Home.giantsender.com Redirect (Mac)

What is home.giantsender.com?

home.giantsender.com is a fake Internet search engine claiming to generate improved search results and provide quick access to various popular websites. Judging on appearance alone, home.giantsender.com barely differs from Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other similar legitimate search engines.

Therefore, many users believe that home.giantsender.com is also legitimate. In fact, developers promote home.giantsender.com by employing a browser-hijacking application called Giant Sender, which supposedly allows users to share large data files. Furthermore, home.giantsender.com continually monitors users' Internet browsing activity.

Research shows that Giant Sender targets Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox. Following infiltration, it assigns the default search engine/homepage/new tab URL options to home.giantsender.com. These changes may not seem significant, however, Giant Sender reassigns these options when attempts are made to change them.

Therefore, returning browsers to their previous states becomes impossible and users continually encounter unwanted redirects to home.giantsender.com, significantly diminishing the web browsing experience.

In addition, Giant Sender and home.giantsender.com record information relating to users' Internet browsing activity (IP addresses, website URLs visited, pages viewed, search queries, etc.) that might contain personal details. Developers share the information with third parties (potentially, cyber criminals) who misuse private details to generate revenue.

Therefore, data tracking can lead to serious privacy issues or even identity theft. If you encounter unwanted redirects to home.giantsender.com, uninstall Giant Sender and never visit this rogue site again.

There are dozens of fake search engines similar to home.giantsender.com. Examples include search.safefinderformac.com, search.fleecompliment.com, timesearchnow.com, and many others. Note that these websites may appear different, however, all have identical behavior. By offering improved search results, fake search engines attempt to give the impression of legitimacy.

In fact, these sites deliver no real value for regular users and are designed only to generate revenue for the developers.

They cause unwanted browser redirects (to generate traffic for other websites), collect private information (which is later sold to third parties), and some generate results leading to malicious websites. Therefore, using them can result in high-risk computer infections.

How did home.giantsender.com install on my computer?

As mentioned above, home.giantsender.com is promoted via Giant Sender. Developers distribute this browser hijacker using a deceptive marketing method called "bundling" - stealth installation of third party applications with regular software. Developers know that users often rush the download/installation processes and skip most steps.

Therefore, they hide Giant Sender within the "Custom/Advanced" settings of these processes. By skipping this section, users expose their systems to risk of various infections.

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

To prevent this situation, be cautious when downloading and installing software. Closely analyze each download/installation step using the "Custom" or "Advanced" settings. In addition, cancel all third party apps listed for download/installation.

Official Giant Sender browser hijacker installation set-up:

Website promoting Giant Sender browser hijacker:

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Quick menu:

• What is home.giantsender.com?
• STEP 1. Remove home.giantsender.com related files and folders from OSX.
• STEP 2. Remove home.giantsender.com redirect from Safari.
• STEP 3. Remove home.giantsender.com browser hijacker from Google Chrome.
• STEP 4. Remove home.giantsender.com homepage and default search engine from Mozilla Firefox.

Video showing how to remove adware and browser hijackers from a Mac computer:

home.giantsender.com redirect removal:

Remove home.giantsender.com-related potentially unwanted applications from your "Applications" folder:

Click the Finder icon. In the Finder window, select “Applications”. In the applications folder, look for “MPlayerX”,“NicePlayer”, or other suspicious applications and drag them to the Trash. After removing the potentially unwanted application(s) that cause online ads, scan your Mac for any remaining unwanted components.

Remove browser hijacker-related files and folders

Click the Finder icon from the menu bar. Choose Go, and click Go to Folder...

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the /Library/LaunchAgents/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: /Library/LaunchAgents/

In the "LaunchAgents" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious files and move them to the Trash. Examples of files generated by browser hijackers - "installmac.AppRemoval.plist", "myppes.download.plist", "mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist", "kuklorest.update.plist", etc. Browser hijacker commonly installs several files with the exact same string.

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the ~/Library/Application Support/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: ~/Library/Application Support/

In the "Application Support" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious folders. For example, "MplayerX" or "NicePlayer", and move these folders to the Trash.

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

In the "LaunchAgents" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious files and move them to the Trash. Examples of files generated by browser hijackers - "installmac.AppRemoval.plist", "myppes.download.plist", "mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist", "kuklorest.update.plist", etc. Browser hijacker commonly installs several files with the exact same string.

Check for browser hijacker generated files in the /Library/LaunchDaemons/ folder:

In the "Go to Folder..." bar, type: /Library/LaunchDaemons/

In the "LaunchDaemons" folder, look for recently-added suspicious files. For example "com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist", "com.myppes.net-preferences.plist", "com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist", "com.avickUpd.plist", etc., and move them to the Trash.

Scan your Mac with Combo Cleaner:

If you have followed all the steps correctly, your Mac should be clean of infections. To ensure your system is not infected, run a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus. Download it HERE. After downloading the file, double click combocleaner.dmg installer. In the opened window, drag and drop the Combo Cleaner icon on top of the Applications icon. Now open your launchpad and click on the Combo Cleaner icon. Wait until Combo Cleaner updates its virus definition database and click the "Start Combo Scan" button.

Combo Cleaner will scan your Mac for malware infections. If the antivirus scan displays "no threats found" - this means that you can continue with the removal guide; otherwise, it's recommended to remove any found infections before continuing.

After removing files and folders generated by the browser hijackers, continue to remove rogue extensions from your Internet browsers.

Remove browser hijackers from Internet browsers

Remove Safari browser hijackers:

Open the Safari browser, from the menu bar, select "Safari" and click "Preferences...".

In the preferences window, select "Extensions" and look for any recently-installed suspicious extensions. When located, click the "Uninstall" button next to it/them. Note that you can safely uninstall all extensions from your Safari browser - none are crucial for regular browser operation.

Change your homepage:

In the "Preferences" window, select the "General" tab. To set your homepage, type the preferred website URL (for example: www.google.com) in the Homepage field. You can also click the "Set to Current Page" button if you wish to set your homepage to the website you are currently visiting.

Change your default search engine:

In the "Preferences" window, select the "Search" tab. Here you will find a drop-down menu labeled "Search engine:" Simply select your preferred search engine from the drop-down list.

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Safari.

Remove Google Chrome browser hijackers:

Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "More Tools" and click "Extensions". Locate all recently-installed suspicious extensions, select these entries and click "Remove".

Change your homepage

Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome) and select "Settings". In the "On startup" section, disable the malicious extension (if present), look for a browser hijacker URL below the "Open a specific or set of pages" option. If present, click on the three vertical dots icon and select "Remove".

Change your default search engine:

To change your default search engine in Google Chrome: Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "Settings", in the "Search engine" section, click "Manage search engines...", in the opened list look for a browser hijacker URL, when located click the three vertical dots near this URL and select "Delete".

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Google Chrome.

Remove malicious extensions from Mozilla Firefox:

Click the Firefox menu (at the top right corner of the main window) and select "Add-ons and themes". Click "Extensions", in the opened window locate all recently-installed suspicious extensions, click on the three dots and then click "Remove".

Change your homepage

To reset your homepage, click the Firefox menu (at the top right corner of the main window), then select "Settings", in the opened window disable malicious extension (if present), remove the browser hijacker URL and enter your preferred domain, which will open each time you start Mozilla Firefox.

Change your default search engine:

In the URL address bar, type "about:config" and press Enter. Click "Accept the Risk and Continue".

In the search filter at the top, type: "extensionControlled". Set both results to "false" by either double-clicking each entry or clicking the button.

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Mozilla Firefox.

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