Intego's Mac Internet Security X9 is our pick of the bunch, making it the best antivirus for Mac 2019. There's a lot to recommend: it's the fastest antimalware app we've reviews, the clean-up rate. Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection. OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware. OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware. About file quarantine in OS X. If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using Dr.Web Light from the App Store. It's free, and since it's from the App Store, it won't destabilize the system. If despite all the protections Apple offers, and your own caution, you think your Mac is infected by malware of a virus, try these top ten steps to clean things up: 1. No more passwords.
However, they lack a good cleaner, a Mac cleaner which can remove the system junk, old redundant files, olds OS backup and more. We have compiled a list of best Mac cleaner which has good reviews, easy system interface and all in one cleaning capability. CleanMyMac X CleanMyMac X – Mac Cleaner Software. Disk Cleaner (Free) Disk Cleaner ensures that your Mac is free of junk and obsolete files that can accumulate megabytes of wasted disk space. Disk Cleaner is free to use. Eliminate all Junk Files.
Though it's not easy to hack into or break through a Mac's security, it is possible, especially if someone accidentally installs malware without realizing it. If your Mac is running slow or you're seeing unusual advertisements within your web browser you might have accidentally installed malware at some point. Don't worry. It happens to the best of us (not me, of course). There are things you can do without having to burn it all down.
Virus Scan For MacThe problem: Mac malware in the Library folder
Serenity Caldwell writing for iMore in 2017:
Free Virus Cleaner
https://dcdwnbl.weebly.com/blog/download-aoe-3-for-mac. My father-in-law's MacBook Pro had been running into curious slowdowns for a two-year-old laptop and he kept on seeing weird sites taking over his Safari and Firefox search bars. It was clear to me that his browser had been hijacked.
We got rid of the browser hijack pretty quickly — I suggest using Cella's excellent how-to if you ever run into a browser hijack yourself — but the slowdowns were more curious. Upon further investigation, I found a couple of self-professed 'Mac security programs' that popped up, demanding money to 'clean your Mac from junk'.
Spoiler: These programs were the junk. And worst of all, they'd seemingly added a bunch of nonsense files into this computer's Library folder, with random folder names like 'prestidigitation' and 'beeswax'.
Now, I want to preface: I'd never seen an attack like this on a Mac before in my life, and finding this kind of full-Mac hijack is very rare. It's likely that he accidentally installed one of these 'security' programs (or had it installed), which spiraled out of control from there.
These hijacks didn't appear to be able to do much beyond slow down his machine with endless failed attempts to run a program — the process didn't have admin permissions, so it couldn't execute a thing from the library. But because they were there, they were constantly crashing aspects of his Mac. I knew I had a malfunctioning laptop on my hands, so I turned to my age-old troubleshooting checklist.
How to fix a corrupted Mac
If you're working on a computer that has slowed down beyond reasonable aging or is otherwise acting beyond the pale, here are my favorite tactics you can take to try and restore it to its former glory.
Update the system software
This is almost always the first thing I do when troubleshooting Macs: Chances are, the user hasn't installed a security update or other software updates that may be slowing their computer to a crawl.
If the computer is running macOS Sierra, you can avoid having to do this troubleshooting step in the future by turning on Automatic Install in System Preferences, which can automatically download newly available updates in the background, and install them overnight.
Check the disk for errors
If software updates aren't doing the trick, the next thing to check is the hard drive itself. With Apple's Internet Recovery partition, fixing a cranky drive is an easy process.
Your Mac will then run a cursory check on its hard drive to determine if there's anything wrong — and if so — if it can fix it.
Reset the NVRAM/PRAM and SMC
If neither app updates nor disk repair are helping, sometimes a good cache flush can get your Mac running just a bit more smoothly.
To reset the NVRAM (or, on older Macs, PRAM), reboot the Mac and hold down the following keyboard command during startup for at least twenty seconds: Command-Option-P-R.
After you reset your NVRAM, you may be required to reconfigure some system settings (like sound and time zones), which are stored in that cache.
An SMC reset is a bit more complicated, and Apple recommends it only after all other troubleshooting avenues have been exhausted.
If you're using a laptop:
If you're using a desktop:
Partition your disk (or erase it)
After exhausting all other avenues, this was the solution we came across to properly fix the broken laptop. The hard drive had been so corrupted by these 'security' programs that there was nothing I could do to fix it. When Safari launched over the login screen after a reboot, I knew my usual fixes wouldn't work: It was time to bring out the big guns.
In most cases, I'd grab an external drive, back up the corrupted disk, then wipe the drive clean with the Internet Recovery partition and start over. But there were a couple of reasons that wouldn't work here:
Given that this laptop had a 500GB hard drive — only 40GB of which was being used — I had an alternate idea: I'd partition the drive, again using Internet Recovery, and install macOS Sierra on the new partition. Essentially, it would be a 'clean' new computer for my father-in-law to work on, but all the original data would still exist on the old partition in case he needed to grab a file.
