Here's what's missing in OSX.....
 

There's a gap in OSX that seems to have gone unnoticed, except perhaps by those like me that have had to use pcs as well as Macs.

There should be an app in Preferences that can uninstall software that's no longer needed. I ran into big trouble uninstalling Dave (it left bits everywhere), and now I want to get rid of an annoying thing called Launcher Bar. It's not enough just to trash the app, cos it leaves all sorts of fragments all over the place (and still tries to launch on startup). I'm fed up with having to track down all the various fragments - surely there's a more elegant way? Or perhaps it's a permissions thing. Am I asking too much?

Welcome yer comments......

I have had a lot of grief with a couple of badly behaved apps in the past - but I nuked them good and proper when I upgraded - and everything was fine.

But I did track down some software that I was going to use, but never actually did in the end. It's Spring Clean from Aladdin from here: http://www.aladdinsys.com/mac/springcleaning/index.html Try it out!

But you're right - this should be an Apple utility that you get with X - you do get the installer after all.

Not all installations come in packages (and those that do seem to strew stuff around), but it would seem straightforward to have the installer keep a log and support an "uninstall" which would refer back to the log. For apps you drag in from a disk image, some create new files that are not necessarily just put in ~/Preferences and the system should track those too. I usually use FileBuddy to find all those and trash them.

Some Apps have an uninstaller. Dave has an uninstaller, I believe you have to download it from Thursby.com.

It has always been my peeve, and I did send some feedback to Apple. Basically I suggested that all apps keep their various files within the application container... OR, if that is not possible, tether all the files so that when you drag the application to the trash, all the litter goes with it. I think this is a more intuitive solution than an uninstaller.

Moving to the 'Wish List' forum...

The problem is that OS X lacks a packaging system which keeps track of installed packages. An Apple representative told me that they almost went with RedHat's Package Manager but ran into licensing issues with Redhat. I'm not sure how true this is, but it would be a great boon to have.

Once an underlying packaging system, then Apple will have a method of uninstalling applications. A packaging system lets the OS know what packages depend on what.. THat is, you can't remove Application B because Application C depends on its existance. Remove Application C first.

However, anything installed from a .pkg file DOES leave a log file of what files it wrote, so you do have a way to track down what the various pieces are. These are kept in:

/Library/Receipt/<package name>/Contents/Archive.bom . You need to use lsbom to read these files..

For example, to find the various pieces of iPhoto, you can do:
sudo lsbom /Library/Receipts/iPhoto.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom

It atleast gives us a place to start, but a packaging system is what is truely needed for things like a system-wide uninstaller to work.

I agree with the original posters 'wish-list' addition of some way to 'un-install' applications/programs.

I do, however, think there is a very fine line between a package manager and a registry. We do not want to get into the situation where, in order to implement a package management system they introduce a 'registry' of sorts. This would be the final straw, it would mean coming closer to the Windows environment instead standing its (OSX) own ground.

Just my 2 cents.

Yes.. an uninstaller is a NECESSITY in Windows. On a Mac, it would be a NICETY.

Hahahahaha - good one, Yellow.

I think a more "Mac-like" solution is needed here. I say, no "uninstaller", but yes to "teathered files". That is, throw way an application or an application folder, and all files that are connected to it get trashed as well. That way, there is no registry or log involved. I too have asked for this from Apple.

I've rarely seen an uninstaller work under Windows, even with Add/Remove Programs.

I will get a list of anywhere from 3-30 files and folders that it could not uninstall, and this is after the program begs and pleads for me not to get rid of it - and this is only if it plays nice with Add/Remove Programs. Many times it just says removing, then shows up in the list of programs to add/remove - and is still there in the Programs Menu, Startup Items, and works when clicked on.

If they are going to add a Uninstaller, I hope it works better than the ones on my friends/family Windows machines.

It's a bit trickier than that. What if you have more than one version of the app on your disk(s)? The user would have to be asked to confirm the trashing of related files and even then, there is a high probability of mistakes leading to loss of preferences etc. An Apple solution (as opposed to a third-party one) would have to be foolproof.
Note that the disk space occupied by preferences etc is usually very small, so best thing is to just not worry about it.

And of course, you should complain to the developers of any application that forces you to use an installer instead of just letting you drag & drop the application's folder where you want.

While not a full uninstaller process, I have found that just doing a search of the entire drive for files with similar names (i.e. Dave for that Dave application) and then deleting them seems to do the trick. Keeping all the files in the application folder would not be a good idea (in my opinion) because then backing up your system means backing up the Library as well as each application. When I want to "uninstall" I just delete the app and search for similar files in the Library and any .prefpane files with that name. That seems to get rid of any noticable traces.

Which is basically the best you can do without fancy tools and these are in short supply - Sweepers for example will always identify "orphaned" files that you know darn well aren't orphans, so clearly it isn't easy to tell.

I have resorted to emailing authors to ask occasionally, and not surprisingly, they usually tell you.

Definately some gotcha's there, hayne. I was thinking that if you were going to upgrade, you would just use the installer to record over old versions. I guess there could be a warning window "Would you like to delete all associated files?"

Yes, these files are relatively small, I just don't like a preference folder full of useless plists to wade through.

I suspect that the only reason you are looking in the Preferences folder at all is because you are wanting to delete the prefs of some app that is misbehaving. So the real need is for better prefs management. Maybe a standard menu item that tells an app to create a fresh new prefs file?

Hayne - good point. A better Prefs Management Thingy would be ideal. But then that kinda brings us close to full circle (see original post)......

No - I don't think there is really a great need for uninstaller functionality as in the original post. All I suggested was a way to solve the real problem that people are having - needing to replace corrupted preference files.

I don't really like the idea of uninstallers, they often don't work as advertised, and are just one more program you need to keep around. The way it works now where you just trash the application file is just so Mac like.

That said, if the application was installed using the Mac OS X Installer program then you should be able to find a 'receipt', and you can tell where everything was copied to by issuing the following command in the terminal:

lsbom -s /Library/Receipts/BluetoothUpdate1.5.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom

It would be trivial to build an uninstaller that removes files based on this Bill of Materials.

Anybody who wants to make an uninstaller based on the output from 'lsbom' should bear in mind that the output also includes existing directories traversed by the installer during installation. Without care, you could "uninstall" a hell of a lot more than you bargained for!

With reference to hayne's comments about corrupt plists, this hint (and associated) makes good reading: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...40623070038472

Preferential Treatment works OK, but lacks a link to a backup so that you can replace a corrupt plist with a backed up version - great for when Mail.app's plist goes PHOOM! and takes all your account info with it. :eek: