Data”. Choose “all history” and then click on “Clear History”.

Remove Unwanted and Malicious Plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox

Delete MicroLookup add-ons from Mozilla Firefox

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser. Click on the “Open Menu” present in the top right corner of the screen. From the newly opened menu, choose “Add-ons”.

Go to “Extension” option and detect all the latest installed add-ons. Select each of the suspicious add-ons and click on “Remove” button next to them.

In case if you want to “reset” the Mozilla Firefox browser then follow the steps that has been mentioned below.

Reset Mozilla Firefox Settings

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser and click on “Firefox” button situated at the top left corner of the screen.

In the new menu, go to “Help” sub-menu and choose “Troubleshooting Information”

In the “Troubleshooting Information” page, click on “Reset Firefox” button.

Confirm that you want to reset the Mozilla Firefox settings to default by pressing on “Reset Firefox” option

The browser will get restarted and the settings changes to factory default

Delete Unwanted and Malicious Extensions from Google Chrome

Open the chrome browser and click on “Chrome menu”. From the drop down option, choose “More Tools” and then “Extensions”.

In the “Extensions” option, search for all the recently installed add-ons and extensions. Select them and choose “Trash” button. Any third-party extension is not important for the smooth functionality of the browser.

Reset Google Chrome Settings

Open the browser and click on three line bar at the top right side corner of the window.

Go to the bottom of the newly opened window and select “Show advanced settings”.

In the newly opened window, scroll down to the bottom and choose “Reset browser settings”

Click on the “Reset” button on the opened “Reset browser settings” window

Restart the browser and the changes you get will be applied

The above mentioned manual process should be executed as it is mentioned. It is a cumbersome process and requires a lot of technical expertise. And hence it is advised for technical experts only. To be sure that your PC is free from malware, it is better that you scan the work-station with a powerful anti-malware tool. The automatic malware removal application is preferred because it doesn’t requires any additional technical skills and expertise.

Download the application and execute it on the PC to begin the depth scanning. Once the scanning gets completed, it shows the list of all the files related to MicroLookup. You can select such harmful files and folders and remove them immediately.