Cleanup/maintenance programs

hell_gopher

Hello. This is my first post. I'm a fairly recent (~6 months) convert to macs. On my Windows machines I always found that it was necessary to use programs such as iolo's System Mechanic to keep the registry in order, get rid of duplicate files and so on, otherwise the computer would get slow and unreliable over time.



I didn't think any such software was necessary for macs, but seeing the program AppZapper recently made me realise that installation and uninstallation of apps on the mac isn't as clean-cut as adding or removing a .app file.



I'm a voracious downloader of software from the net. Of course most of it turns out to be useless, and I've been uninstalling it by simply getting rid of the .app.



Will doing this result in a buildup of excess config, etc files on the computer that could slow it down and lead to problems, like with Windows? If so, is there any software to get rid of this detritus easily?



Thanks

mr. me

Quote:

Originally posted by Hell_Gopher

Hello. This is my first post. I'm a fairly recent (~6 months) convert to macs. On my Windows machines I always found that it was necessary to use programs such as iolo's System Mechanic to keep the registry in order, get rid of duplicate files and so on, otherwise the computer would get slow and unreliable over time.



I didn't think any such software was necessary for macs, but seeing the program AppZapper recently made me realise that installation and uninstallation of apps on the mac isn't as clean-cut as adding or removing a .app file.



I'm a voracious downloader of software from the net. Of course most of it turns out to be useless, and I've been uninstalling it by simply getting rid of the .app.



Will doing this result in a buildup of excess config, etc files on the computer that could slow it down and lead to problems, like with Windows? If so, is there any software to get rid of this detritus easily?



Thanks

MacOS X is not Windows. You should not base your system administration decisions on your experience with Windows. MacOS X does not have a registry file. Therefore, there is no registry file to get corrupted. AppZapper is a small, inexpensive shareware title. It is useful, but it is certainly not essential. Removing the .app bundle from your computer removes executable code and most resources associated with the app. What is left is about as resource-intensive as any text file on your system. Remove it; leave it. Removing application preference files will have absolutely no measureable effect on your system. Some people insist on removing these files to delete all vestages of discarded applications. This reasoning is aesthetic, not technical.

hell_gopher

OK, thanks a lot.

macanoid(tm)

an easy way of deleting all program files is using the Finder. Here a tutorial movie, it show how all files related to the SimpleChord program are deleted.



delete program files using the Finder