For these apps you will almost always need an uninstaller. Now for those apps that had their own installer, these are a different breed. For everyone new to OS X, I recommend and you really can just simply ignore their existence. They are so small as to be insignificant related to the amount of space on drives today. They do not affect the startup speed of the OS, they are not loaded when the OS starts up, nor in fact, do they do anything to slow down the running of your machine that you're use to in that other OS. These files are not stored in the system folders (or registry - since there is no registry) like they are in Windows. Easy enough - it's gone.īefore you ask, yes it does leave behind a file or two. With all of those "Drag and Drop" apps, just head to your Applications folder grab the app, then drag and drop it into the Trashcan. Please read on in the Now for those apps that had their own installer, section below.
Once you have it installed, sadly, you are not done yet.īefore you eject the dmg and delete the download you really need to find out, how do you uninstall this app. NOTE: If you ever have something open up on your desktop and you are not sure what it is - do not give it your password. If you've purposely downloaded a specific app that you know what it is, then you're safe giving it your password. Most of these are going to ask you for your master password. With these pkg files, you'll double click on them and it will open up and run through an installer program similar to what you're use to in Windows. This is a package file and it is similar to the.
They'll download the same and the dmg file will open up the same.
Fortunately, these are pretty limited to some applications such as MS Office, System tweaking type apps and a few others that need to install files into the system folders on your Mac. Some applications are not simple drag and drop. This is a great way to run new apps that you just want to check out before you install them. If you simply double click on the app icon within that window, you'll discover the app will open and run even though you have not installed it onto your machine. With all of the above examples, you can actually open and run the app without installing it. Then open your Downloads folder and you can delete the downloaded file.
Or you can drag the icon to the trash to eject it. To delete the file, you can right click on the drive icon still on your desktop and select Eject "Firefox" same as you would eject that CD in Windows. Once you have dragged it into your Applications folder, close the window and you can then delete the dmg file. In this case, just drag the app icon right across within the window and drop it onto the Applications folder shortcut they've provided for you. Some of them will save you a little trouble and they'll actually have a shortcut (or Alias) to the Applications folder right there in the window for you like Firefox. If you have removed the Applications icon from the Dock, then you'll need to open a Finder window and drag it into Applications there. In both of the above examples, you just drag and drop the app icon onto your Applications icon in the Dock. The Onyx install window is actually not nearly so plain, and many will look similar to it and tell you what to do. Just grab the icon, drag and drop it onto the Applications icon in the dock or you can open a separate Finder window and drop it there. Some of them will have nothing inside that window except the icon of the app itself, like this: With this method, you are simply going to drag the icon from the window and drop it into your Applications folder. What's in that window can vary a great deal. You will also have a separate window open up that has the actual application itself. Not all of them will be as fancy as these two and that icon represents the CD you're use to seeing. You'll then have the dmg open up and you may see a hard drive icon on your desktop similar to these:
This is a disk image and can be considered similar to what you have in windows when you have a software application CD in your hand.Īfter you download an app, head for your Downloads folder and click on the file. With most apps for OS X, what you will be downloading is typically a. I'll be dealing here strictly with apps downloaded from the web. Since this is asked so often, finally decided to provide a small tutorial, and hopefully this will bring you up to speed pretty quickly.
This post is only to provide the new windows switcher a feel - most of whom just want to know how to do it.)įor those coming to OS X from Windows, the installation and removal of applications can be a little confusing at first, especially when there are several methods, typically determined by the developer of the application.
(Note for the OS X experts out there, yes I full well understand some of the terms are not "technically" correct.