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Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files

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In article <vilain-5DE0BE.11092325122013@news.individual.net>, Michael
Vilain <vilain@NOspamcop.net> wrote:

> > > No one's mention the app clean deinstallers that are out there:
> > 
> > and it's good thing because they don't work very well. all they do is
> > search for files that it thinks are related to the app. sometimes it
> > gets it right and sometimes it doesn't. when it doesn't, not good
> > things can happen. 
> > 
> > if an app doesn't have an uninstaller, just drag to trash. if it does,
> > use the provided uninstaller. 
> > 
> > or just ignore it. unless it's taking up huge amounts of space, there's
> > not a compelling reason to bother.
> 
> If the OP doesn't care about all the cruft left over by applications in 
> the ~/Library folder, your advise would be OK. But they specifically 
> asked about cleaning out ALL the crap an application leaves behind.

there point is there's no need to bother. it's a complete waste of time
since those files are tiny and completely inert and do not make one bit
of difference to the system. 

some people think it might make a difference because they're used to
windows where uninstalling something often does matter, but on a mac,
it does not. 

the preference files and other stuff are almost always tiny and take up
almost no space. you would need to delete hundreds of them to save a
whopping megabyte of space, which won't matter on multi-gigabyte
drives. 

there are exceptions, such as apps like garage band which have huge
assets that take up a lot of space but most apps don't do that.

if an app has a kernel extension, removing it may be worthwhile, but
apps with kexts will come with an uninstaller which will do the right
thing, so again, there's no need for any of these cleaner apps.

if you really want to remove cruft, start with the system folder. how
many people really need all the man pages installed? 

> Yes, those utilities have the potential for cleaning out way more than 
> they should.

which means they cause more problems than they solve, especially since
there isn't a problem to begin with.

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Deleting Apps and Associated Files Otto Pylot <otto@bogus.address.com> - 2013-12-24 09:19 -0800
  Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files me@home.spamsucks.ca (Király) - 2013-12-24 17:52 +0000
    Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Otto Pylot <otto@bogus.address.com> - 2013-12-24 10:18 -0800
      Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Savageduck <savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> - 2013-12-24 12:26 -0800
      Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files me@home.spamsucks.ca (Király) - 2013-12-24 22:04 +0000
        Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files dcohenspam@talktalk.net (Daniel Cohen) - 2013-12-25 21:13 +0000
          Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Otto Pylot <otto@bogus.address.com> - 2013-12-25 16:22 -0800
            Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2013-12-25 21:51 -0500
              Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Otto Pylot <otto@bogus.address.com> - 2013-12-26 10:39 -0800
                Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2013-12-26 14:31 -0500
                Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Michael Vilain <vilain@NOspamcop.net> - 2013-12-26 12:13 -0800
                Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Otto Pylot <otto@bogus.address.com> - 2013-12-26 13:39 -0800
      Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Michael Vilain <vilain@NOspamcop.net> - 2013-12-24 19:06 -0800
        Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2013-12-25 04:53 -0500
          Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Michael Vilain <vilain@NOspamcop.net> - 2013-12-25 11:09 -0800
            Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2013-12-25 15:05 -0500
              Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> - 2013-12-25 15:31 -0500
                Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2013-12-25 15:52 -0500
        Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files J Burns <burns4@nowhere.com> - 2013-12-25 07:21 -0500
  Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2013-12-24 20:11 +0000
    Re: Deleting Apps and Associated Files nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2013-12-24 15:34 -0500

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