Registry equivalent/uninstalling

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Does OsX have anything like the registry in Windows? I only ask as every time I've removed something I just trash it from the applications folder, rather than try and un-install it...unless it has something in the menubar or seems to be further integrated, though most software doesn't seem to come with any uninstall facility.

Don't want my macbook getting too clogged up like my windows machine used to. I mean if it's gone from the applications folder & library, is that likely to be it?

Can someone fill me in? I've been switched for 6 months now but never really uninstalled much...so I haven't quite got used to the mac way of doing it.

tia :)

James
 
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If you right-click any application's icon and slide the cursor down to "Show Package Contents," the icon will open just like a folder, because that's what it is.

Clicking on the folders within will reveal the programming files. Nearly everything making up the app is inside the "icon" that's really a folder, so by trashing the icon, you trash the app.

A few text files might remain here and there elsewhere in the machine, such as the app's preferences file in your library Preferences folder. If you don't trash these various files, it makes little difference because they take up only a few kilobytes of space.

But if you want to clean out all the remains of an app, use the app's name in a search of the drive, then trash the files.
 
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window_boy
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If you right-click any application's icon and slide the cursor down to "Show Package Contents," the icon will open just like a folder, because that's what it is.

Clicking on the folders within will reveal the programming files. Nearly everything making up the app is inside the "icon" that's really a folder, so by trashing the icon, you trash the app.

A few text files might remain here and there elsewhere in the machine, such as the app's preference file in your library Preferences folder. If you don't trash these various files, it makes little difference because they take up only a few kilobytes of space.

But if you want to clean out all the remains of an app, use the app's name in a search of the drive, then trash the files.

Yeah I'd worked out the package contents. By chance more than anything though when I had some on an external HD and opened it in windows
 

cwa107


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Yeah I'd worked out the package contents. By chance more than anything though when I had some on an external HD and opened it in windows

If you want to ensure that a given application is completely removed, I highly recommend AppZapper. When you want to uninstall an application, you simply drag and drop it onto AppZapper and it will search out and remove all traces of that application.
 

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