Focus Ahead Mac

 

Focus Ahead

Focus Ahead is a browser-attacking malware app with the ability to change the homepage of the browser and inject ads in the search results. Focus Ahead does not belong in your browser and the longer it stays there, the higher the chance of your Mac getting exposed to bigger threats.

Focus Ahead

Not everything that can be added to your browser as an extension, as an add-on or as some other extra component is guaranteed to be useful and helpful. In fact, there are many useless tools for browsers that hardly ever benefit their users in any way. In fact, some of them may even be actively making the user’s browsing experience worse in one way or another. Such are the representatives of the browser hijacker family of software. In general, those are apps suited for Safari, Chrome, Firefox and other popular browsers and typically have the appearance of regular browser extensions. However, the thing that sets them apart from most other browser add-ons is their overall intrusive behavior. This behavior may include anything from the generation of sudden page-redirects and obstructive ads to the unauthorized replacement of the main browser’s homepage, search engine, new-tab page, toolbar buttons and so on. In some cases, whether a given app is a browser hijacker or not is a matter of each user’s individual point of view – a software component that some may find useful, others may regard as nothing but annoying and unwanted.

Focus Ahead for Mac

Focus Ahead for Mac is a Mac-compatible browser hijacker that will take over the main browser on your Mac and trigger unwanted page-redirects and ad generation. Most apps like Focus Ahead for Mac are not inherently dangerous but could still end up creating potential security weaknesses.

When it comes to the main focus of this article, the browser-hijacking add-on app named Focus Ahead, most users and software security experts agree that it is indeed a browser hijacker. It possesses all the typical traits of such an app and pretty much everyone who has had it installed in their computer wishes they could now get it removed. As we said, this type of software components are infamous for their invasive ads generation and unwanted (and oftentimes unauthorized) modifications in the browser.

What is Focus Ahead?

Focus Ahead is a special type of unwanted software that can only work from inside a browser and is mostly used for promoting certain sites through aggressive automatic page-redirects. The presence of Focus Ahead on your browser can heavily obstruct your regular browsing activities.

What further adds to the irritation is the fact you typically cannot impose any control on what a hijacker such as this one does. You aren’t given much control over the advertising activities of the app and if you try to bring back your old browser settings, you are likely going to find out that the hijacker has re-introduced its changes to your browser the next time you open it. Naturally, the only viable option in such a situation is to get rid of everything that may be related to Focus Ahead or Stateful Firewall so that it stops bothering you. We will help you with that inside the removal guide for Focus Ahead which we have prepared for our readers.

The FocusAhead app

The FocusAhead app is a page-redirecting software designed to draw more visits to certain sites by aggressively redirecting the users’ traffic to those sites. The FocusAhead app may also look into your browsing history to learn about your preferences and then show you ads that match them.

There is actually a rather widespread misconception with regards to the purpose and nature of the apps like Focus Ahead Virus. Many actually see them as highly dangerous programs used for malicious and criminal activities and think of them as threats similar to Trojan Horses or money-extortion malware such as Ransomware cryptoviruses. However, this is far from reality – a hijacker is nowhere near as threatening as a cryptovirus of the Ransomware category, nor can it cause harm to your system in the way that a Trojan Horse infection could. Yet, we are definitely of the opinion that it is still safer (and more practically efficient) to uninstall Focus Ahead if it’s in your system. There’s no need for it to be there and for you to put up with its shenanigans and also its advertising messages, clickbaits, pop-ups and banners may sometimes not be all that safe to interact with.

SUMMARY:

NameFocus Ahead
Type Browser Hijacker
Danger LevelMedium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms You may start to experience automatic redirects to different sponsored sites full of nagging ads and pop-ups.
Distribution MethodSpam and software bundling are common distribution methods for most browser hijackers. 
Detection Tool

Remove Focus Ahead virus from Mac

For a quick way to remove Focus Ahead try to do this inside your Mac browser:

  1. Open your Mac browser.
  2. Go to Preferences.
  3. Now navigate to the extensions sub-menu.
  4. Look for any unfamiliar entries, including Focus Ahead.
  5. Remove Focus Ahead from your Mac as well as any other suspicious-looking items by clicking on the trash bin icon.

