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newbie question: how to uninstall apps?

A

ashjamben

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 28, 2007
608
1
Shanghai, China
ok, i've had my macbook for a couple of months now and have gotten to grips with most things, but i need to know: how do i uninstall apps?

i went abit slap happy with downloading applications when i first got it, but i've decided i don't need half of the things i have so i want to get rid of them. am i abit naive to think that simply placing the application icon in the recycle bin will get rid of everything on the computer associated with that program?

any help would be grand, thanks
 
ashjamben said:
ok, i've had my macbook for a couple of months now and have gotten to grips with most things, but i need to know: how do i uninstall apps?

i went abit slap happy with downloading applications when i first got it, but i've decided i don't need half of the things i have so i want to get rid of them. am i abit naive to think that simply placing the application icon in the recycle bin will get rid of everything on the computer associated with that program?

any help would be grand, thanks
Click to expand...

Ok, if the app came with an installer, then use that to uninstall. If it didn't then you can just drag the app to the trash are empty. This may leave a leftover preference file or two lying around your library folder, but these files are negligible in size. Also remember that OSX has no registry, so it does not get 'bogged down' the more things you install.
 
thanks for the quick replies

that macrumors wiki was very helpful. it seems like i can just manually get rid of things myself or be lazy and download one :)

the latter may be the best option, althought i'm not paying for appzapper
 
ashjamben said:
thanks for the quick replies

that macrumors wiki was very helpful. it seems like i can just manually get rid of things myself or be lazy and download one :)

the latter may be the best option, althought i'm not paying for appzapper
Click to expand...

Thats why i put in a choice of free and shareware,thats up to you about appzapper,but both appzapper & cleanapp are shareware and you can use them for i think its 5 times before you have to buy
 
i decided to manually get rid of files in application support and preferences from things i've already uninstalled, such as coconut battery and a festive lights widget,

i'm gonna try that apptrap now, recommended from the macrumors wiki.

thanks
:)

ok so that didn't go so well.

i tried getting rid of a couple of things using apptrap with no avail. i still managed to find folders and files in the preferences, application support and cache folders. i decided to delete them myself, now i'm abit scared i might have gotten ridden of something i shouldn't have. but it's late (in the UK anyway), and everythings still in my trash so i may restore everything tomorrow and start a fresh. i have a feeling i shouldn't have touched files in the cache folder, but i'll start again tomorrow.
 
ashjamben said:
ok so that didn't go so well.

i tried getting rid of a couple of things using apptrap with no avail. i still managed to find folders and files in the preferences, application support and cache folders. i decided to delete them myself, now i'm abit scared i might have gotten ridden of something i shouldn't have. but it's late (in the UK anyway), and everythings still in my trash so i may restore everything tomorrow and start a fresh. i have a feeling i shouldn't have touched files in the cache folder, but i'll start again tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Did you use it correctly? After installing it you have to tell it to be active (click on it in the system preferences pane and click "Start AppTrap". Then you just drag stuff to your trash and it should ask you if you want it to get all the other stuff.
 
yes it was active. it did get rid of some things, it has a list of files it going to delete, but like i said i still managed to find other files.
 
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