How to remove Osx-defender.pro pop-up ads

What is Osx-defender.pro

Osx-defender.pro is a deceptive website used by cybercriminals to deliver intrusive pop-up ads and exploit browser notification features for malicious purposes. By tricking users into allowing push notifications—often through fake alerts about system issues or enticing offers—it gains permission to bombard devices with unwanted advertisements, scam links, and potentially harmful redirects. This scheme targets all major desktop browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, as well as Android-based mobile browsers, making it a widespread threat to both Windows and macOS users. Once notification permissions are granted, osx-defender.pro can bypass standard pop-up blockers and continue sending disruptive content directly to your desktop or mobile device. The notifications often mimic legitimate alerts or promotional messages, luring users into clicking on links that may lead to phishing pages or sites hosting malware. By leveraging browser notifications, this adware-type threat persists even after users close or restart their browser, creating a persistent nuisance. Infection typically occurs when users visit compromised websites, download pirated content, or click on suspicious ads, inadvertently granting the site the ability to send notifications. While not a traditional virus, osx-defender.pro undermines browser security and user privacy, increasing the risk of further malware infections or financial scams. Proper removal involves both revoking notification permissions in browser settings and scanning the system for any additional adware or unwanted programs installed during the attack.

How Osx-defender.pro infects devices

Osx-defender.pro typically infects computers through deceptive online tactics that exploit user behavior and vulnerabilities. Often, users unknowingly trigger the infection by visiting dubious websites, particularly those hosting pirated content or engaging in questionable advertising practices. These sites often present misleading prompts, urging users to enable notifications or download seemingly harmless software, which can actually be adware. Once this adware is installed, it alters browser settings to facilitate the continuous display of unwanted pop-up ads from Osx-defender.pro. Additionally, the adware can redirect users to other malicious sites, further escalating the risks of further infections or data theft. Consequently, awareness of these tactics is crucial for users to avoid falling victim to such infections.

1. Download Osx-defender.pro Removal Tool
2. Stop Osx-defender.pro notifications in browsers
3. Remove/Uninstall Osx-defender.pro from Control Panel and Applications
4. Remove Osx-defender.pro extensions from browsers
5. Reset browser search and homepage settings
6. Block Osx-defender.pro search redirects
7. How to protect from threats like Osx-defender.pro

Remove Osx-defender.pro manually for free

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

Disable push notifications from Osx-defender.pro in browsers

Remove Osx-defender.pro from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Google Chrome

1. Go to Google Chrome settings, by clicking 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choosing Settings.
2. On the left side choose Privacy and security menu.
3. Under opened Privacy and security tab, choose Site Settings.
4. Scroll down to Permissions section and click on Notifications (with the bell icon).
5. Go to the bottom list of sites named Allowed to send notifications.
6. Find Osx-defender.pro in the list and click 3-dots icon near it. Click Remove button to delete the website permission.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Mozilla Firefox

1. Go to Mozilla Firefox options, by clicking 3-bars icon in the top-right corner and choosing Settings.
2. On the left panel choose Privacy & Security menu.
3. Scroll down to Permissions section.
4. Near Notifications click Settings… button.
5. Find Osx-defender.pro in the list and click Remove Website to remove it.
6. Click Save Changes button to confirm the action.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Safari

1. Open Safari, and in the top menu click Safari, choose Preferences.
2. In the Preferences window, click on Websites tab.
3. On the left side, choose Notifications. You will see the list of websites and their settings for showing notifications.
4. Find Osx-defender.pro in the list and click Remove button.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Microsoft Edge

1. Open Microsoft Edge, and click on the three-dots menu, in the top-right corner.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings.
3. In the menu click Cookies and site permissions section, and scroll down to All permissions section.
4. Click on Notifications.
5. Find Osx-defender.pro in the list under Allow, click on 3-dots icon and choose Remove.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in Android (Chrome)

1. Open Google Chrome app on Android, and tap on three dots to open main menu.
2. In the drop-down menu choose Settings, scroll down and under Advanced section tap on Site Settings.
3. In the Site Settings menu tap on Notifications.
4. In the Allowed list of websites allowed to show notifications find Osx-defender.pro, tap on it and in the bottom of the window tap on Clean & Reset button.
5. Confirm your action by tapping on Clean & Reset again in opened dialog box.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from websites, allowed to show push-notifications in iOS (Safari)

1. Find and tap the Settings app icon on your home screen.
2. Swipe up or down and select Safari from the list.
3. In Safari settings, find and tap on Websites near the bottom.
4. Find Notifications in the list and tap on it.
5. You’ll see a list of websites. Tap on Osx-defender.pro to allow or deny notifications.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from Control Panel or Applications

To start removing Osx-defender.pro you should uninstall it using Control Panel. It can be present by different names – “Osx-defender.pro”. It should uninstall correctly, however, we recommend you to use IObit Uninstaller or CleanMyMac to clean leftover items after uninstalling. Here are instructions for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11 and Mac.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from Windows 7:

1. Click Start button.
2. Then go to Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a Program.
4. Find recently installed suspicious program and click Uninstall.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from Windows 8:

1. Hover mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner to see Menu.
2. Click Search.
3. After that click Apps.
4. Then Control Panel.
5. Click Uninstall a Program under Programs.
6. Find recently installed suspicious program, click Uninstall.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from Windows 10:

There are 2 ways to uninstall Osx-defender.pro from Windows 10

Way one

1. Click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the System tile.
4. Click Apps & features and locate recently installed suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on it and then click Uninstall button near it.

