Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

rupis33 · Oct 9, 2003, 12:01 AM

Hey all, just wanted to first start off by thanking everyone for the good advise and even funny lines I read on this forum. I just got my first Mac ever (G5 Dual 2 with 1 gig) I am a former windows user, so I am just getting my feet wet with the Mac at the moment. I have spent the last 2 hours reading the manual and going thru help topics to try and find the correct way to Uninstall software. On a PC some of the software has it available in the software folder, or you can go to control panel and remove software. I see nothing like this at all on the Mac. Do I just take the software and drag it to the trash and then empty the trash?? That is the only thing I can think of at this point. This is probably the dumbest question asked yet. But hey someone has to ask it

Luke

Phrogman · Oct 9, 2003, 12:20 AM

Yup, Just drag it to the trash. The preferences will remain in the preferences folder, but other than that, that's usually all you have to do.

Socially Awkward Solo · Oct 9, 2003, 01:01 AM

Dragging to the trash is the end of it unless you are really anal and want to get rid of the harmless pref file as well.

idyll · Oct 9, 2003, 01:12 AM

Don't worry, when I got my first Mac I didn't know the answer to that question either.. Seems logical now

Jerommeke · Oct 9, 2003, 01:19 AM

In the most common cases, putting an app into the Trash deletes it. There is no registry file or something like it from which it needs to be deleted.

Preferences-files are still left and can also be deleted but take a neglectable amount of size, and cause no harm.

When a special deinstallation is required (some tools that are installed for example installed deep into your system, of which I am personally - for that reason - not very fond of), the installer delivers a deinstaller too.

cambro · Oct 9, 2003, 08:10 AM

Yup...like they said.

But I usually trash the App. and then do a find on the app's name or a portion thereof. This identifies all of the extraneous files related to that app. You can then trash them right from the find window to give you a sense of finality!

Welcome to the mac world...where deleting is deleting!!!!

p.s. I've noticed that Windows user switchers typically assume things to be much more complex than they actually are. If it is intuitive, then it's probably the way to do it on the Mac. You don't need to worry about your machine anymore...you just need to use it.

OldManMac · Oct 9, 2003, 10:16 AM

Trash it. Welcome to the Mac family!

ckohler · 11:02 AM

As a new Mac user let me welcome you to a wonderful world without the dreaded Windows Registry. This is a world where installing and deleting applications is done by just dragging them around. A world where all your system and application preferences are stored in neat, savable and even editable text files.

By the way, be sure to give yourself a few weeks to learn the new ways of doing ordinary things on your Mac. Some switchers let themselves get easily frustrated when their Mac doesn't work exactly like Windows. Being stubborn and unwilling to adjust is not a fair assessment of the Mac platform's many advantages.

ae77 · Oct 9, 2003, 11:17 AM

trash it and forget about it

and... another welcome to the Mac world.

Uncle Skeleton · Oct 9, 2003, 11:42 AM

some apps have support files, and the majority of those go in "~/Library/Applicataion Support". I also have an AIM folder in "/Users/Shared", which is a pretty stupid place to put it, but that's AOL for you. I think MS Office and Acrobat Reader put crap in "~/Documents" too. (the tilde means your home folder, btw). If you're really displeased with an app, you might want to do a quick search (command-f) of your drive for the app's name just to be sure it didn't leave any folders around. But in general, nothing leaves things littered all over your drive, just in a few key places that you'll learn soon enough. Also, if you're worried about this kind of thing, don't install anything referred to as a "haxie"

D'Espice · Oct 9, 2003, 12:44 PM

Since this is a software related question and in no way PowerMac related I'm moving it to Mac OS X forums

mitchell_pgh · Oct 9, 2003, 12:51 PM

Uninstall the application using the installer (makes no sense, but that's what you do) and then spend a few hours wondering why another application aren't working... you will then figure out that you accidentally wiped out something that another application needed to work properly... you will use the OS install disks to try to recover the application, but you find out that the disk wasn't included with your computer... you then back up all of your files and format the hard drive and install the OS again.

Opps, I though we were talking about Windows...

rupis33 · Oct 9, 2003, 02:28 PM

Thanks again for the advise and the laughs. I will try and unlearn the ass backwards ways of my windows past. While I am on the subject I am using the computer for a music production system. How often should I defragment the hard drive, or is that just a windows thing also?

midwinter · Oct 9, 2003, 02:50 PM

Originally posted by rupis33:
Thanks again for the advise and the laughs. I will try and unlearn the ass backwards ways of my windows past. While I am on the subject I am using the computer for a music production system. How often should I defragment the hard drive, or is that just a windows thing also?

Generally speaking, you won't need to worry about it. If you want, pick up Alsoft's Discwarrior, which is a great little disc utility. Well worth the money.

- - e r i k - - · Oct 9, 2003, 07:08 PM

Yeah, definitly get DiskWarrior, it won't defrag your disk, but it'll rebuild your catalog file fixing all sorts of troubles.

Disk fragmentation is for the most part a thing of the past in Mac OS X. I have not defragged my disk for years and not noticed any disk-related slowdowns.

The maintenance you want to do however is upgrade to Panther and run the repair permission option in Disk Utility ever so often.

wataru · Oct 9, 2003, 07:19 PM

A piece of software called "Drive 10" does defragging, but it's not really necessary.

theolein · Oct 9, 2003, 07:33 PM

Welcome to the world of no registry horrors (if there was ever a world of pain on windows, it's the registry). I think (not sure as I've never defragged this disk) that Norton Utilities does defraggiing. If you're going to be doing music production, as you say, and working with large audio files, it might be wise to take some precautions. Firstly, either use a second partition of your HD for your data or an external drive. Music data can get choppy if the disk is really heavily fragmented IIRC, and it might be wise to back your data up onto CD or DVD on occaision, delete the data on the drive and then restore it from CD or DVD (or an external drive) Of course, the disks today are quite big and you'ld have to have a really large amount of data for tat to start becoming a problem.

