[xfesty]

Howdy,

I find that there's a lot of OS X applications out there without any uninstallers; if all programs worked like in the old mac days, it wouldn't be a problem because I'd just need to delete the application, and it's all gone.

Problem is these days there's a lot of applications that stick things all over your hard drive (in /System, /Library, such as extra preference panes, extra kernel modules, extra system this and that, etc). I'm somewhat of a utility nut so I'm finding my installation is absolutely covered with crap at the moment; things like pocketmac, various haxies, theme applications, Xbox HID drivers, the list goes on, and the system gets more and more bloated.

My machine's starting to act strange, so it's either clean everything up or reinstall. As this is my development machine, and I'm quite short for time right now, I'd prefer avoiding the reinstall path.

Cleaning out all these applications manually is an absolute pain. I guess what I'm looking for is either (but preferably both):

a) Some application that knows how to clean application's crap out of your hard drive,

b) Some application that can sit resident, and keep a 'log' of what exactly an application installs; files, defaults, preferences, etc, and allow for a true uninstall at a later stage. Such applications certainly exist for Windows.

Thanks.

[Randman]

OmniDiskSweeper is good for stuff such as this.

[bergy]

As far as uninstalling, pretty well everything goes when you put it in the trash.
The only thing that might be left are preferences set by running the app
These will be found in:
User/Library/Preferences

Also the installer might leave something called a receipt in: Library/Receipts
there may be a time when you have to get rid of an old receipt if you're reinstalling the same app ..

If you really need to get rid of everything associated with a particular program go to "File" - "Find" search on the item "everywhere" ... then you can highlight the item you want to discard and "move to trash."

There are shareware programs out there for tracking installations .. go to macupdate and search for uninstallers ..



For trouble free OSX computing, I recommend these simple steps and applications ..

They pose no threat to your system in any way ..

As a rule of thumb ... Before & After any update .. Repair permissions: Close all files and applications on the disk you want to repair. Go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and double click it. Then select your hard drive in the left panel and First Aid at the top. Then click on "Repair Permissions." It will take a few minutes.

Use These Maintenance Tools ..

Macaroni .. Just Set It and Forget It!
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9633

Why should you have to remember to clean up your Mac every day, every week, and every month? Shouldn't a computer be able to remember for you?

Macaroni is a tool which handles regular maintenance for Mac OS X, including the Mac OS X repair permissions process (once a week), as well as Unix-style maintenance. Without Macaroni, some of these tasks normally run in the middle of the night, and don't get run unless you leave your Mac on all night. Others don't run automatically at all, and won't happen unless you remember when they're due.
Macaroni runs these maintenance tasks on a regular schedule, regardless of when your Mac is on. If a scheduled maintenance task is not run when it's normally scheduled, Macaroni automatically ensures that it's run at the next opportunity, whenever the Mac is on. Macaroni installs into your system preferences and you can configure and monitor it from there if need be. Otherwise, just "set it and forget it".

If you like to dabble, and run these and other scripts yourself ... check out ..
Cocktail
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10909

Cocktail is a general purpose utility for Mac OS X 10.2 or later. The application simplifies the use of advanced UNIX functions, gives access to hidden Mac OS X settings and let you easily optimize your system.

It is a smooth, powerful and simple to use utility with all major features arranged in five basic categories and a "Pilot" that lets you maintain your system with one click of the button.

Once a month or so run this ...
Cache Out X
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9538

Cache Out X clears out the cache entries on your machine, helping you recover valuable disk space on your machine. Items removed include the caches in System, Users, and Library, along with the Internet Explorer download cache. Optionally clears the IE's history cache as well. Requires restart after completion.

If you can, buy a copy of Disk Warrior and keep it on hand for any major issues that might arise.

Stay away from third party system hacks ( "haxies" ). Don't add extra fonts unless you have to.

If you don't want to do any of this .. do an Archive and Install ...

[Old Toad]

Here are a number of things you can do as routine maintenance to keep the machine running lean and mean: see this Apple post and this Mac Design Magazine article.

[tooki]

xfesty, I think you're blowing the situation out of proportion!

For one thing, in OS X, far, FAR fewer applications need to put things into /Library than apps in OS 9 had to put stuff into the System Folder. Application bundles make it possible (and commonplace!) for the app bundle to contain all the libraries needed to make it run.

As for things like themes and drivers... well, again, no difference from OS 9 whatsoever. That type of thing has to work the way it does.

As for a general uninstaller... they just don't work. Why? Because apps may share resources, so the uninstallers face a decision: delete the stuff anyway, and risk breaking programs you DID want to keep around, or leave it, which sorta defeats the purpose. Windows has such a thing, and the user faces the same dilemma. (In OS X, it's not as common, since most apps now just keep their libraries inside the app bundle.)

tooki

[xfesty]

I understand; applications /should/ keep all their resources underneath themselves. I've found a lot that don't, though.

The kind of applications I've installed are things like third-party drivers, haxies, system utilities, all which install stuff all over my drive. I find that my system sits at about 25% CPU unless I go into a terminal and start kill -9'ing some things.

Not every OS X application is well behaved these days, which is dissapointing.

[xfesty]

Also, regarding previous posts with optimisation-style programs; indeed, I do run programs like this quite often, and it does help in that regard. My problem is moreso I've installed so many third-party haxies and drivers and what-not that the system's starting to feel like a dog, and these programs don't fix that (at least, I don't think they do?).

Thanks to all so far, appreciate the help.

[tooki]

Originally posted by xfesty:
I understand; applications /should/ keep all their resources underneath themselves. I've found a lot that don't, though.

The kind of applications I've installed are things like third-party drivers, haxies, system utilities, ...

But those aren't applications. (Well, the utilities might be.) Applications are programs you sit down and use. You don't sit down and use a driver.

Those types of programs -- the non-application kinds -- are the exact kind of program that need to dig in their heels outside of one little spot. If you don't like that, then don't use them.

tooki

[xfesty]

I understand how you've reached that conclusion, but I'm perhaps not very clear. Indeed, I understand how things such as drivers do need to install theirselves in various places; I would like an uninstaller though as some are written terribly and can impact a system's stability and performance - this goes for all operating systems (I won't even begin on what I think about most binary modules for Linux - ugh).

I have come across many applications (mostly utilities) that do spread their gear in all sorts of places, and they're not always named logically so searching for it doesn't help - to be fair, in many cases they may be system/driver related (music applications, for example, often install their own drivers, and in many cases things such as dongle drivers and other piracy-related crap), but regardless, it can still bog a system down.

It's not a problem of the fact I don't like it; it's part of life, and I can live with it. What I want to do is truly clean a program/driver/utility/whatever out of my system when I want to get rid of it instead of it leaving junk all around the place. I tend to muck around with a fair bit of software/hardware, and want to make sure when I'm finished with a program, I can get rid of everything associated with it.

[CharlesS]

The most likely things to be causing problems are APEs and kernel extensions; they can be found in (~)/Library/Application Enhancers/ and /System/Library/Extensions respectively (watch out in the latter case that you don't delete any of the Apple pre-installed kexts).

[chris v]

All of Unsanity's installers also function as uninstallers, I think.