![]() ![]() (2), (3) and (4) cannot cause interference with anything other than the original application itself. (1) amounts to however large the application bundle is. This is usually the name and password you use to log in to your Mac. If you're asked for a user name and password, enter the name and password of an administrator account on your Mac. Select the app and press Command-Delete on your keyboard. (2), (3) and (4) amount to about a megabyte of space. Select the app and choose File > Move to Trash from the menu bar. The majority of programs out there, though, do NOT do these things, and consist of only 3 or 4 parts:Ģ) A small preference file, usually located in ~/Library/Preferencesģ) Possibly an "Application Support" folder, containing support files for the applicationĤ) A folder or data files in your home directory (DiVX puts a "DiVX movies" folder in your Movies folder). They use no memory and are not "active" unless you reinstall the deleted application and run it again.īut, of course, some companies refuse to follow Apple's guidelines - such as Adobe, who supplies their own uninstaller program, and run-time applications like mySQL that put hooks into the underlying UNIX core of Mac OS X. They will not degrade the performance of your computer nor will your computer magically "speed up" when they're gone. I'm not dissuading anyone from using AppZapper or AppCleaner or any of the application-removal programs - I'm just saying that as troubleshooting measures for instabilities unrelated to the application, they're useless, as the "leftovers" from deleting an application cannot interfere with any other application or the system itself.Īpplication removal programs are a boon to those who want to keep their system tidy and squeaky-clean, but absolutely no harm comes from leaving preference files and Application Support folders behind, and they take up miniscule amounts of space on your hard drive (much like haggling over a few grains of unnoticeable sand on a huge sand castle). Of course, some applications install more things in other places - for example, the mySQL database application among others. The same goes for the leftovers in the "Application Support" folder. A rogue preference file from a deleted application cannot cause problems with any other applications or the system itself, as the preference file is only ever "read" by the system when the application (which has been deleted now) is launched. ![]() Neither of these can actually interfere with anything, though, now that the application itself has been trashed. Of course, there may be a left-behind preference file that amounts to a few hundred kilobytes of data, and an "Application Support" folder that may amount to a few megabytes of data. On the contrary, dragging most applications to the trash does succeed in getting rid of the entire application. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |