Here are 2 methods on how to remove the MacDefender spyware from your Mac computer. They both involve you starting with killing the process before uninstalling the malware.
Table of Contents
Visual Way
- Open Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder.
- Set the drop-down menu to all processes.
- Use the search field in Activity Monitor to search for MacDefender.
- Click on the MacDefender process.
- Click the Quit Process button.
- Click Force Quit.
- Drag the MacDefender program (installed in the Applications folder by default) to the Trash.
- Empty the Trash.
- If it exists, remove MacDefender from the Login Items for your Account in the OS X System Preferences.
Terminal Way
- Open Terminal application from the Utilities folder.
- Type this command in the terminal:
ps -ax | grep -i MacDefender
- Take note of the process ID associated with the MacDefender program (the first digits in the result).
- Type this command in the terminal (use the process ID in place of XXXX):
kill XXXX
- Drag the MacDefender program (installed in the Applications folder by default) to the Trash.
- Empty the Trash.
- If it exists, remove MacDefender from the Login Items for your Account in the OS X System Preferences.
Avoiding MacDefender in the Future
Apple has a good article on their support section called How to avoid or remove MacDefender malware in Mac OS X v10.6 or earlier. I’d recommend reading up on it for future reference.
That’s how to remove MacDefender Spyware. If you have your files backed up already, it may be a good idea to start anew. Check out the quick reformat guide for more information.