A Better Way to Remove Applications

Loading applications on the Mac couldn't be simpler.  Just drag the application icon into the Application Folder.  Done.  Some installers will do the job for you.  But what happens when you want to remove an application (or widget)?  Drag the application icon out of the Application Folder and into the Trash, right?  Yes, but not quite.  Applications have other files that are placed in various systems locations to make them work.  Dragging the application icon to the Trash won't clean out these files, leaving clutter in your hard drive.

As you might imagine, there are applications to do this job.  One that I use is called AppCleaner from a little software shop called FreeMacSoft.  AppCleaner is free to download but if you really like it, they would appreciate a donation.  Just click on the download button on the webpage and it will automatically be installed in your Application Folder.

When you want to remove an application, start up AppCleaner and then drag the application icon from Application Folder into the AppCleaner window.  AppCleaner will list all the files that are associated with the application and then give you a button to complete the deleting.  AppCleaner even keeps a history file of what it has deleted for future reference.  This is a very handy little application.