How do you remove a program you dont want on Mac osx

[JSmoove05]

Hello
I came over from the windows world. This is my 1st mac a MBP and im having a hard time removing programs I dont want that came preinstalled. How do i delete them w/o reformating drive thanks,

 

[swiftaw]

Drag them to the trash to get rid of the app.

You may want to use spotlight to find any library files associated with the app that you can delete too (such as Garageband loop files)

There are also 3rd party apps that will uninstall things, i think uApp is one, however I simply drag the app to trash then search spotlight for any extra files.

One exception, if the app came with an installer/uninstaller use that.

 

[janey]

http://guides.macrumors.com/Uninstalling_Applications_in_Mac_OS_X

 

[netdog]

AppZapper is very good at uninstalling and cleaning up after itself.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Hey, I use Adobe Reader 8, and every so often it installs Adobe Help Viewer and Adobe Updater on its own. In the background. Without my consent. Is there a way to stop this? It seems like a very Windowsesque behavior. I've deleted them multiple times with AppZapper, but to no avail. I even deleted all files on my computer that had something to do with Adobe except the Reader itself. Thanks, anyone.

 

[Eraserhead]

@TallestSkill, no they are required parts of Acrobat Reader, so you shouldn't delete them, if you don't want them you'll have to use preview .

 

[AdeFowler]

I knew there was something I wished had been included in Leopard

Seriously, whilst it's not a major headache it would have been nice to have such a basic function built into the OS.

 

[72930]

I knew there was something I wished had been included in Leopard

Seriously, whilst it's not a major headache it would have been nice to have such a basic function built into the OS.

99.9% of the time, dragging the app to the trash does what you want (it also means your preferences are saved incase you ever re-install the app). AppZapper is a specialist app, not a "basic function"

 

[epochblue]

As was mentioned above, AppZapper is great for apps that were installed via drag-and-drop, but if the app you want to get rid of came with an uninstaller, you should ALWAYS run the uninstaller instead.

 

[AdeFowler]

99.9% of the time, dragging the app to the trash does what you want (it also means your preferences are saved incase you ever re-install the app). AppZapper is a specialist app, not a "basic function"

Agreed. But some apps from vendors like Adobe and Microsoft spew detritus to many far flung corners of your hard drive. Their complete removal can be a headache.

 

[72930]

Agreed. But some apps from vendors like Adobe and Microsoft spew detritus to many far flung corners of your hard drive. Their complete removal can be a headache.

The apps that need more often come with an uninstaller (Office does, I don't know about Adobe apps). Parallels and Safari 3 are other examples I can think of, there are plenty more

 

[AdeFowler]

The apps that need more often come with an uninstaller (Office does, I don't know about Adobe apps). Parallels and Safari 3 are other examples I can think of, there are plenty more

Acrobat Pro does, but none of the other Adobe apps. Thank goodness for Spotlight

 

[heySparky]

Hey, I use Adobe Reader 8, and every so often it installs Adobe Help Viewer and Adobe Updater on its own. In the background. Without my consent. Is there a way to stop this? It seems like a very Windowsesque behavior. I've deleted them multiple times with AppZapper, but to no avail. I even deleted all files on my computer that had something to do with Adobe except the Reader itself. Thanks, anyone.

Freakin' Adobe. I dumped Reader quite a while ago and use Preview instead. Yes I know I loose some functionality by not using Reader but I'm willing to live with that to avoid the kind of crap Tallest Skil described.