I have an unknown installer icon on my desktop. Every so often I get the following message:
Application is trying to install a new helper tool.
Type your password to allow this.
Name: [My user name is filled in] Password:
Below that are two buttons: Cancel and Install Helper.
I always cancel, and I drag the installer icon to the trash. I’m not going to install some unknown thing on my computer, especially when I have to enter my password. What is this, and how do I make it go away permanently?
This started happening after the last update, which I did last week.
To take the easy and thorough way, download a free mac antivirus and run it. But macs are generally simple enough that you can remove viruses manually, if you like, as follows.
I’d check the following folders for startup items:
~/Library/Launch Agents/
/Library/Launch Agents/
/Library/Launch Daemons/
and carefully delete any files that you don’t recognize. A properly formatted .plist file placed in one of these folders would be silently run by the system each time you start up your mac. Programs like Microsoft Office, Adobe Flash and Google Chrome will leave files in these folders (mostly auto-updaters).
The program may also be leaving a startup file in the “login items” tab under the “Users & Groups” panel in system preferences, or in in the following folders:
Finally, there’s the possibility that you haven’t restarted your mac since the program was installed (and thus it isn’t permanently installed, and will go away when you restart your computer), or that you have a rootkit (which is unlikely).
I was able to find another person who had this issue. It looks like it’s an Adobe Flash update. It’s probably best to manually go to the Adobe site and update Flash so you know what you are installing.
I’ve had numerous issues with updating Flash. I update to the latest and I get periodic messages saying that I need to update.
If you have not restarted since this installer appeared, you should do that now (or soon, because it sounds like a work computer). If it’s a flash player issue as Bag of Mostly Water suggests, I would recommend uninstalling and reinstalling flash.
In Finder, in the Go menu, select “Go To Folder …”
In the dialog, type (without the quotes) “/tmp”
You should now be able to see the file “tmpinstallmc.dmg” – try dragging it to the trash, if that does not work, try with the option key held down (it may ask you for a password to drag it to the trash, as well as one to empty the trash)
If that does not work, we may need to tell you how to use the terminal.
Read the 1st part about Safari extensions etc then scroll to “Remove Genieo, also known as InstallMac”
As the title says, this seems to have worked for me.
Not 100% sure when this thing got onto my mac as I had been fiddling with various freebies download I think via CNET. I had also recently updated Flash, which I thought I’d done via the official site.
When I 1st suspected something had installed itself I ran an unistaller, possible AppCleaner, to remove the offending app that had started itself on my Mac. I guess this must have removed most of the files and left some behind though, as a few days ago the “installer” stared to appear on my desktop, just as you describe Johnny. I tried removing various files that googling brings up, but the installer reappeared after every single reboot. I also uninstalled Flash and reinstalled it to no avail. It was starting to really bug me. Then I found the above link!
A couple of restarts, and shutdown and startups later (just to check) and all seems good finally. Hope this helps for you too.
I don’t download anything. Well, almost nothing. I downloaded a .pdf file from the FAA (dot-gov) website. I don’t d/l games or movies or stuff like that. The only thing I d/l regularly are the updates I get from Apple. This ‘Application’ seems to have appeared after the last update.
I’ll check out the link later. I haven’t had enough coffee yet to do anything but my job (which I can do in my sleep).
Sadly, CNET and many of the big download sites can no longer be trusted. They try to insert adware/malware into the downloads or have you install a “downloader” app that includes adware/malware.
Most disturbingly to me, SourceForge has also started doing this. They are an old and widely respected open source software project repository. There are ways around the adware, but it’s tricky.
Specifically, CNET does that with Mozilla’s software, among others. Never download anything from CNET. It’s owned by CBS, which makes that network even less worthy of whatever trust that may remain than Fox.
(Download Firefox/SeaMonkey/Thunderbird only from mozilla dot net.)