I have unfortunately picked up a piece of malware that overwrote my Safari homepage and "open new window with" setting in Mavericks. I just reinstalled to a backup image so the malware is gone, but left me with an open question.
In previous OS X versions, I would be able to delete all the Safari-related folders and com.apple.safari.plist-like files under ~/Library and ~/Library/Preferences and that would reset Safari to a minty fresh state. That no longer seems to be the case.
Even though I delete every single file related to Safari in my user library folder, if I set the homepage to google, and delete all those files, it stays as google – a.k.a. does not revert back to Safari's default http://www.apple.com/startpage/
Is there some other 'hidden' place Mavericks stores its settings for Safari?
Best Answer
I don't have the reputation to ask a question, but sometimes deleting "everything in Safari" isn't sufficient. Malware of this type installs files in a variety of folders. Examples include the LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons, PrivilegedHelperTools, and Extensions folder. You need to identify the malware first, and then follow instructions on where to look, and what to delete. Resetting Safari isn't sufficient when files located outside the "scope" of Safari (for lack of a better term) and spawning processes to be used by Safari.