Strange installer process takes CPU away

Question

I once tried to download paint onto my Mac computer and then that is when things started getting slow, like I think it became kind of laggy, I ended up going to the task monitor thing and saw that there was a process called installer which was taking up a lot to CPU, I ended it but I decided to test around and hope that I fixed the problem, but I found out that every time I moved something random and useless from downloads into the trash, the process comes back, I didnt really move stuff from the downloads stack thingy until now, but I might of done it once or twice before without any problem, also I think it once started without me even moving anything from downloads to the trash, this is weird, how to I make that stop???
I'm not sure if I explained that right

Answer 1

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem.
2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. Backup is always a must, and when you're having any kind of trouble with the computer, you may be at higher than usual risk of losing data, whether you follow these instructions or not.
There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to collect information about the state of the computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. However, you should be cautious about running any kind of program (not just a shell script) on the advice of a stranger. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.
Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed:
☞ Copy a line of text in this window to the Clipboard.
☞ Paste into the window of another application.
☞ Wait for the test to run. It usually takes a few minutes.
☞ Paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page.
The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. You don't need to copy a second time. Details follow.
4. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode, under the conditions in which the problem is reproduced. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.
5. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply. Don't log in as root.
6. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
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PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin; clear; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s\n\n%s\n'; Fr='\nRAM details\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='user %s%%, system %s%%'; AC="com.autodesk.AutoCAD com.evenflow.dropbox com.google.GoogleDrive"; H='^[[:space:]]*((127\.0\.0\.1|::1|fe80::1%lo0)[[:space:]]+local|(255\.){3}255[[:space:]]*broadcast)host[[:space:]]*$'; NS=networksetup; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { ((a==0)); }; BI () { $PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$1"; }; LC () { $2 launchctl list | awk 'NR>1 && !/0x|\.[0-9]+$|com\.apple\.(AirPortBaseStationAgent|launchctl\.(Aqua|Background|System))$/{print $3}' | grep -Fv "$1"; }; M () { find -L "$d" -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | egrep -lq XML\|exec && echo $f; done; }; AT () { o=`file -b "$1" | egrep -v '^(A.{16}t$|cann)'`; Ps "${1##*/} format"; }; Pc () { o=`grep -v '^ *#' "$2"`; l=`wc -l <<< "$o"`; ((l>25)) && o=`head -n25 <<< "$o"`$'\n'"and $((l-25)) more line(s)"; Pm "$1"; AT "$1"; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=`sed -E '/^ *$|CSConfigDot/d;s/^ */   /;s/[-0-9A-Fa-f]{22,}/UUID/g;s/(ochat)\.[^.]+(\..+)/\1\2/;/Shared/!s/(\/Users\/)[^/]+/\1-/g' <<< "$o"` && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pp () { o=`$PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'`; Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o=`echo $o`; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; Pu () { [[ "$s" ]] || return; n=$((${#s[*]}-1)); c="${s[*]}"; s[$n]=${s[$n]%[.