Hi David, Anne, Cara, and Others, I changed the title of this post to reflect the new subject. Cara originally asked about deleting Applications, and Anne replied:
>From: "Anne Robertson" >Hello Cara, > > >On Nov 29, 2007, at 4:33 AM, Cara Quinn wrote:just have a couple of >misc questions for y'all this lovely eve!... :) >> Second question is this; if an installed app doesn't have an >> uninstall app with it, how can I remove it from my system? > >Simply select it in your Applications folder and throw it in the Trash. > >Cheers, > >Anne David added: On Nov 29, 2007, at 02:15AM, David Poehlman wrote: >and if it puts stoff on your hd, you will want to find and distroy them just >for neatness. Also, as someone pointed out earlier, if it creates >contextual items, you need to find that folder and delete those as well. >Oh, one of the things it will quite possibly create is a preference payne, >but there's a folder for that too. > >This is not unlike windows in that even uninstallers in windows often >require this type of cleanup. > Usually, for simple apps, the only other file that might be created is a preference list file that keeps track of your preference setups -- like the cursor tracking options you use for navigation, and the default voice you want to use with VoiceOver. If you want to find preference list files associated with Applications, try looking under the Library/Preferences/ folder of your account for files that have the application as part of their name, and that end in an extension type of "plist". If these are Applications and preferences that were installed on a system-wide basis, look in the /Library/Preferences folder for your computer. For example, Apple's plist files will have names like: com.apple.VoiceOver.plist com.apple.Safari.plist while other apps like VisioVoice will have a name like: com.assistiveware.VisioVoice.plist If you delete a preference list file, the next time your open the application a new plist file gets created with the default values. If an application puts anything more elaborate on your computer, it should come with an uninstaller for the program. Sometimes apps will come with folders that contain documentation. Again, that's usually easy to find, because there a folder with the name of the Application in your Application directory. Some programs do generate plugins. If you try something like "Pimp My Safari" (that I think Shaun mentioned some time ago), and do very fancy audio-visual customization of your browser, then you might find associated files under the /Library/Contextual Menu Items/ folder on your computer, or in a similarly named folder under your user directory. However, I don't have any plugins under either folder, and in Shaun's case, he only had the single plugin that was giving him references in his contextual menu. I wouldn't even have known about these last folders if Shaun hadn't asked a question! <smile>. Hope this explanation helps. In general, to delete an application, just move it from the Applications folder to the trash, as Anne suggested. If you want to search for and delete associated plist files, which are usually pretty small, look in the Library/Preferences folder on your account for a file with part of application name in its plist name, and delete that. If you installed the app at the system level (like InfoVox/iVox voices) using your Administrator privileges, you might have to look in the /Library/Preferences for your computer. That's about it. Cheers, Esther
