How do I uninstall programs properly?

Sunnz

Sunnz

Who wants a stylus?
Do I just remove them from the Applications directory? Most programs I installed by dragging the .app file into the App dir.
 
Is it really that simple?

I have been owning my own Mac for only 2 days.

I think I am in love now!:)

And this is coming from someone who switched from Windows to Linux and now, Mac!!
 
BTW, I am now also wondering, if it hurts anything if I drag programs to somewhere else when I install them? Say to install Y! Messager, would it be ok if I add a directory called "Mess" in the Application directory? What about existing programs, would it be ok to move them to a different directory? (I already have Y! installed.)

Thanks.
 
Most apps don't have to be installed in Applications but it is the normal location.

I have a couple folders under my user directory, "beta apps" and "trial apps" where I install things I'm not sure I want to keep.

Sometimes though an app will expect to find itself there for various reasons and some things may not work as expected.
 
I would recommend keeping ALL applications in /Applications (and not in subfolders) and then using aliases and/or the Dock to access/launch those applications. Don't use your hard drive to launch applications -- make aliases, put them in your dock, use an application launcher or somehow create shortcuts to the applications you use most and use those to launch them.

Some (most?) Apple-branded applications are REQUIRED to be in /Applications and, if not, may "break" if you try and upgrade them (like iPhoto 6.0 to iPhoto 6.0.2 or something -- if iPhoto isn't in /Applications, it may not be found to be upgraded, or it may be incompletely upgraded).
 
Leave Apple Computer Inc's applications and respective folders - where they are.

As for most third party software - you can move such elsewhere (within the boot or another (internal and / or external) hard disk drive.

'How do I uninstall programs properly?' - if you only dragged the application, or its respective folder (if such existed), to the '/Applications/' (or elsewhere folder) - then most likely you only need to drag the application (or respective folder) to the trash can.

Some applications do supply an 'uninstaller' application. These (uninstallers) typically clean up other files and / or folders of files, created by the application; and may / may not actually delete the application.
 
I leave all Apple's stuff in /Applications as was mentioned before that way you can be sure that software update will find and update them properly. Other than that I have a directory called /Appllications/local where I keep everything else. One nice thing about that is when I buy a new machine I just copy the local directory over and am good to go.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
I would recommend keeping ALL applications in /Applications (and not in subfolders) and then using aliases and/or the Dock to access/launch those applications.
Click to expand...
When an app comes with support files I tend to put it in a subfolder within Applications. That way I still have the readme files and whatever in a logical place. These apps I usually launch via QuickSilver anyway so I don't care about aliasing them.

After all, look at Adobe apps, they do the same. The actual app is inside a folder with the support files.
 
Yep, safer to keep apps in apps folder :)
I make extra folders for 3rd party software i.e. one labeled graphics one games etc. I make an extra folder within the games and graphics folders for the aliases, I drag those alias's folders to the dock. There's also another alias folder on the dock for regularly used apps.
Have fun
 
uninstallers united, i guess..
I had some trouble with MS Word (notices of corrupt fonts in one user) and i thought to try also reinstalling Word - but I didn't find an uninstaller although I imagine for an app like MS Word there must be one, no?
 
The Office uninstaller ships on the CD. If you did an drag & drop installation, then it was installed in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Additional Tools/Remove Office/Remove Office.app.
 
I don't know, tried that before. didn't work - I read later that Remove Office is there to remove preference files and custom templates and NOT the program.
Any other ideas? I just don't want to drag to trash nad have loads of dead files around..
 
malina said:
... I read later that Remove Office is there to remove preference files and custom templates and NOT the program.
...
Click to expand...
Where did you read that? It is simply not true. Remove Office removes Office and not just the preference files and custom templates. Why is it not working? Who knows. Try again.
 
MisterMe said:
Where did you read that? It is simply not true. Remove Office removes Office and not just the preference files and custom templates. Why is it not working? Who knows. Try again.
Click to expand...

Went on search and found that Remove Office may not work if not run from the same user that the installation was run (doesn't matter if admin or not). So I did and it worked.

Thanks for making me look again. (although it didn't help my original problem..)
 
malina said:
Went on search and found that Remove Office may not work if not run from the same user that the installation was run (doesn't matter if admin or not). ...
Click to expand...
For future reference: It would be a very bad idea to allow an uninstaller run by one user to remove the software installed by another--except under very controlled circumstances.
 
AppZapper is a popular solution for uninstalling preference files and related junk as well as the applications themselves.

Basically put, the drag-in/drag-out install/uninstall procedure is great for most things: the applications save their preference files and stuff in the Library in your home folder, so each user can have different preferences. When you drag the application to the trash, you're deleting the application, sure, but most of the time, none of its related files. This is good if you want to uninstall an application to install a replacement or upgraded version, for instance, since the next version can just read the prefs, but it's a pain if you're really trying to get rid of something.

Look at GarageBand, for instance. If you dragged GarageBand to the trash, you'd save 55MB. But Garageband also installs 1.82 GIGABYTES of loops into /Library/Application Support/GarageBand.

AppZapper finds all the stuff that the application installed and gets rid of THAT too.
 
While it's true that just deleting an app doesn't get rid of its preference files and Application Support files (should it install any), most of them don't really matter. It's not as in Windows, where you have this one giant registry that gets messed up. It's simply files that clutter your Preferences folder a bit. AppZapper, in my opinion, is only for those who install and de-install, say, 10 apps per day. I find myself trying one or the other app a week, and I only clean up my Preferences folder every half year or so. No problems. Those preference files ain't big, anyway. At the beginning, AppZapper had its fair share of problems as well. Didn't find all related files, deleted some that _weren't_ related... I don't trust such a tool much. And in my opinion, there just isn't sooooo much benefit for me personally. Things like Garage Band's loops folder are an exception, of course. But I find things like that using OmniDiskSweeper. That's for finding large folders on your volumes.
 
Step 1 - Create the Shell Script.
Step 2 - Create the AppleScript application using XCode
Step 3 - Add two buttons "UnInstall & Cancel" and write this code in the apple script file.
Step 4 - Copy the shell script file and past in the following path "TestApp.app/Contents/Resources"

Step 5 - Run the Test.app.

Thanks
Bijayani
 
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