How Do I Uninstall parallels ?

[Sovon Halder]

It's like a virus that won't go away.

I tried everything their website recommended for proper uninstallation. Moreover I took time and deleted everything that I could find in various folders within ~/Library

Still every time I open context menu, the crap is there..

And clicking on those, brings this beautiful dialoge box from Parallels.. (software I'm starting to hate at this point)

Any advice as to how to get rid of this trash ?

 

[KlingonSpy]

You have some settings and plists hanging around. Use Appcleaner to remove all pieces of the install. It's free @ appcleaner. You may have to reload parallels then uninstall.

 

[Honza1]

Yet again, calling xyz application trash for something it is not responsible for. Cool down....

OK, let's try from the simple steps:
Step 1: google "osx rebuild open with menu" and at the top Mr. Google presents instructions how to rebuild launch services. Did you follow that and did it work or not?
Step 2: If not, you probably have checked for Parallels "share applications with OSX" (at least that how it was called few versions ago) and it has installed in your Applications a folder "Windows" or something with links/starter apps to your Parallels applications. From OSX point of view these look like applications and it associates them with files they advertise as capable of opening. So, it will add these to Open with menu (launch services). Delete those links (the whole folder) and yet again rebuild the launch services.
Step 3: Still not solved??? Well, now I am confused also. In that case it is becoming worth challenge. And may be being annoyed. It should not be that difficult...
Parallels have quite active discussion forum and you should be able to get help there. It is routinely answered by Parallels staff.

Until step 3, YOU installed Parallels and actually a whole new OS (Windows) with lot os applications, YOU chose to have applications shared in the configuration. There are no automatic uninstallers for most OSX applications, Parallels are uninstalled by deleting the application itself (well, most of it anyway) - and the remnants need to be cleaned up by system maintenance and user.

OSX should routinely rebuild launch services, but I am not sure what the schedule is...

Not sure if appcleaner (which I use also) would be able to find and remove these app links/starters... I cannot try that on my system...

 

[tyc0746]

If they're going to change anything other than the Parallels app contents, then maybe the default uninstall process should not simply be "1) drag app to trash. 2) empty trash.".

I regularly reinstall my OS specifically to get rid of all this 'junk' that's left over when an app doesn't include an uninstaller. Adobe are probably the worst for this.

A 'normal' user should not have to know that they've got to rebuild their launch services, remove app extensions/preferences/libraries/etc. when an app doesn't clean it during the 'drag & drop to trash' recommended uninstall process.

 

[Sovon Halder]

- I followed the "official instructions". Drag to trash & empty. Didn't work.
- I used CleanMyMac. 1. Parallels deleted. 2.Reinstalled & then deleted - Didn't work.
- Used brew cask zap. Didn't work.
- Used AppCleaner & CCleaner. 1. Parallels deleted. 2.Reinstalled & then deleted - Neither worked.
- Deleted every parallels reference I found in library. - Didn't work.

I've restarted my mac about 10- times in the process. Relaunched finder. Still the context menu and the parallels popup was there. And to my surprise.. The OS that I had installed was there also. Even after uninstalling the app deleting library gunk multiple times over, if I reinstalled it & opened the app, Windows 10 was there in suspended mode. It's obnoxious that it's occupying space in my super expensive flash storage.

It should not be that difficult...

I try to keep my computer setup minimal. Inside and around. Never faced this kind of issue to uninstall an app before.

A 'normal' user should not have to know that they've got to rebuild their launch services, remove app extensions/preferences/libraries/etc. when an app doesn't clean it during the 'drag & drop to trash' recommended uninstall process.

That's right. An end user trying to get something removed, shouldn't have to go through this. This is deliberate doing of the software maker. I do hope they change their business model & take necessary steps to improve user experience. Because right now it's not cool.

TLDR; "App Cleaner & Uninstaller" did the job; after a relaunch of Finder.

Jeez.

 

[xgman]

Try this:

Fire up a Terminal window and paste in the following command:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain user

That uses lsregister—the Launch Services command-line tool—to rebuild OS X’s internal database, throw out outdated entries, and make sure that everything’s all up to date. When you’re done you’ll need to relaunch Finder, which you can either do from the command line—enter killall Finder—or by option-control clicking on the Finder icon in the Dock and choosing Relaunch.

 

[Honza1]

- I followed the "official instructions". Drag to trash & empty. Didn't work.
- I used CleanMyMac. 1. Parallels deleted. 2.Reinstalled & then deleted - Didn't work.
- Used brew cask zap. Didn't work.
- Used AppCleaner & CCleaner. 1. Parallels deleted. 2.Reinstalled & then deleted - Neither worked.
- Deleted every parallels reference I found in library. - Didn't work.

I've restarted my mac about 10- times in the process. Relaunched finder. Still the context menu and the parallels popup was there. And to my surprise.. The OS that I had installed was there also. Even after uninstalling the app deleting library gunk multiple times over, if I reinstalled it & opened the app, Windows 10 was there in suspended mode. It's obnoxious that it's occupying space in my super expensive flash storage.


I try to keep my computer setup minimal. Inside and around. Never faced this kind of issue to uninstall an app before.


That's right. An end user trying to get something removed, shouldn't have to go through this. This is deliberate doing of the software maker. I do hope they change their business model & take necessary steps to improve user experience. Because right now it's not cool.

TLDR; "App Cleaner & Uninstaller" did the job; after a relaunch of Finder.

Jeez.

Well, at the end, this really should not be such a surprise - Parallels is far from normal application. It is whole second virtual computer hacked into the OSX. It assumes that user is pretty much expert, who can handle OSX and Windows - and their weird interaction when they coexist. Now, Parallels have dumbed down this even more than the others, but still - it is not simple nor trivial. Managing requires higher than normal level of expertise, or these are the consequences.

For example, if I can decipher the description above, OP did not (as first step) manually delete the whole damn virtual machine file itself. That is surprise and is not something I would have expected. If I am nuking Parallels (or VMware or any other virtualization program), VM files are my thing to deal with - as user. I am expected to know I have them, they contain whole different OS and lots of other things. They are HUGE. They should be nuked first - or I did not uninstall anything... But, if the Parallels wiped those VMs for users automatically on uninstall, it would be giant uproar as those can contain precious user data.

I can get my 70+ years old relatives use Mail, Safari, and Pages without them having a clue about OSX, and - with some ugly limitations - it may even work. But having two or more operating systems on one computer, coexisting together, will create complications which require expertise. Getting rid of this mess requires even more expertise. Lesson learned.