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How to COMPLETELY uninstall a program

S

Steven Jackson

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2006
387
7
Lincoln, U.K.
Hi,

I want to get rid of a program I have installed in my applications folder (MediaFork, since the new version of Handbrake renders it obsolete). I have dragged the program to the trash, but want to make sure I delete absolutely everything associated with this program... where else do I need to look?

Spotlight lists two files: org.mediafork.dynalias.plist and MediaFork.crash.log

Is it safe to manually delete these? Are there likely to be any others?

Cheers,

Steve.
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,789
7,526
Los Angeles
Just a quick comment. I share your desire to do a complete job when uninstalling an application, Steven Jackson, but I have yet to hear that any practical problem results if you don't find every last plist, log, or other text file leftover from an application. So it's a matter of principle, but nothing to actively worry about.

Exception: If you don't want anyone to know that you've ever had that application installed!
 
killmoms

killmoms

macrumors 68040
Jun 23, 2003
3,752
55
Durham, NC
Yeah, there really isn't any reason to delete those. They just store preferences and crash info, basically just text files sitting on your drive, taking up hardly any room. The app is by far the biggest space consumer, and the other files don't DO anything to your system just sitting there.

I never understood the "OMG MUST DELETE EVERYTHING AAAAUGHHHH!!!!!1" types. :rolleyes:
 
clevin

clevin

macrumors G3
Aug 6, 2006
9,095
1
1. trace trash left over is not what ppl like
2. some apps' left over is HUGE, such as garageband and iDVD, the leftover can be in hundreds of MB if not over GB.
 
M@lew

M@lew

macrumors 68000
Nov 18, 2006
1,582
0
Melbourne, Australia
Also remember that if you used an installer to install the program (and didn't just drag and drop) there's a chance that the installer will also be an uninstaller, which should help remove the traces of the program.
 
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