i have TONS of deleted software, but preferences stay... and the search wont dig into them. where can i change preferences so i can search through "protected" files as well?
I don't know how to rectify your problem but for the future I would recommend running AppTrap, that way when you put the apps in the Trash it searches and deletes all of the associated pref files you describe. And it's free.
I don't know how to rectify your problem but for the future I would recommend running AppTrap, that way when you put the apps in the Trash it searches and deletes all of the associated pref files you describe. And it's free.
Now may be a good time to learn your way around the terminal and UNIX, which will allow you a thousand things no one gui app would do. For searching for files, I usually use the locate utility:
cd /usr/libexec
sudo ./locate.updatedb
after prompting for your password, this constructs the locate database. After which simply type in
locate pattern
where pattern matches a string you want to search for. For example
locate plist | grep -i aperture
returns the pathnames of all plist files (preferences, etc) files on the system belonging to Aperture.
thank you guys.. i had "appcleaner", but it just doesnt work for AU plugins.
yeroen thanks, i got some fileS, but i still didnt find it. thats because its probably not there in the first place thanks anyway, very useful tip! i hate it that "search" doesnt go through preferences.. :S
You may not need search to remove programs, because there is only a few places where apps typically install stuff. Use Finder to check these folders.
<your home dir>/Library/Application Support
<your home dir>/Library/Preferences
<your home dir>/Library/PreferencePanes
<your home dir>/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
<root of hard drive>/Library/Application Support
<root of hard drive>/Library/Preferences
<root of hard drive>/Library/PreferencePanes
<root of hard drive>/Library/Internet Plug-Ins