Unlike in Windows where platform have their own uninstallers , removing a Mac app is normally as mere as dredge its icon from the Applications folder to the trash . But some stubborn Mac software can be tricky to erase . Here ’s how to uninstall Mac apps for goodness – a process that will aid tomake infinite on a Macand couldspeed it uptoo .
Why deleting programmes on Mac is different to Windows
In Windows , programs must be installed with special installer sensation , and more pertinently must be remove by the same kind of mechanism .
mucky housekeeping from Microsoft initially lease software system developer install many disunited slice of their program wherever they liked across the C : kick drive . apart from the organization security trouble this can produce , it also makes uninstalling executable syllabus in Windows a task that can only ordinarily be undertaken by automated programs .
But on a Mac thing are a fiddling unlike . When Apple found Mac OS X in 2001 , it maintain the Unix way of separating system files from a user ’s do work space .
So programs are typically lay in in the /Applications directory , and a user ’s preferences for how that app may be configured are stored in ~/Library / preference . to boot , there may be some necessary supporting file salt away in ~/Library / software Support and /Library / software Support . And that ’s pretty much it .
The apps themselves that experience in the Applications folder ( although they can be stored elsewhere … ) are actually packet of many filing cabinet all packaged together . As far as the drug user is concerned , you just need to double - press an app ’s icon – or click once for a crosscut that ’s held in the Dock – and the software program will set in motion , using all the resources it needs stash away in the software program package and elsewhere .
Which intend , to uninstall an covering in macOS , you need only drag out the app to the Trash . There is no explicit need to do anything else … in most circumstances , anyway .
If you do n’t execute the Mac with an administrator account , you will also be postulate for an admin word to delete an app .
How to delete a Mac app using Launchpad
you could also delete an app using Launchpad , which shows all your apps in an iOS like interface .
How to completely remove a program from a Mac
There are a few occasions when the above may not be enough . Some apps might have a few taste or other files scattered around your Mac . However , it can still be simple to murder these .
You may involve to delete the app ’s preferences from your Library booklet . Here ’s how to do that :
Having fill in this dance step , you then need to unfold the program Support directory via the finder and search for a pamphlet containing data point related to the app you are delete .
Difficult to delete Mac apps
But there are some applications which do n’t play so nicely by these rules . object lesson we ’ve seen admit Adobe and Microsoft lotion for the Mac , and nagware / semitrailer - utilities such asMacKeeper .
This latter rogue program program , which promises to clean up your Mac and make it do faster , goes out of its way to install files in hard - to - delete billet . Moreover , in this exemplar , the supplied Uninstaller app will not of necessity bump off all the unwanted crud after uninstalling the app .
You must be vigilant here for unexpected launching daemons ( ‘ launchd ’ files ) that allow hidden program to automatically launch at boot .
Experienced Mac users can utilize the command - line Terminal.app to attempt out and remove undesirable shard . A slenderly less grievous path is with a graphical file finder such as the marvelous Find Any File , which will find all the hidden files that Apple conceals in normal Spotlight searches .
Nevertheless , it must still only be used with precaution as it is possible to erase essential organization files . In cosmopolitan , be leery of deleting anything from your Mac that requires you to type in an administrator password .
We appear at these types of uninstall physical process in a separate article : How to off Mac antivirus software .
You ca n’t edit apps like Safari or Mail , or any other apps that come as part of MacOS .
Third-party Mac uninstaller apps
last , there are shareware usefulness that promise to do all the hard employment of tracking down errant app files and erase them for you .
We ’ve not stress any of these plan so ca n’t guarantee for their relative meritoriousness , but see out for covering likeCleanMyMac X , Uninstaller , AppCleaner , AppDeleteandCleanApp .
We have a consecrated article about theBest Mac Clean - up Utilitieswe have find .
For more advice about download and installing apps read : How to install apps on the Mac
