how to remove “Plugins Button” from Chrome

Update: DetectX v2.75+ now deals correctly with the Plugins Button adware and the instructions below are now redundant.  Just ‘Search’ and ‘Trash All…’ should be sufficient.



 

If you’re having trouble trying to remove the “Plugins Button” from Chrome because its ‘managed and cannot be removed or disabled’, then follow this procedure.

1. Launch DetectX and do a search. You should see at least 5 items. Do NOT click the Trash button yet.

2. Quit Chrome

3. In Terminal, execute this command* (you’ll need admin privileges)

sudo /usr/bin/profiles -P; sudo -K

If you see a single configuration profile installed with the profileIdentifier ‘org.superduper.extension’, then execute

sudo /usr/bin/profiles -D; sudo -K

to remove it.

Type ‘y’ when prompted.

4. Read the caveats below, and then if appropriate, in DetectX, now click the ‘Trash All…’ button.

5. Relaunch Chrome and check that all is well.

Caveats
* If you or the machine’s administrator are using ‘Managed Preferences’ and have profiles other than the one mentioned above installed, then do NOT use the ‘-D’ switch in step 3. You’ll need to identify the correct profiles. Use the -P switch to list the installed profiles and only delete the one with ‘org.superduper.extension’ identifier. Likewise, do NOT use the Trash All… feature in DetectX, which will remove the Managed Preferences folder***. Instead, double-click the items in DetectX’s window to open them in Finder and remove them manually that way.

** You’ll need to authorise the deletions when macOS asks you as DetectX doesn’t have the permissions to do that (a safety feature).

*** Note that the ‘Managed Preferences’ folder is a perfectly legitimate folder for server admins that have knowingly installed managed preferences for their users, or for those using Parental Controls. An application update for DetectX will be released shortly to more accurately target this issue rather than flagging the entire Managed Preferences folder.

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