What is Linkey?
Linkey is a fraudulent search page that shows irrelevant search results and collects users’ personal data. If you have faced this issue and you see http://linkey-search.com/ page instead of your default search engine, then your system is infected with a browser hijacker. This threat affects all of your web browsers on Mac computers, whether it is Safari, Google Chrome, Opera or Mozilla Firefox. After crawling into a browser, this malware will block popular search engines and sets its own domain as the main page and the default search engine. This search allows redirecting the users to predetermined websites, which lack auditory and require promotion. In order to avoid landing on these pages, you need to remove Linkey hijacker, as it is the only method to stop its activities.
Linkey also collects the user’s personal information related to his browsing habits. All collected data is transferred to third-party companies which may use them for selfish purposes. To completely remove Linkey and all its leftovers, you may seek assistance from the anti-malware program, it’s the most convenient way. Experienced users may use the manual way. Both methods are provided below.
How to remove Linkey?
To make sure that the hijacker won’t appear again, you need to delete Linkey completely. For this, you need to remove the application then check the drives for such leftovers as Linkey files and registry entries.
We should warn you that performing some of the steps may require above-average skills, so if you don’t feel experienced enough, you may apply to automatic removal tool.
Norton is a powerful tool that is able to keep your Mac clean. It would automatically search out and delete all elements related to Linkey. It is not only the easiest way to eliminate Linkey but also the safest and most assuring one.
Steps of Linkey manual removal
Uninstall Linkey from the system
As it was stated before, more likely that the hijacker appeared on your system brought by other software. So, to get rid of Linkey you need to call to memory what you have installed recently.
Remove Linkey from Applications
- Open a Finder window
- Click Applications line on the sidebar
- Select the application related to Linkey right-click it and choose Move to Trash
Remove Linkey from Profiles
- Launch System Preferences
- Select Profiles at the bottom of window.
- Choose AdminPrefs profile, click “-“ icon and enter password.
Remove Linkey using Terminal
- Open Terminal
- Copy/paste:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES - Press Return
- Hold the Option/alt key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch
- Navigate to: /Users/yourmacname/Library/Application Support/
- Delete Folder: Agent
- Go back to Terminal and copy/paste:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO - Press Return
- Hold the Option/alt key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch
Remove Linkey from browsers
Since most of the hijacker threats use a disguise of a browser add-on, you will need to check the list of extensions/add-ons in your browser.
How to remove Linkey from Safari
- Start Safari
- Click on Safari menu button, then go to the Extensions
- Delete Linkey or other extensions that look suspicious and you don’t remember installing them
How to remove Linkey from Google Chrome
- Start Google Chrome
- Click on Tools, then go to the Extensions
- Delete Linkey or other extensions that look suspicious and you don’t remember installing them
How to remove Linkey from Mozilla Firefox
- Start Mozilla Firefox
- Click on the right-upper corner button
- Click Add-ons, then go to Extensions
- Delete Linkey or other extensions that look suspicious and you don’t remember installing them
If the above-mentioned methods didn’t help in eliminating the threat, then it’s better to rely on an automatic way of deleting Linkey.
We also recommend to download and use Norton to scan the system after Linkey removal to make sure that it is completely gone. The antimalware application will detect any vicious components left among system files and registry entries that can recover Linkey.
