Completely delete your unwanted Apps with AppZapper

The drag and drop nature of OSX is great - but sometimes just dragging an application into the trash doesn’t truly get rid of all the associated files. That can leave unwanted remnants laying around your Mac.

There is an application out there, however, that can take care of this for you. It’s called AppZapper, and it’s only $12.95.

If you’ve ever looked at lists of “essential mac apps” you’ve probably seen AppZapper near the top of almost every one of them. The reason for that is simple - AppZapper does a really great job completely deleting applications for you.

You can try AppZapper for free by clicking here.

Submitted on October 2, 2008 at 3:24 pm - Completely delete your unwanted Apps with AppZapper was written by Michael - There have been 9 comments - Categorized in Easy Tips

9 Responses to “Completely delete your unwanted Apps with AppZapper”

Phil

i've been using appzapper ever since i got my mac, and it simply rocks. worth every penny. for the cheapskates though, there is a free app that does almost the same (or so i think) called "appdelete". it can be found here: http://reggie.ashworth.googlepages.com/appdelete October 2nd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Ashish

There's also AppCleaner, another free solution, that has a pretty simple user interface: http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/ October 2nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Willie

(For my ADD friends: Some alternatives to AppZapper:
AppCleaner: Free, application.
AppTrap: Free, background process.
AppDelete: $5, application.
Hazel: $22, feature in a backgroud application.)

I happen to know about a bunch of similar apps, and want to give them all fair mention.

AppCleaner is the one that I use, it's free and is pretty much AppZapper with a different interface, which I happen to like better. Another thing which these applications share is the ability to also uninstall widgets, preference panes, and some plugins. I can't speak for the efficency of AppZapper, but AppCleaner doesn't find all my plugins.

AppTrap installs itself as a preference pane, and monitors the trash can for applications. When it finds one, it pops up the dialog that all these apps seem to share. This free app is great for lazy people or ones with deep habits, not so for those obsessed with having the smallest amount of things running or having their system preferences perfect. Last I checked, the icon was just a generic one.

AppDelete, as Phil said, is another alternative. It used to be free, but is now mandatory donationware (why not just call it shareware?), costing &5. It's advantage is that when you drag an application on its icon it does it's thing, with the same dialog, and quits, getting out of your way. It doesn't allow for deleting anything but apps, as far as I know.

Hazel isn't just an application deletion app, it's a complete filesystem organizer. It will cap the trash, deleting the oldest files if your trash gets too full. Its real power comes with rules, though. They're like Mail rules for your files, but more powerful. Set up very extensible rules in the same way you would create a smart album/playlist/folder/mailbox/Address Book group/etc. and add actions to be completed on matching files. You can set lables, file into subfolders, move to other folders, as well as run Applescripts, Automator workflows, and even shell scripts. If you have Hazel, this option doesn't cost you anything because the daemon is already running, and if you don't you can check out noodlesoft.com. It's worth every one of the $22 it costs. October 2nd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Pilotbob

Why not use AppTrap. It does the same thing and it is completely free. I have been using it since a week after I got my iMac.

http://konstochvanligasaker.se/apptrap/

BOb October 3rd, 2008 at 7:44 am
therepguy

I perfer to use "AppCleaner" Version 1.2.2... it's a drag and drop appation, clean, simple to use and undertand, works well and is "freeware" which makes it a good deal and a whole lot cheaper and that's a good thing! October 3rd, 2008 at 7:44 am
Chet

AppCleaner http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/ does the same and is also free October 4th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Michael Zhao

Would it kill you to take a couple of hours to read all the posts that we've already written? October 6th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
dobbatron

AppZApper user here. You should be aware that a/it doesn't always find everything associated with and app, apparently only things that share the name as far as I can see. I def. have a dig afterwards and check for leftovers.
b/take care not to let it delete parts of similarly-named or different version of the same app!! October 8th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Luke

AppCleaner is the BEST and it's free. Turn on Smart Delete in the preferences if you want to run it as a background process. Anytime you trash an App it will automatically get the related files too.

http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/ October 11th, 2008 at 10:57 pm