macOS is highly renowned as a safe operating system. However, despite the numerous security features Apple has introduced throughout the years, your Mac machines are still susceptible to viruses.
One of those pesky viruses is Search Baron, a virus that redirects you to Bing. As silly as that sounds, it works in your best interest to immediately remove it from Chrome Mac.
Hi, I’m Andreas, and I have had previous experience dealing with Search Baron. I’m here to tell you that Search Baron is a browser hijacker that must be removed immediately.
And I’ll show you how to do it. So don’t let the virus ruin your browsing experience; use these methods for effective removal.
Easy Steps to Remove Search Baron From Chrome Mac
I will show you three ways to remove Search Baron from Chrome Mac. Without wasting your time, let’s jump in.
Method 1
The first method will explain removing the virus by deleting the application.
Remember that the Search Baron virus will not appear under the same name. So narrowing down the virus might be the most formidable challenge in this step.
Step 1: Navigate to your Mac Finder and click on “Go.”
Step 2: Click on “Utilities” and “Activity Monitor.”
Step 3: The Activity Monitor is an application that monitors applications running in the background. The Search Baron virus isn’t necessarily resource-demanding. All the virus does is redirect you from the Google Chrome search engine to Bing.
So you’ll need to look very closely for a background process that appears out of place. You can specifically Google each process to figure out exactly what it is.
Step 4: Once you identify the Search Baron virus in Activity Monitor, click on “Force Quit.”
Step 5: Navigate to the Mac Finder menu, click “Go,” and then “Go to Folder.”
Step 6: In the Folder address, type in “/Library/LaunchAgents.”
Step 7: Look for suspicious files and put them in the trash. For example, common file names for the Search Baron virus are “com.pcv.hlprnmcp.plist,” and “com.update.updService.plist.”
Step 8: Now, go to the Finder menu, click “Go,” and then “Applications.”
Step 9: In the Applications screen, look for applications, again, seemingly out of the ordinary. Once you identify it, put it in the trash.
With these steps, you will identify the Search Baron file and application causing your Google Chrome to switch to the Bing search engine. However, this isn’t the only way to deal with Search Baron.
Method 2
The Search Baron virus can install itself on your Google Chrome through shady extensions. Since Chrome has excellent support for extensions, chances are you’ve installed a shady one. So the obvious solution is to remove the extension and the hijacker virus itself.
Step 1: Launch Google Chrome and click on the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Step 2: Select “More Tools” and click on “Extensions.”
Step 3: Look for out-of-place extensions with suspicious names. Once you identify a potential Search Baron extension, click “Remove.”
Since Search Baron is a malicious application, it’s surprisingly common to find it in third-party applications such as browser extensions. So, while removing the extension removes the virus, some of you might opt for a professional virus-removal tool to get the job done.
Method 3
The last method involves using a virus-removal tool. Virus-removal tools are handy apps that identify malicious applications and make it easy to remove them.
However, most of these cost money. So if you’re desperate to remove the virus, it might be worth your while to use a specialized virus-removal tool. While I can’t comment on which specific tool to use since I don’t use third-party antivirus software on my Mac.
So, if you’ve opted for this method, do your due diligence and find the tool that best removes Search Baron on Chrome Mac.
Conclusion
That concludes this guide on removing Search Baron from Chrome Mac. As you can see, Search Baron is a browser hijacker virus that redirects search traffic away from Google Chrome and to Bing or even Yahoo.
No doubt, the virus is annoying and sometimes difficult to deal with. But the three methods I’ve explained are more than capable of removing it from Chrome Mac so you have peace of mind.