Note: In order to partition your drive, you'll need enough free space on your drive to do so — at least 30GB. If you're light on space, you may want to back up your corrupted disk to a USB drive, instead.
How to create a partition on your Mac
Disk Utility will check the disk and make changes. This will take several minutes.Disk Utility will then make the changes. After that's completed, quit Disk Utility to return to the main Internet Recovery menu.
After you finish setting up the new hard drive, it's time to move your files over. Because of the way partitioning works, your old hard drive partition will show up next to your currently-active partition, just like an external drive; you can then grab any files you need from it.
Note: If you want to copy over applications, I'd strongly suggest redownloading them from the source — the Mac App Store or the company's website — rather than trying to copy them over from the old partition.
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From here, you can follow instructions for setting a Mac up from scratch when it comes to installing and customizing anything else.
I generally recommend keeping the old drive partition around for at least a few months in case you or your family member forgets to move something over; after that period, however, you can easily delete the old partition and move to the new partition full time.
Consider additional anti-malware protection
While malware on the Mac is rare, it does crop up, as we've demonstrated. Having the right tools to get rid of malware can be an important part of keeping your Mac safe and secure. There are a number of tools that you can choose from, including popular programs like BitDefender and Kaspersky, that will help you keep malware from infecting your Mac.
Questions?
Do you have any must-follow troubleshooting steps? Let us know in the comments.
Updated July 2019: Added a sub-section regarding anti-malware protection.
Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.
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Like any computer, your Mac needs some clean up work done every once in a while. Before downloading a Mac cleaner software however, you should know that some Mac cleaners can actually make your Mac worse, instead of better!
Some reasons that you should be cautious of which Mac cleaner you choose, include downloading a virus, installing a program that works improperly, or by downloading multiple cleaning programs that will just add to the clutter on your Mac’s hard drive.
Why do you need to clean up your Mac?
We get it, your mac isn’t the top performer it once was. That is a solid reason for getting a mac cleaner to restore past performance.
Another thing is to consider is privacy and protection. Do you have viruses or injections on your laptop? Yup, a legit mac cleaner will help this, too.
Getting a Legit Mac Cleaner.
By getting the best Mac cleaning software (and not just a “one trick pony” apps) you’ll be able to optimize, speed, protect and un-clutter your computer pretty quickly.
But wait… is Mac Cleaner even safe?
The short answer would be yes. Mac cleaner safe and it does work. This app just like Antivirus, Firewall or Speed-optimization software people are using for PC (Windows, eww)
The only difference that a good mac cleaner does it ALL in one program. No more installing 5 different apps, each for its own purpose – maccleaner does it all.
Why do you even need an Antivirus software?
Mac owners (or Apple fans) answer to this question is usually “No, I do not need an anti-virus program for my Mac, because Mac’s don’t get viruses”. Although it’s true that Mac’s do not get viruses as often as Windows, but they do still get them!
In fact, there are new viruses popping up every day (and malware programs), that are directly targeting Mac computers!
If your Mac got exposed to such a virus in any way, you’d be happy you got a real Mac cleaner (which includes an anti-virus program) that will either block the virus all together, or locate and destroy it before it harms to your files and passwords.
Keeping your computer protected from malware and viruses, is not something all Mac cleaning software programs include. Therefore, finding a reputable, good-quality Mac cleaning software that includes advanced antivirus protection is VERY important.
What Is A Good Virus Cleaner For Mac DesktopFinal thing before you use a Mac cleaner: Know what you’re downloading!
By downloading a Mac clean up software, you could actually be downloading a virus or malware program to your computer. In fact consider the names of the four most popular Mac viruses: MacSecurity, MacProtector, MacDefender, and MacShield. Each of them sound as if they will be a beneficial Mac clean up tool, when in fact they are all viruses that will corrupt your Mac’s hard drive, and steal your personal information.
So what can you do to be safe? Just remember that like with any computer, you should only download what you know is safe. To avoid downloading bogus Mac clean up software, you should be sure that the program is one that is recognized via awards, and other acknowledgments, and promoted as a good Mac clean up utility, by those in the computer industry.
What Is A Good Virus Cleaner For Mac Free
Another sign of a Mac cleaner that may not be what it says it is, is that it will be offered to you completely for free. Therefore, one should consider spending a few dollars on a good Mac cleaning software program, which will help them feel confident that it is a legitimate program, and company. Purchasing a safe, and reliable program that will do what you need it to do, is definitely worth the price.
Next step? Get your Mac scanned and cleaned up!
If, before reading this article, you never used a mac cleaner – please start using one now. We’ve already done the heavy lifting for you and after reviewing 23 different mac cleaners, we found the best, safe and legit software you should use in 2019. Read our review of MacKeeper here, the link to download it (completely free) is there too.
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