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My wife recently needed to install Adobe Reader for some of her work (apparently there is some kind of interactive functionality that Preview doesn't support) and in the process managed to install some adware as well.

I am trying to uninstall it, but cannot figure out how. All the guides I have found talk about how to uninstall it from various PC OS versions, but don't mention Mac.

At the moment there is one extension which shows up under Firefox on her account only: "Shopping Helper Pro 0.95.29", as well as a plug-in "Coupons Inc., Coupon Printing Plugin 1.1.0" which (for some reason) shows up both on her account and mine as well.

The problem is, I have disabled both of them in Firefox, but I cannot figure out how to actually install them. Supposedly an extension should have a "Remove" button" to uninstall it, but no such button appears. Plug-ins are said to have their own uninstallers, but I can't find one anywhere.

I am also concerned about whether these unwanted programs have confined themselves to just Firefox, or could be lurking in other places.

How can I completely remove all traces of both of these, or in general any kind of mistakenly installed (b)adware? It doesn't seem to be as simple as uninstalling an application where I can just drag a folder to the trash. Is there somewhere I can look (under System Preferences maybe, or another system application) to find and remark this junk?

Update: I discovered that the firefox config entry "plugin.expose_full_path=true" will let me see the full path to add-ons in about:plugins. In my case I found the offending plug-in in /Library/Internet Plug-ins and trashed it. However, I have not yet located the extension. It was not found in ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/[profile name]/extensions.

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  • I don't think the crapware came from Adobe. Adobe always has a optional McAfee scanner download that you have to watch for and uncheck with every update. However I've never had adobe downloads install anything else. On the other hand a family members computer did get both of those before, but I never understood what she accepted to get them, and she's pretty hyper-vigilante against letting things install.
    – Tyson
    Sep 23, 2014 at 11:35
  • It depends on the source. While Adobe is pretty good about not stuffing junk onto the system, downloading from download.cnet.com or Softonic is an invitation for the proprietary installer to add all manner of stuff. Alas and alack. :(
    – Trane Francks
    Sep 24, 2014 at 7:40

1 Answer 1

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The best tool I know of for removing adware from a Mac is AdwareMedic:

http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php

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  • strangely, that found a Genieo installer package, but not any of the extensions/add-ons I was trying to remove.
    – Michael
    Sep 24, 2014 at 1:15
  • You might also want to drop by clamxav.com and give that a shot at looking at the system. While that is more malware/antivirus-oriented, it may uncover unwanted stuff. I hope you can get it all sorted!
    – Trane Francks
    Sep 24, 2014 at 7:42

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