How to remove Weknow.start.me (Mac)

What is Weknow.start.me

Weknow.start.me is an unsafe search engine, related to Weknow company, that is notorious for its Weknow.ac hijacker. Hijacker can modify search engine and homepage settings in Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox on Mac. This one is built on another platform (start.me) and redirects user’s queries to find.coinup.org. After some investigation, it turns out, that coinup.org is a platform, that allows search providers to earn money on using user’s computer power by mining cryptocurrency. So, after Weknow.start.me installs in browsers, it may use special JavaScript or install certain browser extensions (like CoinUp add-on) to mine crypto-coins. As a result, end users gets the bunch of undesirable effects, such as lack of privacy, security issues, unauthorized usage of CPU, GPU and memory capacity and, finally, unpredictable search results, that do not correlate with Google, Bing, Yahoo or any other reputable search engines. This guide will fully explain how to remove Weknow.start.me and reset browser settings.

How Weknow.start.me infected your Mac

Weknow.start.me mainly infiltrates computers along with fake Adobe Flash update. It works this way: page shows users alerts or pop-ups, that he/she needs to update flash player to watch the video, or see particular content. After user clicks “OK” button it downloads fake installer and sets up malware in browsers. Users usually do not pay attention to installation process of third-party programs. Weknow.start.me also uses bundled installation with freeware to infiltrate PCs. Not every antivirus software can protect from such threats. Use Spyhunter for Mac or CleanMyMac to defend from threats like Weknow.start.me.

Fake Adobe Flash update pop-up promoting Weknow.start.me

Weknow.start.me installer

Remove Weknow.start.me manually for free

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

Important update: Weknow.start.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 Weknow.start.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 Weknow.start.me from Applications

Remove Weknow.start.me from Mac:

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

Cannot uninstall Weknow.start.me

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

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

Remove Weknow.start.me add-on from your browsers

Removing Weknow.start.me from Applications often does not bring the desired effect. It is browser extension and it may still be active in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Here are instructions on how to remove Weknow.start.me 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 Weknow.start.me 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 Weknow.start.me 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 Weknow.start.me extension.
4. Click Disable or Remove button.

Reset browser settings

To finish Weknow.start.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 Weknow.start.me


~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.logicalsearch.plist
~/Library/LaunchAgents/pronto.notification.plist
~/Library/LaunchAgents/pronto.update.plist
~/Library/Safari/Extensions/Weknow.safariextz


How to protect Mac OSX from hijackers, like Weknow.start.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.