Installing and uninstalling software

[haganah]

Perhaps someone knows this. Is it a bad idea to just drag a program into the trash? Does that leave things behind on the drive like it would on windows? Is there another way to uninstall it so it's clean?

The same with install. If I firewire my powerbook to my friend's and he copies a file over to his computer, sometimes it doesn't work. Do you have to download from the originial website or install from a CD always? If not when do you know it's not necessary?

Sorry for all these silly amateur questions - I just got my powerbook a week ago and have been slowly figuring things out.

[Nermal]

If an application is "well-behaved", it will appear to be a single file (called a bundle or package). You can just drag these to the Trash to get rid of them.

However, they may leave preferences or something behind. Take a look in ~/Library/Preferences for something with a similar name to the application you're removing. However, it doesn't hurt to leave these files on your system, they won't slow it down.

PS. "~" means Home.

[kenkooler]

Also copy files from /Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Application Support.
This should solve problems while copying applications.

[revenuee]

I usually run a search with the Application name and just delete the files associated with the name

[GovornorPhatt]

If I want to delete all of the componets of an application, I use Aladin Software's Spring Cleaning (http://www.aladdinsys.com/mac/springcleaning/). It searches your hard drive to find all of the componets of an application, then deletes them. It is very helpful for deleting large applications.

[revenuee]

Originally posted by GovornorPhatt
If I want to delete all of the componets of an application, I use Aladin Software's Spring Cleaning (http://www.aladdinsys.com/mac/springcleaning/). It searches your hard drive to find all of the componets of an application, then deletes them. It is very helpful for deleting large applications.

Good to know of such software ... thanks

[strider42]

Originally posted by GovornorPhatt
If I want to delete all of the componets of an application, I use Aladin Software's Spring Cleaning (http://www.aladdinsys.com/mac/springcleaning/). It searches your hard drive to find all of the componets of an application, then deletes them. It is very helpful for deleting large applications.

I have no experience with spring cleaning on OS X, but I heard some real horror stories about this software in older version, deleting things it shouldn't delete and generally screwing things up. I wouldn't trust this software, and frankly can't think of too many isntances where it would be necessary. As was previously said, preferences don't hurt if they get left behind, andthey tend to be rather small too. Dragging to the trash should suffice in most cases.

[Horrortaxi]

Originally posted by haganah
Is it a bad idea to just drag a program into the trash?

A bad idea? No! It's one of those things you can do that makes you relieved you're not running Windows.

I wouldn't recommend any special software for removing applications. It's too easy to do it manually--just do a search (command-f in Finder) for the app you want to delete. It will reveal the app and preference files associated with it (probably 2-3 files). Delete them from there and they're gone without a trace. Why pay $50 to do that for you?

Complete tangent here, but Spring Cleaning sounds like it's for the truly illiterate out there. There's a huge market for products that make Windows behave (antivirus, utilities, etc) and it seems that the Nortons of the world are trying to sell those kinds of products to people who don't need them--i.e. uninstallers for Mac or antivirus for PDAs. Let your Mac be a Mac--you don't need anything with the word "Norton" on it. You paid enough for your Mac, don't pay the Fool Tax as well.