There is no explicit need to do anything else. Which means, to uninstall an application in macOS, you need only drag the app to the Trash. As far as the user is concerned, you just need to double-click on an app's icon - or click once for a shortcut that's held in the Dock - and the application will launch, using all the resources it needs stored in the application package and elsewhere. The apps themselves that live in the Applications folder (although they can be stored elsewhere.) are actually bundles of many files all packaged together. Additionally, there may be some necessary supporting files stored in ~/Library/Application Support and /Library/Application Support. So programs are typically stored in the /Applications directory, and a user's preferences for how that app may be configured are stored in ~/Library/Preferences. When Apple launched Mac OS X in 2001, it maintained the Unix way of separating system files from a user's working space. Aside from the system security problems this can create, it also makes uninstalling executable programs in Windows a chore that can only normally be undertaken by automated programs.īut on a Mac things are a little different.
Sloppy housekeeping from Microsoft initially let software developers install many fragmented pieces of their program wherever they liked across the C: boot drive. In Windows, programs must be installed with special installer wizards, and more pertinently must be removed by the same kind of mechanisms. Why deleting programmes on Mac is different to Windows
Here's how to uninstall Mac apps for good - a process that will help to make space on a Mac and could speed it up too. But some stubborn Mac software can be tricky to delete. Unlike in Windows where programs have their own uninstallers, removing a Mac application is usually as simple as dragging its icon from the Applications folder to the trash. How to completely remove a program from a Mac