How to remove Search.fastsearch.me (Mac)

What is Search.fastsearch.me

Search.fastsearch.me is a browser hijacker infection designed to earn money from generated redirects. At first glance, the changes added by Search.fastsearch.me look legitimate and useful – a new home tab with quick-access icons to enter popular websites, a search engine, and other widgets to keep you aware of time and dates. However, this is such a trick covering suspicious behavior. Applications like browser hijackers can abuse given permissions to collect personal data and sell it to cybercriminals. Moreover, instead of generating unique results, it simply copies the system of Yahoo. Therefore, Search.fastsearch.me brings no beneficial effect in spite of fancy changes applied to browser appearance. Search.fastsearch.me targets Mac users, however, there are multiple other examples of similar hijackers that misuse other systems as well. Unfortunately, Search.fastsearch.me is not easy to remove, this is why you might need professional help to solve the task and delete it from your computer. You can follow the removal instructions presented in the article below.

How Search.fastsearch.me infected your computer

Unwanted software is frequently-spread via sneaky methods. One stark example of such is “bundling” which stands for the promotion of repacks and other installation kits around the whole web. Whilst users remain unaware of suspicious presence, they jump through the setup and end up infected with unwanted software. Luckily, there is an option to prevent this. Usually, it can be easily detected under “Advanced” or “Custom” sections offering to set a new homepage or search engine. Deselecting such offers does not always guarantee that nothing will be installed along the way. Sometimes extortionists inject unwanted programs into the main installation not allowing users to interfere whatsoever. This is why the best solution towards staying protected against such infections is downloading software only from legitimate and trusted resources.

Remove Search.fastsearch.me manually for free

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

Important update: Search.fastsearch.me hijacker installs malicious Device Profile called AdminPrefs on MacOS, that won’t allow users to make changes to browser search engine and homepage settings. Follow instructions below to remove this profile.

Remove Search.fastsearch.me profile

1. Go to System Preferences and click on Profiles.
2. In the list of profiles on the left side choose AdminPrefs and click on “-” button to remove it.
3. In your case it can be named differently, in this case remove all visible profiles. Check the picture below to see how it looks like.

Remove Search.fastsearch.me from Applications

Remove Search.fastsearch.me from Mac:

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

Cannot uninstall Search.fastsearch.me

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

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

Remove Search.fastsearch.me add-on from your browsers

Removing FastSearch 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 FastSearch 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 FastSearch 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 FastSearch 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 FastSearch extension.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.

Reset browser settings

To finish Search.fastsearch.me 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 Search.fastsearch.me


~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.FastSearch.plist
~/Library/Safari/Extensions/FastSearch.safariextz
~/Library/Application Support/FastSearch


How to protect Mac OSX from hijackers, like Search.fastsearch.me

Mac OSX is known to be one of the safest operating systems, and for a long time there was no need in 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.