How to remove Operative Engine (Mac)

What is Operative Engine

Operative Engine is categorized as a browser hijacker that infects Macintosh users. Upon its stealth installation, users encounter a couple of browser changes. Most often, such software alters the default search engine and homepage appearance to search.operativeeng.com. This is ostensibly meant to generate smarter and better results when surfing the web. In reality, search engines promoted by Operative Engine are fake and non-existent. Instead, they redirect users’ queries to legitimate platforms like Yahoo. What is more, browser hijackers may have adware capabilities as well. This means they can display various ads, pop-ups, and banners leading to unwanted or dangerous pages. For this exact reason, it is important to remove unwanted software like Operative Engine from your system. As a rule, it is hard to do without additional tools as this kind of software tends to reinstall itself after deletion. If this is your case, follow our tutorial below that will help you get rid of this nasty software completely.

How Operative Engine infected your computer

Applications of this sort are notoriously spread alongside other software. This method is more known as “bundling”. It has been initially taken from legal companies that promote other products or advertising content. You could see legitimate developers proposing users install PC-cleaners and other helpful tools. The same is done by cybercriminals, but to spread unwanted software within installation kits. These kits are usually cracked, pirated, or simply free software repacked into bundled installers. The biggest problem of most users whilst running the installation of such software lies in inexperience and negligence. This is because they skip through all of the steps (e.g. “Advanced”, “Custom”, “Manual”) that conceal additional offers. Most often, such offers are ticked for installation by default. Thus, unless a user unticks them himself, they will be installed without consent at the of the setup. It is better to deselect all third-party software even when it is claimed to be useful. Below, you will find the guide showing the necessary instructions to protect your PC against such threats in the future.

Remove Operative Engine manually for free

Note: Operative Engine sets up to start on Mac OS startup. Therefore, before starting the removal, perform these steps:

1. Open System Preferences, choose Users & Groups.
2. Choose your account (set up as Current User).
3. Click Login Items tab.
4. Find “Operative Engine” entry. Select it, and click the “-“ (minus) button to remove it.

Note 2: Operative Engine won’t quit just by closing it, therefor use Force Quit to end the process.

1. Press 3 buttons at the same time: Option, Command, and Esc (Escape). This is similar to Control-Alt-Delete on a Windows PC.
2. Choose Operative Engine in the list.
3. Click Force Quit button.

Here is a manual step-by-step tutorial for full Operative Engine removal from your computer. This works 99% and was checked with the latest versions of Operative Engine installer on operating systems with the latest updates and browser versions.

Remove Operative Engine from Applications

Remove Operative Engine from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Operative Engine might have an Uninstaller. If you see Uninstall Operative Engine or Operative Engine Uninstaller, double-click it and follow the onscreen instructions.
3. Otherwise, drag Operative Engine from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Cannot uninstall Operative Engine

If you can’t uninstall Operative Engine using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Operative Engine. Follow instructions below:

1. Download free AppCleaner.
2. Drag Operative Engine from Applications folder to AppCleaner window.
3. Choose files and folders you want to remove along with Operative Engine.
4. Click Delete button.

Remove Operative Engine add-on from your browsers

Removing Operative Engine from Applications often does not bring the desired effect. It is a browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove the Operative Engine extension from your browsers manually.

Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Click Extensions tab.
3. Find Operative Engine extension.
4. Click Uninstall button to remove it.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Operative Engine extension.
4. Click the trash can icon to remove it.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
3. Choose Operative Engine extension.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.

Reset browser settings

To finish Operative Engine removal reset your browser settings to make sure, there are no leftover items in browser folders.

Reset Safari:

1. Start Safari on your Mac, click Safari to open drop-down menu and choose Preferences
2. Go to the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences.
3. Click Remove All Website Data button.
4. In opened window click Remove Now button to remove data stored by websites in Safari.
5. Go to the Advanced section of Safari’s preferences.
6. Click the Show Develop menu in menu bar option.
7. In the menu click Develop and select Empty Caches from this menu.
8. Again, go to Safari menu and choose Clear History….
9. Choose to clear all history and click Clear History button.

Reset Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. Scroll down and find Show advanced settings link.
4. Click on it and scroll down to the bottom again.
5. Click Reset settings button and click Reset to confirm.

Reset Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:support.
3. Click Refresh Firefox… button.
4. Click Refresh Firefox to confirm.

Remove following files and folders of Operative Engine


~/Library/Application Support/.[random_string]/Services/com.Operative Engine.service.app
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.Operative Engine.service.plist
/Library/Application Support/.[random_string]/System/com.Operative Engine.system
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.Operative Engine.system.plist


Download AdGuard for Mac to block malicious pop-ups, that promote Operative Engine

AdGuard is the best ad-blocker, internet filtering, and internet security application for macOS. It can cut out unwanted banners from site pages, block pop-ups, stop redirects, and prevent users from visiting potentially dangerous resources. Use it to stop ads promoting Operative Engine in browsers.

How to protect Mac OSX from adware, like Operative Engine

Mac OSX is known to be one of the safest operating systems, and for a long time there was no need for antivirus products for Mac. But with the growing popularity of Mac computers and notebooks and evolving technology, viruses, trojans, adware, toolbars, hijackers, and other malware paved the way for Mac users. We recommend you to use one of the best anti-malware for Mac available – Malwarebytes for Mac.