How to uninstall a program properly?

I recently bought a Macbook. If a program has no uninstall facility is it OK to drag it to the Trash can? In Windows doing this will leave portions of the program still in the registry and other places, but how does this work for Macs?

Help for this novice Mac user would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stuartp77

That will do most of the trick. If you're really picky and want to save a few kilobytes extra, you can search for the name of the app in spotlight followed by .plist and delete the file that comes up. It's simply a preference file. No harm either way.

Stuartp77 said:

I recently bought a Macbook. If a program has no uninstall facility is it OK to drag it to the Trash can? In Windows doing this will leave portions of the program still in the registry and other places, but how does this work for Macs?

Help for this novice Mac user would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stuartp77

Click to expand...

I tend to be a tad Anal when it comes to uninstalling software, so I've taken to using this free app....
Use it to search for the filename, it will find ALL traces of the App and offers you the choice to delete or destroy selected or all files.

Does reloading OS disks destroy progmas already on?

DarkestRitual said:

That will do most of the trick. If you're really picky and want to save a few kilobytes extra, you can search for the name of the app in spotlight followed by .plist and delete the file that comes up. It's simply a preference file. No harm either way.

Click to expand...

Hi DarkestRitual,
Thanks for your kind reply - I am grateful for my anything that will increase my knowledge of my Macbook.

May I ask you another question? Simply this: as I bought my computer off Ebay, if I re-install the 2 operating disks that came with the machine, willl that operation delete all files on the computer or leave thm intact as Windows does if you re-install the operating system? It might complicate the system that I used Boot Camp to instal XP on its own partition. So would that section remain intact?

Thanks,

Stuartp77

If you choose to restore from the disks then it shouldn't touch the windows partition, and just wipe the mac side and re-install.

Re-installing Mac OS

Hi Zidog,

Thanks for your reply, I think you answered my query. If you re-install Windows from the OS disc the programs and data you had previously are still there intact. But I think you mean the Mac OS won't do that, it will wipe everything off, is that so?

Thanks

Stuartp77

No. It depends on what installation option you choose.

Download a free utility called AppCleaner.

AppCleaner 1.2.2 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

It'll delete the application, property list files, application support files, etc. in one fell swoop.

Looks like the other folks have this covered, for which I am thankful. I haven't messed too much with partitions, especially since I've never had a taste for windows.