uninstalling on a mac
this is in response to a Q seen on pownce.com: “Help, Mac users! What’s the best way to uninstall an app without a program like AppZapper? … AppZapper is not a free program, so I was looking into free alternatives.”
step 1. toss the app in the trash. step 2. there’s no step 2!
leave the prefs file because who cares*. leave any application support directory in ~/library or /library becuase who cares*.
exceptions: if the app is weird it might have a hidden startup app, menu extra or something, those can be annoying. those app will usually have uninstall program or instructions, track down the app’s website and find a readme (may involve downloading the app’s dmg/whatever again).
* if you do care, like if you really want the disk space back for example, do the same: find a readme or uninstaller from its site or by downloading it again.
i wouldn’t trust AppZapper or AppCleaner too much. oddball files & components of apps these days rarely seem to identify themselves like mac files used to (was it ‘vers’ resources? so long ago), so they can’t really do their job in cases of simple drag & drop apps. maybe they can for apps with installers (which leave behind a “bill of materials” file, aka installer receipt file), but those apps usually also have uninstallers anyway.