Aqua Taskforce

abitgone wrote on September 4, 2008, 7:46am

It's called AppZapper - http://www.appzapper.com/.

jasper wrote on September 4, 2008, 12:17pm

It's called NOT A MACOS X FEATURE. Buying a seperate application for this? Even Microsoft offers users a good way to deinstall applications in a central place. Apple offers it for the iPhone.

Personally, I think we need an Application Manager as a whole - to make it easier to install those installations (because 90% of the mac users I know don't know they should drag that app from the dmg to the Application folder). A general place that manages applications (and maybe even preferences for these application, in a central place!)

alberto29 wrote on September 4, 2008, 3:09pm

i think it's not necessary on Mac Os X because all your aplications are in a folder, and you only need drag and drop to eliminate an application.

That isn't Windows ;)

Flauchhaus wrote on September 4, 2008, 5:15pm

I think a feature like "delete all related files/settings dialog when dragging apps to trash" would be awesome if not better than an app manager. All apps are in /applications already and the ease of uninstalling most apps (just drag them to trash) on a mac is one thing i really love about os x.

jasper wrote on September 4, 2008, 9:53pm

Erm, you guys are missing the point. Every application uses your preferences (hence another file, not in the app package, but in your preferences folder), and some applications install, including information and everything on many places in the system. You don't delete those when you drag out the app (Photoshop evens comes in a seperate folder of it's own), so you're stuck with a lot of useless files. Windows does this the unelegant way (storing a link to the install/uninstall file of the application), but a MacOS application manager would use a simpler and more elegant approach to the problem (just a teensy loading bar that shows it's working on tracing and deleting files).

abitgone wrote on September 8, 2008, 8:54am

I don't think we're missing the point - I do think a lot of these suggestions are more about people switching to OS X from Windows and finding that they prefer things the "Windows" way (I've lost count the number of times I've read "...just like Windows..." or something similar in the submissions on this site).

I was just the same (years ago) but once you get used to doing things the OS X way, it's fine. There have been a couple of times when I've needed to uninstall all traces of an application, but for $12.95 (and with free updates for life), AppZapper has done just that for me, and I think I've used it about 3, maybe 4 times. You don't even need a license from AppZapper to do that - they give you 5 free zaps as a trial!

However, for the majority of users, simply deleting the App from their Applications folder is enough, and has been for years.

jasper wrote on September 8, 2008, 9:11pm

For God sake, I am starting to understand why peopel call mac users smugg - it's not because it's on Windows, it's necesarrily bad. Windows has this feature for the same reasons - there are a lot of files associated with an Application, and I want them gone - and not by paying more for a seperate application.

AppZapper proves there is a market for these things and that Apple should consider developing it's own version. I'm on mac for - probably - longer than you are and I'm not as smugg as most Apple users to say this is a bad idea. This ia a great idea! It would free more space on your hard disk (not a lot, but more is more!) and finally do things thuroughly. Also, it would give people the chance to uninstall iLife, wich now can only be done through complicated procedure - and iLife takes some Gigabytes!

Also, it would give Apple a more secure model of delivering applications to the Mac, and managing them. Finder is not an Application-manager - it's for files. And Application Manager would allow you to install and uninstall applications, maybe even edit settings right there.

Now, the next time I post I don't want you to use that pesky if-you-adopt-to-mac-it-isn't-true-attitude again, because I've been using mac for longer than you think, I know it's quirks, I've followed it's life and I've grown up with it. And I'm not smugg enough to think that when somebody uses the phrase 'like on Windows', 'Well, if it's on Windows then you haven't adopted to mac yet because everything is perfect on Macs'. Sjeesj.

Grey_Podder wrote on September 9, 2008, 9:16pm

I also like the simplicity of drag-and-drop for removing applications. It seems as if it's mostly the usual suspects (Adobe, Microsoft, et al) who rob Mac users of this convenience. When I have a problem app like this I use AppCleaner, which is completely free. When you trash an app, it finds all the relevant files and deletes them along with the app's package.

Ideally, Apple could add an option in the Finder preferences for it to seek out and trash all preference files, orphaned folders, etc.

jasper wrote on September 10, 2008, 10:52am

That would be fine too, but I would like to say that there are many people I know (including older people and people my age) that don't know they have to drag it there, and thus drag the app straight into the dock, launching that disk image every time they open it.

Also, Adobe and Microsoft's application are big guys - and I mean, big guys. CS3 installs so much extra components, that putting it all into dragable apps would be a painstaking procedure, because Apps make use of shared services - and they'de have to package every service with every app to make sure you have them.

dmitriid wrote on September 12, 2008, 9:34am

It's not just the big guys who put all the extra stuff on the hard drive. Any sufficiently complicated application will need extra place to store its preferences, certain resources, even temp files.

Hey. Spore is out. Guess were it stores it's 450 megs of library files. In ~/Library. Will they get deleted when I drag Spore to the trash bin? No. And all the stuff it downloads will not be deleted either.

Right now I have 3 Gb of free space left on my 140Gb MacBook Pro drive. Where did it go? All the stuff that apps leave behind just sits there. And that is not right

jasper wrote on September 18, 2008, 5:56pm

In all fairness, most of the times it doesn't matter - but it would be a nice extra touch.`

Despite my comments, Calum.Cook - MacOS is still easier to use for installing or uninstalling applications than Windows, wich doesn't even show every app in it's management.

mikeschinkel wrote on December 25, 2009, 8:59am

Bravo @jasper!