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
