[EDIT] I think I chose the wrong forum for this question..
It's been a year since i got my first mac, and as a naive user (and being completely confident that I would never get a virus or malware of some sort [which i didn't] ), I wanted to try out some cool applications that I thought I might want.
After a year of downloading, trialing, and liking or disliking different apps, i feel I have a good idea of what apps I'll want to keep on the team roster, and what apps will be benched. I've completely cluttered my entire computer not knowing that uninstalling an app isn't as easy as moving it to the trash. Unneeded add-ons for apps like iTunes, iChat, and Safari have slowed my computer beyond comfortableness. iTunes' music playability sometimes lags, Firefox is a lot slower than before, and Microsoft Office is a bit unstable. It may seem like a big feet to completely start over, but using Windows all before, I've done it a couple times and it had always worked for me well (I'm very fond of having a speedy and clean computer).
Do you think i should start from scratch? How do I do it? If I have everything backed up on Time Machine, can i choose to recover some of the apps i know are clean like Photoshop or MS Office '08 from my entire archive of backup, avoiding the need to reinstall via install disc (Along with all my music, contacts, photos, firefox bookmarks etc.)?
It's been a year since i got my first mac, and as a naive user (and being completely confident that I would never get a virus or malware of some sort [which i didn't] ), I wanted to try out some cool applications that I thought I might want.
After a year of downloading, trialing, and liking or disliking different apps, i feel I have a good idea of what apps I'll want to keep on the team roster, and what apps will be benched. I've completely cluttered my entire computer not knowing that uninstalling an app isn't as easy as moving it to the trash. Unneeded add-ons for apps like iTunes, iChat, and Safari have slowed my computer beyond comfortableness. iTunes' music playability sometimes lags, Firefox is a lot slower than before, and Microsoft Office is a bit unstable. It may seem like a big feet to completely start over, but using Windows all before, I've done it a couple times and it had always worked for me well (I'm very fond of having a speedy and clean computer).
Do you think i should start from scratch? How do I do it? If I have everything backed up on Time Machine, can i choose to recover some of the apps i know are clean like Photoshop or MS Office '08 from my entire archive of backup, avoiding the need to reinstall via install disc (Along with all my music, contacts, photos, firefox bookmarks etc.)?