Wise Mac Care

Wise Mac Care

Wise Mac Care is a legitimate program and offers free cleaning for junk and unwanted logs. Users who install Wise Mac Care in their system complain about unauthorized homepage and search engine changes and an unstoppable generation of pop-ups on their screen.

Wise Mac Care

Some users might find Wise Mac Care on their machines unexpectedly

Browser hijackers such as Wise Mac Care are quite common online advertising programs that tend to cover a big portion of your browser’s screen and keep prompting you to click on specifics pop-ups, banners and web ads, buy something, visit specific web pages, download some apps, etc. Usually, this type of programs attach themselves to the main browser in the system (which in your case can be Safari, Chrome, Firefox or another web browsing app) and make some modifications in the way it operates. Most commonly, they replace the default search engine with a sponsored one and change the homepage address to a different domain with the idea that whenever you start your browser or open a new tab, you get redirected to that specific domain. Apps like Wise Mac Care , Search Marquis, Search Baron are also known to spam the web pages that you visit with various hard-to-remove pop-up notifications and online offers which may often come in the form of banners, blinking boxes, links and more. Due to these activities, browser hijackers are considered to be a source of web browsing disturbance and are often uninstalled from the system without any regret.

Wise Mac Care for Mac

Wise Mac Care for Mac is an application that some web users report as annoying and unwanted. The reason is Wise Mac Care for Mac typically spams their screen with aggressive ads and makes unauthorized changes to their main web browser.

The people who install Wise Mac Care in their Mac computer often complain that this program initiates automatic redirects to websites that are unfamiliar or irrelevant to their searches and often lands them on sketchy pages full of promotional pop-ups, hard-to-remove advertisements, page-covering banners and similar commercials. They also report changes in the default search engine, the homepage URL and the new tab page appearance which haven’t been approved. The intrusion brought on by these changes and the irritating ads is typically what makes most users want the browser hijacker to be uninstalled.

What is Wise Mac Care?

Wise Mac Care is a program used for online promotion that fills the screen of your Mac browser with intrusive web ads. Wise Mac Care makes money from advertising, thus it won’t stop redirecting you to pay-per-click links and commercials unless you uninstall it.

Uninstalling a browser hijacker, however, isn’t that easy as, unlike a regular program, this type of software usually does not have an uninstall manager and cannot be accessed through the control panel. This is also the reason why many people confuse it with a virus or malware (such as Ransomware, Trojans, Spyware) and try to remove it with their antivirus program. The thing is, the browser hijacker is not a virus or malware but online advertising software that typically does no harm to the system. Therefore, the antivirus program will simply not list it as a danger and won’t do anything to remove it.

 The Wise Mac Care app

The Wise Mac Care app is a Mac browser component that initially appears dangerous but is actually way less troublesome than Ransomware, Spyware or Trojan horse infections. The main purpose of the Wise Mac Care app is to promote sponsored websites and to display pay-per-click ads on the users’ screens.

Wise Mac Care app

Many engines detected the Wise Mac Care App as dangerous

Of course, the advertisements that the hijacker displays may not always come from trustworthy sources. Thus, if you want to avoid the risk of clicking on something malicious, it is better to free your browser from the irritating hijacker with the help of the instructions below.

SUMMARY:

Name Wise Mac Care
Type Adware/Browser Hijacker
Danger Level Medium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms Changes in the browser’s appearance, new homepage, new search engine, various pop-up ads and banners on the screen.
Distribution Method File bundles, torrents, click-bait ads and spam are common methods of distribution for many Browser Hijackers.
Detection Tool

Wise Mac Care Removal

For a quick way to remove Wise Mac Care 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 Wise Mac Care.
  5. Remove Wise Mac Care 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 Wise Mac Care!

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 Wise Mac Care From Firefox in OSX:

    Open Firefox, click on mozilla menu (top right) ——-> Add-ons. Hit 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 Wise Mac Care 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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    Lidia Howler

    Lidia is a web content creator with years of experience in the cyber-security sector. She helps readers with articles on malware removal and online security. Her strive for simplicity and well-researched information provides users with easy-to-follow It-related tips and step-by-step tutorials.

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