Easy way to find and delete Classic and PowerPC Apps?

Hi,

Preparing to switch to Lion from latest version of snow leopard (careful not to use the word "upgrade" because the jury is still out. and am in a house-cleaning mood. I have dozens, if not a couple of hundred of PowerPC and Classic apps that have migrated with me from system to system for the better part of my computing lifetime. I'd like to get rid of them and can see how to identify what they are using System Profiler.

However, because of the large quantity of these apps it would be highly tedious to remove them one by one manually as I see them in the System Profiler list. Wondering if there's some other utility or method anyone can suggest to mass delete all Classic and/or PowerPC apps...or some kind of way to identify them in a "super"-smart folder that would only have those apps listed in them since System Profiler won't let you do anything but identify the apps.

Thanks in advance for any ideas/help.

Rick

Skyhigh223 said:

I think Lion moves PPC apps to a separate folder on your drive called Incompatible Software automatically. In theory, you'd just need to trash this folder once you've upgraded, without doing any work.

...you may want to verify this though.

Click to expand...

That would be convenient if it did so though was hoping to remove the apps before migrating Lion to start with a cleaner palette.

DenBeke said:

Systeminfo -> Software -> Applications
Normally you've got a list there. One of the info's showed there is 'sort' (intel, universal, PPC)

Click to expand...

In my list, the available fields to sort by are Name, Date Modified, Date Created, Last Opened, Size, Kind, Version, Comments, Label

None of these list the application type (intel, universal, PPC)....the "Kind" column only lists the very general kind of file it is (Application, Folder, or if a document what app created it)...so I don't think that's it unless the application type is a new view available in Lion.


Thanks for the replies!

R

mrgraff said:

Lion doesn't sort the apps or move them for you. Lion will put a gray "no" badge over the app's icon to let you know that it's incompatible.

Not the easiest way to do this but, you could go ahead and install Lion, and then sort your apps by "Date Created". Chances are that most of the older ones would be the ones to uninstall - you just check the icon to be sure first and then use that visual clue to find the rest.

Click to expand...

Does Lion put this badge over the apps in the Finder or are the "no" badges only visible in Launchpad? (Good suggestion on the Date created sorting...thanks)

Mal said:

It's in System Profiler if you're not already on Lion (which it sounds like you're not). Click the Apple Menu, select About This Mac, then click the More Info button. You'll see the Applications tab on the left, most of the way down. From there you'll have the sort options mentioned before (that's what they were telling you to do, but they said System Info(rmation), which is what the name was changed to in Lion).

jW

Click to expand...

I have those sort options in System Profiler now in Snow Leopard...but there is no ability to do anything but view the applications...you then have to manually go to the finder to delete them which is a pain....does Lion add the ability to move or delete applications directly from within System Profiler?

Mal said:

Nope, it's simply a way to see which are which. You can only delete from the Finder.

jW

Click to expand...

Right...well as I indicated in my initial post, I was aware of this viewing ability within System Profiler and am looking for a better way to group and delete al these apps. Thanks though.

mrgraff said:

Both, and on the dock as well.

Click to expand...

Well looks like that's the simple solution to this...has to be done after moving to Lion...though some apps are in their own folders so will still require some digging to see the "no" badges and get them all.

Thanks all,

R