Zap those apps
I use Firefox as my primary web browser. This is partly down to it doing a satisfactory job of rendering web pages, but also because I use Chris Pederick’s Web Developer Extension and Google Browser Sync to keep my bookmarks in step between work and home Macs.
Lately though, my Firefox had kinda lost the plot. Browser Sync had stopped working properly and I was even getting rendering problems on webpages that I wasn’t seeing on other computers.
So it was time to un-holster AppZapper for the first time. We all love the drag and drop simplicity of installing most software under Mac OS X, but removing it is another matter. Apps distribute preferences and other support files around your system that aren’t removed just by trashing the app.
AppZapper bills itself as “the uninstaller Apple forgot” – drag an application onto its window and it will identify the related components. A press of the “Zap” button causes a cute screen flash and all that junk is moved to the trash.
$12.95 promises free upgrades for life, for when a fresh start isn’t so simple.
My newly installed copy of Firefox 2.0.0.2 is working fine.
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February 27th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
It’d be so nice if uninstall actually meant… uninstall.
I nuked my laptop last night, given my precious 40gb was down to a single one. I had barely anything on it. Or so I thought.
I’m quite sure that a lot of the ‘problems’ computers get over the years and the need to do wipes every now and again would be cured if crap just uninstalled and took the whole damn lot with it.
February 27th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
AppZapper lets you specify safe apps, whose files can’t be removed in case they are identified as related with another app. Clever, but it still puts the onus on you.
I suppose it’s because software is dumb, and can’t understand all the interdepencies that might exist. So it just deletes the app itself and a load of junk gets left behind.
Ho hum.
Doesn’t hurt to have a tidy up once in a while. Which reminds me, my flat…
February 27th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
suppose it’s because software is dumb
Only as much as the guy who wrote it.
The fact is while hours are spent on install scripts and the decision process there, virtually no time is spent on the uninstall and that’s the problem.
February 27th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
The guy who wrote it isn’t dumb, nor is the company he works for. It’s a matter of agenda.
The software developer’s agenda is about getting us to buy their applications every year.
It isn’t about helping us to *not* do that.
February 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am
I’ve been using app zapper for a while now and I like it. The only thing I never really liked on the macs was that when you deleted a program it left all that other rubbish strewn around the computers harddrive in various folders and wasting space. Well this sorts out that issue and that makes me happy.
February 28th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I think it probably leaves some residual junk ie: aliases, information stored in Core Data, but it’s better than nothing.
Trashing and replacing Firefox didn’t work until I zapped it.