+-]*}; o=$((s[n]/$1)); o=$((o>=$2?o:0)); Ps "$3 used by process \"${c% ${s[$((n-1))]}*}\" with UID ${s[$((n-1))]} ($4)"; }; R () { o=; s=; ((r==0)); }; SP () { system_profiler SP${1}DataType; }; id -G | grep -qw 80; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; SP Software | sed -n 's/^ *//;5p;6p;8p'; h=(`SP Hardware | awk '/ Id/{print $3}; /Mem/{print $2}'`); o=$h; Ps Model; o=$((h[1]<4?h[1]:0)); Ps "Total RAM (GB)"; o=`SP Memory | sed '1,5d;/[my].*:/d'`; [[ "$o" =~ s:\ [^EO]|x([^8]|8[^0]) ]] && printf "$Fr" "$o"; o=`SP Diagnostics | sed '5,6!d'`; [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm POST; p=`SP Power`; o=`awk '/Cy/{print $NF}' <<< "$p"`; o=$((o>=300?o:0)); Ps "Battery cycles"; o=`sed -n '/Cond.*: [^N]/s/^.*://p' <<< "$p"`; Ps "Battery condition"; for b in FireWire Thunderbolt USB; do o=`SP $b | sed -En '/:$/{s/ *:$//;x;s/\n//;/Apple|Intel|SMSC/d;s/\n.*//;/\)/p;};/^ *(V.+ [0N]|Man).+ /{s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/(.+: )(.+)/ (\2)/;H;}'`; Pm $b; done; o=`pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*C/C/'`; [[ "$o" =~ No\ th|pms ]] && o=; Pm Heat; o=`pmset -g sysload | grep -v :`; [[ "$o" =~ =\ [^GO] ]] || o=; Pm "System load"; o=`nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'`; Ps "boot-args"; o=; fdesetup status | grep -q On && o=On; Ps FileVault; a=(/ ""); A=(System User); for i in 0 1; do o=`cd ${a[$i]}L*/Lo*/Diag* || continue; for f in *.{cr,h,pa,s}*; do [[ -f "$f" ]] || continue; d=$(stat -f%Sc -t%F "$f"); [[ "$f" =~ h$ ]] && grep -lq "^Thread c" "$f" && f="$f *"; echo "$d ${f%%_2*} ${f##*.}"; done | sort | tail`; Pm "${A[$i]} diagnostics"; done; grep -lq '*$' <<< "$o" && printf $'\n\t* Code injection\n'; o=`syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'caug|GPU |hfs: Ru|last value [1-9]|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|proc: t|Roamed|rror|ssert|Thrott|timed? ?o|WARN' -k Message Ane 'SMC:' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""};1'`; Pm "Kernel log"; o=`df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'`; o=$((o<5120?o:0)); Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/eo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( `sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d'` ); ((s[4]<85)) && o=`printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}` || o=; Ps "Total CPU usage" && { s=(`ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'`); Pu 1 0 CPU %; }; s=(`top -R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt | sed '$!d'`); Pu 1 25000 Ports \#;  sys=`pkgutil --regexp --only-files --files com.apple.pkg.* | sort | uniq | sed 's:^:/:'`; bi=`egrep '\.(kext|xpc)/(Contents/)?Info.plist$' <<< "$sys" | while read i; do [[ -f "$i" ]] && BI "$i"; done`; o=`kextstat -kl | grep -Fv "$bi" | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1`; Pm "Kernel extensions"; li=`egrep 'Launch[AD].+\.plist$' <<< "$sys"`; jl=`while read f; do [[ -f $f ]] && $PB\ :Label $f; done <<< "$li"`$'\n'"$bi"; R && o=`LC "$jl" sudo`; Pm Daemons; o=`LC "$jl"`; Pm Agents; o=`for d in {/,}L*/Lau*; do M; done | grep -Fv "$li" | while read f; do ID=$($PB\ :Label "$f") || ID="No job label"; printf "$Fb" "$f" "$ID"; done`; Pm "launchd items"; o=`for d in /{S*/,}L*/StartupItems; do M; done`; Pm "Startup items"; b=`sed -E '/^.+Lib.+\/Contents\/Info.plist$/!d;s/\/Info.plist$//;/Contents\/./d' <<< "$sys"`; l=`egrep '^/usr/lib/.+dylib$' <<< "$sys"`; p=`lsbom -pfc /var/db/*/*.BSD.bom | sed -En '/peri.+\/.+\./s/^\.\/[^/]+//p'`; [[ "$b" && "$l" && "$p" ]] && { o=`find -L /S*/L*/{C*/Sec*A,E}* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,iTu,Keyb,Mail/B,P*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Sec,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | grep -Fv "$b" | while read d; do i="$d"/Info.plist; [[ -f "$i" ]] || continue; ID=$(BI "$i") || ID="No bundle ID"; printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done`; Pm "Bundles"; o=`find /usr/lib -type f -name *.dylib | grep -Fv "$l"`; Pm "Shared libraries"; o=`find -L {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -exec cksum {} \; | awk '{print $3"\t"$1}' | grep -Fv "$p" | awk '{print $1}'`; Pm "Periodic scripts"; :; } || echo $'\nReceipts missing'; o=`for e in INSERT_LIBRARIES LIBRARY_PATH; do launchctl getenv DYLD_$e; done`; Pm "Inserted dylibs"; o=; defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate | grep -q 0 || o=On; Ps Firewall; o=`scutil --proxy | egrep 'Prox.