Mac 101: uninstalling applications

Tinker Tool System makes better job than AppDelete, and can find and remove objects for all users on the computer of a single time!

Sorry for my english XD

Andrew
- Excellent head-to-head test results. Thanks for posting! Looks like AppDelete is the clear winner! But maybe CleanApp with it's logging. Hmmm.

I've been using AppTrap for a good 6 months. I've been very happy with it because I don't have to really think about using another application...it "just works". I totally agree with Mat Lu here that this implementation of an application "uninstaller" is the most Mac-like! I mean, do you really want another app in your dock for a task like this? I don't even want a GUI.

I'll take a look at both AppDelete & CleanApp but I'll long for the implementation of AppTrapp.*

Some applications have third-party uninstallers made specifically for them, which work a lot better than general-purpose ones. One such example is FCS Remover for Final Cut Studio.
http://www.digitalrebellion.com/fcs_remover.htm

Everyone leaves out uApp http://uapp.en.softonic.com/mac

i recently tested a few uninstallers by seeing how many related files they could each find for various applications. below are the results.

uninstallers tested:
- appcleaner
- appdelete
- forklift's "delete application" function
- appzapper
- cleanapp
- apptrap

vmwarefusion (number is the number of files found)
appdelete: 7
cleanapp: 7
forklift: 7
apptrap: 5
appcleaner, appzapper: 4

iphoto
appdelete: 7, including an internet plug-in; awesome
forklift: 6
cleanapp: 5
appcleaner, appzapper: 4
apptrap: 3

skype
appdelete: 7, including a growlticket!
cleanapp: 5
apptrap: 5
forklift: 4
appzapper, appcleaner: 4

itunes
appdelete: 12
forklift: 11
cleanapp: 11
appzapper, appcleaner: 8
apptrap: 4

yojimbo
appdelete: 9
appzapper: 8 (including a PDF service)
cleanapp, appcleaner, forklift: 7
appcleaner: 7
apptrap: 6

mail
appdelete: 14
forklift: 12
cleanapp: 8
appcleaner: 7
appzapper: 5
apptrap: 4

conclusion:
obviously this is not a perfect science, but appdelete did the best job, although it is a little slow (but version 2.0 is coming out soon). apptrap consistently performed the worst, and if you want trash-can logging, appcleaner (freeware) supports that as well as a bunch of other stuff. based on my tests there is absolutely no reason to pay for appzapper aside from the flash of light and zap noise (which are actually a little addicting).

however, the most complete solution seems to involve cleanapp's logging service, which when turned on runs as a daemon and logs every app you install. i'm still testing this out to see how it compares with appdelete, but so far it's just as good if not better.

forklift's app delete is actually pretty good considering it plays second fiddle, but it's inconvenient to use for keyboard-junkies on launchbar or quicksilver.

This might be a candidate for Ask TUAW, but I have been trying to find a way to uninstall iTunes and QuickTime from Leopard. I have VLC and Senuti for all my media and iPod management and I like to keep my system clean from all unused programs. I use AppTrap for all of my uninstalling and I have dragged the iTunes and QuickTime programs to the trash/AppTrap but Apple Software Update still informs me of updates for these programs. This leads me to believe that there are still traces of them left on my system.

Any suggestions or 3rd party apps for this?

I'm a user of AppZapper and Hazel. *No* application suggested comes close to delivering a perfectly working uninstallation solution. Only yank looks truly useful. I didn't try it and I'm not going to, because:

- it has bad reviews on macupdate (dating of 2006)
- there's no active user community (no upload of yank files since 2006)
- as todd (5) said, it's not been updated since early 2007.

Yank is a promising product that reminds me of 1995 products for windows. (Which probably kept existing until now.) I wonder why the developer didn't persist to make it successful. I would have bought it.

Mat Lu, why did you suggest this staleware? Could you try it and tell us how it fares? If it has any merits in 2008, you could help by giving it a new reputation, leveraging tuaw's reach. But only do so if you've spoken with the developer and has seen strong commitment from him to raise it back from the dead, please.

I'm a big fan of freeware. Therefore I scour the the internet looking for alternatives to things. I used to have the AppZapper demo and liked it. I started to look around and found this wonderful thing called AppCleaner. Although the site does not exist anymore, I'm sure that you can find a copy of the DMG somewhere.

Anyone know if any of these apps actually get rid of all of the associated install files? I used AppZapper for a while (paid for it) but it always left stuff. I still had to do a search and remove the extra files. Pretty much defeats the purpose of the app.

Having already paid for AppZapper (twice), I gladly switched to AppCleaner a couple months ago.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/25276
As far as I can tell, AppCleaner does exactly the same as Zapper, plust more, plus it's free. The interface makes it easier to delete Pref Panes and plugins too.