Keep Your Mac Tidy With AppDelete

Posted by John Baker on 02/19/07 in Applications, Utilities

As much as we all love our Macs, we all have little annoyances that Apple just refuses to fix in their OS. Luckily, we have great developers who usually fill those gaps quite nicely with neat little tools. Reggie Ashworth’s own AppDelete is just one of those tools.

AppDelete user interface

If you’ve moved from Windows to a Mac, I’m sure one of your first joys was discovering just how simple it is to install applications. Just drag-’n'-drop, as they say. Then when you’re done with the application, just throw it in the trash, right? That’s what Apple would lead you to believe, but hold on there, cowboy! What about all those little bits and pieces of applications that get left behind? Preference files, scripts, libraries - they all stick around in the hidden parts of your hard drive and fill up space.

Along comes AppDelete. Instead of dropping that app into the trash, drop it onto AppDelete instead. It then goes out and scours your hard drive for all the little chunks your app would’ve left behind had you just tossed it, then trashes them all at the same time. It even keeps logs of what you’ve deleted and when.

Yes, Austin Sarner’s AppZapper does the same thing and it has been out there for a while, but it’s always good to encourage competition. AppDelete’s interface isn’t as pretty as Austin’s program, but it seems just as powerful and it gets the job done. Plus, AppDelete has the advantage of being free.

Get it here.

del.icio.us tag this | digg this | permalink | ping

15 Comment(s)

Legend:

Guest

Article Author

Contributor

Arjun Muralidharan said on

February 19th, 2007 at 12:14 pm

I still prefer AppZapper. While AppDelete may not be very different, AppZapper gives me somewhat more control. I wish MacApper would make more extensive reviews. But I guess I do those on my own blog for people to see.

-2

John Baker said on

February 19th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

In response to the “extensive reviews” statement, it’s not my job to tell the world whether or not the app is right for them. My app reviews focus on my experience with the apps and therefore what I think others can get out of them. As I stated, I encourage competition, and I am serious about that. I hope everyone goes out and does their own head-to-head of AppZapper and AppDelete. I approached my review in that fashion, and I found that I couldn’t bring myself to pay even 13 dollars for something that AppDelete did just fine for me for free.

Again, I encourage anyone reading my reviews to try out the application for themselves and see what they think. That’s why we have free trials.

Jeremy S said on

February 19th, 2007 at 12:58 pm

I am a recent switcher and didn’t realize moving an app to the trash didn’t remove it completely. I am going to check this app out, but what if i have already deleted apps via the trash can method. Is there any software that will help with this? Or is there a place i should look to remove these files. Thanks.

agntdnl said on

February 19th, 2007 at 1:28 pm

Doing a spotlight search for the app or developer’s name usually does the drink pulling up plist and cache files. They’d be located in /usrname/library/Application Support

Andre said on

February 19th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

Eh, I’ll stick with AppZapper.

Justin Laramee said on

February 19th, 2007 at 6:49 pm

uApp has hte same UI as Appzapper and is free. Check it out!
http://www.eagle-of-liberty.com/uapp/index_en.php

alej744 said on

February 19th, 2007 at 7:08 pm

Eh… AppZapper.

Yohannes Wijaya said on

February 19th, 2007 at 8:17 pm

apple should have this “clean uninstall” feature in leopard. Sometimes, when I preach possible switchers on the subject of how easy and simple it is to uninstall applications by dragging them to trash, I felt uncompelled to tell them the real truth. It’s not that those remnants are going to cause instability in anyway, but who likes cluttered/orphaned files lying around? I absolutely dont.

Yohannes Wijaya said on

February 19th, 2007 at 8:35 pm

…i felt compelled…

Sherb said on

February 20th, 2007 at 12:23 am

I think I’ll stick with AppZapper

Alex said on

February 20th, 2007 at 6:38 am

I use CleanApp. I found it a bit more useful than appzapper for getting rid of the localization files and some pref pane stuff. But I will say that its a little sluggish and does tend to be a bit of a CPU hog.

Indraneel said on

February 20th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

…app….zapper…

Yohannes Wijaya said on

February 20th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

@Alex, appzapper remove pref pane stuff too fyi, even widgets, plugins, screensavers, & ipod updaters.

Alex said on

February 21st, 2007 at 4:40 am

@Yohannes

Thanks for the info,

Melissa said on

June 7th, 2007 at 11:43 pm

So far, no one has mentioned the best thing about AppZapper: the zap sound! The zap sound is one of the best sounds in the world! That sound is worth every penny of the price. Sure, you can tidily delete your stuff for free, but you will not have the same sense of emotional satisfaction. Appzapper’s icon is also inspiring. You feel like you are a software killer when you use it, ridding your computer of the forces of evil software! How often do you get to be a hero when doing mundane tasks like getting rid of software? Appzapper lets you feel like the savior of your own computer, with an amazing zap sound to congratulate you for your victory. No other application can compare.

(subscribed to comments) Add karma