How to kill / disable / uninstall "launcher v 4.2.2" app?

[meucat]

Hi people, I have a "blu dash music", and never had problems, but now appears to be a new legion of phishing apps that auto-installs into device .

Some "launcher v 4.2.2" installed into my phone, but it does'n exist on google play, so I don't know how to kill it, or even where it came from.

It appears with "disable" button on grey (unable to press it), and when "force stop" it produces an havoc on device because prevent lot of tasks and processes. It also turns to run alone even when forced stop, I don't know how.
By trying security -> device admin , this app "launcher" does not appear there so it is impossible kill it this way.
I tried also AVG antivirus but laucher remains invisible to it.
I tried discover where on hell this app resides (some folder) to kill manually, but no success at all.
I would like to know how to kill this app forever and also what the steps I should follow to avoid other apps to auto-install on device without stopping wi-fi connections.

thanks a lot

meucat

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you certain that's not the stock launcher app that came with the phone? Is there some other Blu launcher app?

 

[meucat]

I am almost sure it is not blu launcher because I purchased my phone some two years ago and it always worked fine , I even didn't know there were "launchers" app on planet earth.

A week ago some "games" and "protectors" began to auto-install into my phone, I dont know how because I am very careful not to press ads or other strange things. I was able to kill all these apps but one day I woke up with a new appearance (blue color background), all my icons were moved and so.Then I learned exists "launchers". This one I can't eliminate in any way. I would like to restore my phone to default again.

thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Hmm, that kind of behavior is always worrisome. Have you installed any apps from sources other than Google Play Store?

Your best bet may be to do a factory reset. Do the following:

1. Before the reset, backup or sync all of your data.
2. Go to Settings>Backup & Reset and uncheck Automatically Restore.
3. Now do the factory reset.
4. After the Setup Wizard is done, go immediately to the Play Store and stop any app from installing automatically.

Does the problem persist? If so, then the malware may have been installed to the root, which can be very difficult to remove.

 

[meucat]

Thanks very much , I will try this one soon, but let me say I found some info about this app into "app information", at bottom appear this msg "android.permission.ADVANCED_WIDGET_API" and by pressing this text appears "provided by com.mediatek"

I have not seem this advise on any other apps into my phone, I googled for mediatek and also for "android.permission.advanced..." and there is lot of info about it, but too much for a poor user like me to understand.

I notice also that "widgets" tab dissapeared from phone, I remember there was "apps" and "widgets" but now it vanished

All undesirable apps I got to uninstall, google play said to me "this was not installed by google play but we will uninstall even so". The problem with this one is I can find it on google play, it has a little white home icon. I think android is getting very vulnerable to threats now.

thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Did the phone get any recent system updates? That can change things like how you find and add widgets to the homescreen.

 

[DogFlahNam]

Lol that is your standard launcher that come in your phone.. :-$