If this does not help then continue reading this article for more detailed instructions on how to get rid of Focus Ahead!

Step1

The first thing you need to do is to Quit Safari (if it is opened). If you have trouble closing it normally, you may need to Force Quit Safari:

You can choose the Apple menu and click on Force Quit.

Alternatively, you can simultaneously press (the Command key situated next to the space bar), Option (the key right next to it) and Escape (the key located at the upper left corner of your keyboard).

If you have done it right a dialog box titled Force Quit Applications will open up.

In this new dialog window select Safari, then press the Force Quit button, then confirm with Force Quit again.

Close the dialog box/window.

Step2

WARNING! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING!

Start Activity Monitor by opening up Finder, then proceed to activity-monitor

Once there, look at all the processes: if you believe any of them are hijacking your results, or are part of the problem, highlight the process with your mouse, then click the “i” button at the top. This will open up the following box:

chromeinfo

Now click on Sample at the bottom:

chromesample

Do this for all processes you believe are part of the threat, and run any suspicious files in our online virus scanner, then delete the malicious files:

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    Step3

    The next step is to safely launch Safari again. Press and hold the Shift key while relaunching Safari. This will prevent Safari’s previously opened pages from loading again. Once Safari is opened up, you can release the Shift key.

    On the off chance that you are still having trouble with scripts interrupting the closing of unwanted pages in Safari, you may need to take some additional measures.

    First, Force Quit Safari again.

    Now if you are using a Wi-Fi connection turn it off by selecting Wi-Fi off in you Mac’s Menu. If you are using a cable internet (Ethernet connection), disconnect the Ethernet cable.

    Step4

    Re-Launch Safari but don’t forget to press and hold the Shift button while doing it, so no previous pages can be opened up. Now, Click on Preferences in the Safari menu,

    Preferences in Safari

    and then again on the Extensions tab,

    extensions in safari

    Select and Uninstall any extensions that you don’t recognize by clicking on the Uninstall button. If you are not sure and don’t want to take any risks you can safely uninstall all extensions, none are required for normal system operation.
    Step5

    The threat has likely infected all of your browsers. The instructions below need to be applied for all browsers you are using.

    Again select Preferences in the Safari Menu, but this time click on the Privacy tab,
    Privacy in Safari

    Now click on Remove All Website Data, confirm with Remove Now. Keep in mind that after you do this all stored website data will be deleted. You will need to sign-in again for all websites that require any form of authentication.

    Still in the Preferences menu, hit the General tab

    General Tab in Safari

    Check if your Homepage is the one you have selected, if not change it to whatever you prefer.
    Default Home Page

    Select the History menu this time, and click on Clear History. This way you will prevent accidentally opening a problematic web page again.

    firefox-512 How to Remove Focus Ahead From Firefox in OSX:

    Open Firefoxclick on mozilla menu (top right) ——-> Add-onsHit Extensions next.

    pic 6

    The problem should be lurking somewhere around here –  Remove it. Then Refresh Your Firefox Settings.


    chrome-logo-transparent-backgroundHow to Remove Focus Ahead From Chrome in OSX:

     Start Chrome, click chrome menu icon —–>More Tools —–> Extensions. There,  find the malware and  select  chrome-trash-icon.

    pic 8

     Click chrome menu icon again, and proceed to Settings —> Search, the fourth tab, select Manage Search Engines.  Delete everything but the search engines you normally use. After that Reset Your Chrome Settings.

    If the guide doesn’t help, download the anti-virus program we recommended or try our free online virus scanner. Also, you can always ask us in the comments for help!


    About the author

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    Brandon Skies

    Brandon is a researcher and content creator in the fields of cyber-security and virtual privacy. Years of experience enable him to provide readers with important information and adequate solutions for the latest software and malware problems.

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