uninstall question

[rupert]

i have just recently switched to mac from pc. i am trying mac out with the new 12 inch powerbook. so far i am very impressed. my question is how do i uninstal software once its installed? do i just drag the icon from the application folder into the trash? i am used to running windows were deleteing a shortcut doesnt remove a program. any help is appreciated.

also does anybody have any idea why my battery life has dropped dramatically since installing airport card and using my powerboor wirelessly. it has cut battery life in half to what i was getting before. thanks again for any help.

 

[Catfish_Man]

Yeah, just drag the program to the trash. There is an equivalent to Windows shortcuts called aliases, but they don't show up that often (except in the dock, everything in the dock is a "shortcut", you can control-click on it and choose "show in finder" to show the actual program). Deleting programs this way leaves a few preference files around, but they're basically irrelevant.

No clue about the battery life. You might try looking at the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences to see if it has anything useful.

 

[altair]

Re: uninstall question

Originally posted by rupert
i have just recently switched to mac from pc. i am trying mac out with the new 12 inch powerbook. so far i am very impressed. my question is how do i uninstal software once its installed? do i just drag the icon from the application folder into the trash? i am used to running windows were deleteing a shortcut doesnt remove a program. any help is appreciated.

also does anybody have any idea why my battery life has dropped dramatically since installing airport card and using my powerboor wirelessly. it has cut battery life in half to what i was getting before. thanks again for any help.

Using airport does cut battery life, since the airport needs power, and when you turn it on, it uses the power from your battery. Just turn it off if you aren't using it. Otherwise, darn.

~altair

 

[beatle888]

you can also do a search for say... Internet Explorer (im using this only as an example of how to delete a program) and you'll see all the prefs and related files. be careful you dont throw a file away that is actually being used by a different program. you can tell if you select the file in question and see where it resides. if its in a microsoft office folder, for instance, i would leave that one. but if its an Internet Explorer related file in the preferences folder for instance, then i would delete that one. i think its overal a good idea to do this. consider the adobe folder in the application support folder within the libraries. if you just dragged the adobe application to the trash then the adobe folder in application support would be left behind and take up at least a hundred megs. although applications dont usually install anything in the application support folder, its still good to rid all application files if your going to get rid of an application.

 

[Chrisnorth]

Uninstall using the Terminal

Since OS X is a UNIX based operating system, you can also use the terminal to do uninstalls.

Typing sudo rm -fr filename, where filename is the name of the application you want to remove, will remove the folder containing your program and everything it contains. This is a good method since it will remove everything in the program folder regardless of permissions.

A word of warning, however, this is also a potentially dangerous operation, since you are acting as the superuser when you do this. Typing the wrong filename or path could remove something important. Read up on UNIX first. It's probably best to stay clear of shell commands unless you understand them well.

 

[Erasmus®]

uninstall: files remaining

Hi ya!

I'm also new to mac os (I'm used to windows) and have a few doubts about uninstalling.
I installed the application called "amule" and then unistalled it by dragging the file into my trash icon. The problem is, when I used spotlight to look if everything was ok, I spelled the name of the programm and there still are a few files related to the programm left. I know I have to eliminate them manually but I don't know HOW because I cannt locate them. Can anyone help me?
Thank you!

 

[WildCowboy]

Wow...congrats on digging up an old thread! You can just drag them directly from the Spotlight window to the Trash. They will still appear in Spotlight until you empty the Trash because Trash is also indexed by Spotlight.

You can see the location of a "Spotlighted" file by control-clicking or right clicking on it and choosing "Reveal in Finder" from the contextual menu.

 

[Erasmus®]

than u!

Thank u for answering.

I tried out what you said, and I can neither drag them nor right click on them. They look like locked. I couldn't neither locate them! I am doing something wrong or are they just uneraseable? Thanks again!