Way two (classic)

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Programs and Features.
3. Locate recently installed suspicious program in the list.
4. Click on it and then click Uninstall button above.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from Windows 11:

1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. In opened menu choose Settings.
3. Click on the Apps tab on the left side.
4. Click Apps & features and locate recently installed suspicious program in the list.
5. Click on 3-dots icon near it and then click Uninstall button near it.
6. Depending on the type of application (Windows Store app or classic Win32 app) it will be removed immediately or you will need to confirm the action and go through standard uninstall procedure.

Remove Osx-defender.pro from Mac:

1. In the Finder sidebar, click Applications.
2. Osx-defender.pro might have an Uninstaller.
3. Otherwise, drag Osx-defender.pro from the Applications folder to the Trash (located at the end of the Dock).
4. Then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

Cannot uninstall Osx-defender.pro in Windows

In some cases, program related to Osx-defender.pro won’t uninstall and gives you a message that “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Osx-defender.pro. Please, contact your system administrator” when you try to remove it from Control Panel or “Access denied” error when removing the Osx-defender.pro folder and files. This happens because the process or service does not allow you to do it. In this case, I will recommend you to use SpyHunter 5 or Malwarebytes AntiMalware or uninstall Osx-defender.pro in Safe Mode. To boot in Safe Mode do the following:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. While it starts booting type F8 button.
3. This will open Advanced Boot Options menu.
4. Choose Safe Mode and wait until Windows loads.
5. Go to Control Panel > Uninstall a program and remove recently installed suspicious program

>> See detailed instructions and video tutorial on how to boot in Safe Mode

Cannot uninstall Osx-defender.pro in MacOS

If you can’t uninstall apps related to Osx-defender.pro from MacOS using instructions above, or it keeps coming back, you can use free AppCleaner for Mac to remove all residual data and libraries of Osx-defender.pro. Follow instructions below:

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

Remove malicious add-ons from your browsers

Uninstalling Osx-defender.pro from Control Panel often does not bring the desired effect. It sometimes has a browser extension and it may still be active in Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Osx-defender.pro related extension from your browsers manually.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://extensions.
3. Find Osx-defender.pro related extension.
4. Click the Remove button to remove them.
5. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Mozilla Firefox:

1. Start Mozilla Firefox browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) about:addons.
3. Find Osx-defender.pro related extension.
4. Click three-dots icon near it and choose Remove in the menu.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Safari:

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

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser.
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) edge://extensions.
3. Find Osx-defender.pro related extension.
4. Click Remove link under the name of extension.
5. In opened dialog window click Remove button to confirm the action.
6. Remove all suspicious extensions from the list.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

Note: There is no feature to remove browser extensions from browser in latest version of Internet Explorer. To remove Osx-defender.pro from Internet Explorer, please, perform instructions for uninstalling program from Control Panel. To disable Osx-defender.pro, please, do the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu Manage Add-ons.
4. Select Toolbars and Extensions.
5. Click Disable or Osx-defender.pro related extension.
6. Also disable other suspicious extensions from the list.

Opera Browser:

Generally, Osx-defender.pro does not install in Opera browser however you can always double check. Do the following:

1. Start Opera browser and click on Opera icon in the top-left corner.
2. Choose Extensions > Extensions.
3. Find Osx-defender.pro related extension.
4. Click Details button and scroll down to the bottom.
5. Click Remove extension link and confirm the action by clicking Remove button on opened dialog window.
6. Also remove other suspicious extensions from the list.

Reset browsers settings (homepage, default search)

Osx-defender.pro may install a search engine that hijacks your browsers. Here is an instruction to reset your browser’s homepage, new tab, and search engine to default values.

Google Chrome:

1. Start Google Chrome browser
2. In address box type (or copy-paste) chrome://settings.
3. On the left panel expand Advanced options.
4. Choose Reset and clean up.
5. Click on Restore settings to their original defaults link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

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 button in opened dialog window to confirm.

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.

Microsoft Edge:

1. Start Microsoft Edge browser
2. Click on 3-dots icon in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
3. On the left panel find and click Reset settings option.
4. Click on Restore settings to their default values link and confirm by clicking Reset button.

Internet Explorer (9, 10, 11):

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. Click on gear/asterisk icon in the top-right corner.
3. In opened menu choose Internet options.
4. Click Advanced tab.
5. Click Reset button.
6. Choose Delete personal settings and click Reset.

Opera Browser:

1. Start Opera browser and click on Opera icon in the top-left corner.
2. Choose Settings and click Advanced on the left side and choose Browser.
3. Scroll down to the very bottom and click on Restore settings to their original defaults link.
4. Confirm by clicking Reset button.

How to block ads and pop-ups from Osx-defender.pro

Osx-defender.pro push-notifications, in most cases, are caused by a program installed on your PC or an add-on installed in browsers. However, sometimes it can appear on a clean computer when visiting a malicious website, using an advertising script. Also, apps that generate “Osx-defender.pro” ads and banners are themselves installed from pop-ups. To protect your PC and browsers from phishing websites, pop-up ads, banners, malicious scripts it is recommended to use AdGuard. Download free trial here:

Download AdGuard for Windows

Download AdGuard for Mac

Final tips

Be careful surfing the internet and downloading software, as programs, like Osx-defender.pro, may become a real headache as they are hard to remove and break your privacy. To keep safe from such threats we recommend you always use antivirus and one of the anti-malware programs available on the market. One of the best anti-spyware and anti-malware programs is SpyHunter 5. It can protect your PC from threats, like Osx-defender.pro.