Section 9. Uninstall an Application

9. Uninstall an Application

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

1 Install an Application from Disc or Download

8 Revert an Application to Factory Settings

Removing an application from your computer is one of the easiest things you can do, and one of the nicest advantages of the Mac over Windows. Because Windows operates based on the Registry (a complex database of pieces of information installed by applications), you usually have to run uninstaller programs to remove an application from a Windows machine (even then, it's rarely a clean operationa badly written uninstaller can leave conflicting data in the Registry). A Mac OS X application, however, is just a single item you can simply throw away.

1.	Locate the Application Open a Finder window and navigate to the Applications folder. Most applications are found in this folder; if the application you want to remove is in a different location, navigate there instead. 9. Uninstall an Application
2.	Move the Application to the Trash Drag the application icon from the Finder window into the Trash in the Dock.
3.	Trash the Preferences Technically, you're done uninstalling the application. The only thing that remains from it on your computer is a file containing the preferences for that application as you have personally configured it. That file can't hurt anything. If you want to be really thorough, though, go into your Preferences folder (inside the Library folder, under your Home folder), locate the Preferences file for the application you just deleted, and throw it away, too. This step is generally unnecessary, because the Preference file won't do any harm if the application it relates to is no longer present on the system.