NeilCharter · Oct 9, 2003, 07:45 PM

I personally haven't seen a problem with fragmented disks.

The biggest problem - and this is rare - is when you run out of space on your boot harddrive. Since OS X uses VM to extreme (but effectively), you will experience a severe slow down. This is because there isn't any room for more virtual memory.

So be aware, especially with generating large music files, to keep some space always available.

The times when I have also seen this is with third party apps (particularly beta versions) that have a memory leak. They keep on asking for more and more VM until potentially the disk is used up.

Other than that OS X is as hard as nails.

Enjoy.

Neil

BurpetheadX · Oct 9, 2003, 09:05 PM

I've seen problems with disk fragmentation under OS X. It's mostly exponential in my experience, where it takes forever for your disk to become fragmented. However, once it does become fragmented, it will go through the roof. I'm sure you'll be familiar with Norton Utilities, as it is very popular on both platforms. The latest version (System Works 3.0) comes with a OS X boot disk (won't boot on that new G5 just yet), and its utility "Speed Disk" is excellent for defragmenting (I have yet to have a problem with it). You can customize what you use your disk for, and it even optimizes the disk's directories and wipes free space when its done.

lookmark · Oct 9, 2003, 09:17 PM

I would in *no* way recommend the Macintosh version of Norton Utilities / SystemWorks. Speed Disk is OK, but in general: Stay away.

Fragmentation doesn't tend to be a big problem in OS X, but if you do find your disk access becoming mysteriously slow and suspect it, check out Micromat's Drive 10 (which is pretty lite) or their more complete TechTool 4.

khufuu · Oct 9, 2003, 09:46 PM

Originally posted by rupis33:
Hey all, just wanted to first start off by thanking everyone for the good advise and even funny lines I read on this forum. I just got my first Mac ever (G5 Dual 2 with 1 gig) I am a former windows user, so I am just getting my feet wet with the Mac at the moment. I have spent the last 2 hours reading the manual and going thru help topics to try and find the correct way to Uninstall software. On a PC some of the software has it available in the software folder, or you can go to control panel and remove software. I see nothing like this at all on the Mac. Do I just take the software and drag it to the trash and then empty the trash?? That is the only thing I can think of at this point. This is probably the dumbest question asked yet. But hey someone has to ask it

Luke

Hi Luke:

There is no such thing as a dumb ques.... no... wait... that was a dumb question.

mitchell_pgh · Oct 9, 2003, 11:40 PM

Steps on defragmenting a Windows hard drive:

1) Load software to defragment hard drive.

2) Discover that you must download update from web site.

3) Web site doesn't reference updates

4) Spend 2 hours tracking down the update

5) Discover update requires next version of OS

6) Install OS update
- Spend twenty five minutes (after spending two hours installing the update) figuring how to authenticate the OS

7) Discover OS update requires paid upgrade of defrag software.

8) Pay for upgrade.

9) Discover that the defrag had died 1/2 way through

10) reformat hard drive...

Problem Solved

Jim_MDP · Oct 10, 2003, 01:06 AM

Wait...none of you have had fun playing with RegEdit?

It's like walking through your living room swinging a broad axe. Sweet.

Ah...good times.

JKT · Oct 10, 2003, 03:58 AM

Considering that you should NEVER de-fragment a hard drive without first backing it up, and to backup a hard drive, you need to have something large enough that can take all that data (ergo, another hard drive), do yourself a big favour and buy an external (or install a secondary internal) hard drive and use that as your primary disk for your music files.

Gee4orce · Oct 10, 2003, 04:55 AM

It can be handy to leave that preferences file anyway - if at some point in the future you re-install that application, or even run it off a CD or a network drive, it 'magically' knows your preferences !

Oh - and I've never defragged any of my machines, and I"ve been running then since Public Beta days.

nobitacu · Oct 10, 2003, 05:17 AM

The Mac I'm using is my very first Mac as well, I love it, so much easier and user friendy to use. I will never go back to Window$ that's for sure. Oh, and welcome to the Forum as well as the light side.

Ming

Geobunny · Oct 10, 2003, 04:48 PM

Seeing as the first question was more or less answered and we've moved on to defragging can someone tell me this.

I used to defrag my hard drive relatively frequently in Mac OS 7, 8 and 9 and I did notice a performance increase almost every time. I've only done it twice in OS X (been using it almost daily since 10.0 DP3) but neither time did I notice any effect on performance. So what is OS X doing that's so special that it doesn't need a defragmented drive?

When you get down to the nitty gritty of the hardware, if your disk is fragmented then latency and seek times will increase, leading to a performance hit. Make no mistake, OS X fragments a hard drive severely, so does it have some super-duper disk access schedule that's so far superior to everyone else's that we don't even notice the fragmentation?

moonmonkey · Oct 10, 2003, 11:16 PM

it 'magically' knows your preferences ![/B]

Thats not technically magic, staying in a glass box for 44 days on a glucose drip and shitting in plastic bags with hundreds of Londoners throwing stones at you.

Thats magic.

Geobunny · Oct 11, 2003, 08:58 AM

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
Thats not technically magic, staying in a glass box for 44 days on a glucose drip and shitting in plastic bags with hundreds of Londoners throwing stones at you.

Thats magic.

No, that's just f***ing stupid! ...but don't get me started on David Blaine, cos I'll be ranting off-topic for days if I do!