+: [^0]'`; Pm Proxies; o=`scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'`; i=`route -n get default | awk '/e:/{print $2}'`; I=`$NS -listnetworkserviceorder | sed -En '/ '$i'\)$/{x;s/^\(.+\) //p;q;};x'`; n=`$NS -getdnsservers "$I" | awk '!/^T/{printf "not "; exit}'`; Ps "DNS (${n}from DHCP)"; o=`$NS -getinfo "$I" | awk '/k:/{if ($3 !~ "(255\.){3}0") print}; /v6:/{if ($2 !~ "A") print}'`; Pm TCP/IP; [[ "$I" =~ [AW]i ]] && { o=`/S*/*/P*/*/*/*/*/airport -I | awk '/lR/{print $2}'`; o=$((o<=-87?o:0)); Ps RSSI; }; tb=(`netstat -b -I $i | tail -1 | awk '{print $7" "$10}'`); u=$((t-`sysctl -n kern.boottime | cut -c9-18`)); m=(50 10); d=(in out); f=(recvfrom sendto); for i in 0 1; do o=$((tb[i]/u/1024)); o=$((o>=m[i]?o:0)); Ps "Average bandwidth ${d[$i]} (KiB/s)" && R && s=(`sudo dtrace -n 'syscall::'${f[$i]}':return {@[execname,uid]=sum(arg0)} tick-10sec {exit(0)}' | tail -1`); Pu 10240 0 "Current bandwidth ${d[$i]}" KiB/s; done; R && o=`sudo profiles -P | grep : | wc -l`; Ps Profiles; f=auto_master; [[ `md5 -q /etc/$f` =~ ^b166 ]] || Pc $f /etc/$f; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; f=/etc/hosts; Pc hosts <(egrep -v "$H" $f ); AT $f; Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd*; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l); R && o=`sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook`; Pm "Login hook"; LD="$(`find /S*/*/F* -type f -name lsregister | head -n1` -dump)"; o=`for ID in $AC; do [[ "$LD" =~ $ID ]] && echo $ID; done`; Pm "App check"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed -E 's/(\..*$|-[1-9])//g'; o=`find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 \) | wc -l`; Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=`find .??* -path .Trash -prune -o -type d -name *.app -print -prune`; Pm "Hidden apps"; o=`SP Fonts | egrep 'id: N|te: Y' | wc -l`; Ps "Font issues"; o=`find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist | while read f; do plutil -s "$f" >&- || echo $f; done`; Pm "Bad plists"; d=(Desktop L*/Keyc*); n=(20 7); for i in 0 1; do o=`find "${d[$i]}" -type f -maxdepth 1 | wc -l`; o=$((o<=n[$i]?0:o)); Ps "${d[$i]##*/} file count"; done; o=; ((UID==0)) && o=root; Ps UID; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
7. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste by pressing command-V. The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
8. If you see an error message in the Terminal window such as "syntax error," enter
exec bash
and press return. Then paste the script again.
9. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, press the key combination control-C or just press return three times at the password prompt. Again, the script will still run.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.
10. The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, there will be nothing in the Terminal window and no indication of progress. Wait for the line
[Process completed]
to appear. If you don't see it within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report the results. No harm will be done.
11. When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.
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12. When you post the results, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." It means that the forum software has misidentified something in the post as a violation of the rules. If that happens, please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
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