Did you think Mac users don’t need uninstallers? True, uninstalling on a Mac is mostly equal to dragging an app to the Trash icon, but sometimes they leave behind little files. They might be harmless by themselves — and there is no Registry to have nightmares about — but what about the precious space they take up on your hard disk?
Which is why tonight’s Saturday Night Freeware crown goes to AppCleaner from FreeMacSoft.
AppCleaner is a small free application for Mac OS 10.4 or later, which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps, including their related files littered across the system. It is a tiny download of under 2 MB and very simple to use. Just drop an application onto the AppCleaner window and it will find the related files, which you may then delete (or keep). It also has sections where it lists all applications, widgets and other stuff on your system, so you can take your pick of what’s not required on your Mac.
There are a couple of convenient features added on. One of them is the SmartDelete option. Enable it, and AppCleaner will detect when you try to trash an app and offer to find and delete its associated files. There is a protection feature built in as well, where you can drag apps you want to protect from accidental deletion. Active apps are protected by default.
Dragging apps to the trash to uninstall them won’t destabilize your Mac, but if you’re concerned about disk space, keeping an uninstaller handy is advisable. There are others available, but after some poking around, AppCleaner is my favourite for its simplicity, ease of use and, of course, the lack of a price tag. A big thank you to FreeMacSoft.
~PD
I thought they didn’t need uninstallers :p But then again, there are cleanup tools for linux too. So it figures that it is all universal.
I guess you can’t really call it an uninstaller, technically. It’s more of a clean-up-er, like you said!