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General discussion

Hmm. Looks like cleanup on Aisle 4...

Mar 13, 2008 8:30PM PDT

I have a Mac Mini, Leopard, etc etc etc.

Now, uninstalling software isn't as clean cut as I originally thought. A lot of applications leave crap in other places, yet don't actually offer any opportunity to 'uninstall' it - dragging it to the bin is all you are given. Anyway, a wee while I ago I installed parallels, and tried to get it to work... panicking the OS. I promptly thought 'to hell with that!' and chucked the whole entire parallels folder in the bin and emptied. Now, parallels is gone, but it's left a trail of junk in the OS. The airport configuration sidebar to name 1. Hell, I think there are even some processes running that belong to that POS. What I am looking for is an application to essentially get rid of the junk that is left behind. I have heard of 'Appdelete' and similar programs, but that only seems to work when you er, haven't already deleted the application in question.

Also, going slightly off topic here, but there is a lot of junk that comes with Macs that I just don't use. Most of the iLife suite is useless to me, and a lot of the stuff that comes on the OS could probably be removed. If I get rid of this stuff now will it be any good? Or should I just junk the OS, format and reinstall with only the stuff I actually need? Formatting would be a royal pain in the **** to be honest but factory installations of computer operating systems do tend to be rather full on.

Discussion is locked

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Uninstalling
Mar 13, 2008 9:58PM PDT

As you said, it's a little late now that the program has been deleted.

Most uninstaller rely on being present when the application is installed so that it can keep a record of what went where.

You will find most of the stuff in the your library, usually under the makers or apps name, with more stuff in the other library.

You might try reinstalling // where you "may" find the uninstaller program. Some programs have the uninstaller built into the installer.

Yep, iLife can be removed if you do not use it.

Format and install itself is so simple and easy that you must have something else going on for it to be a pain.
Factory installations of OS X really do not contain much above the core OS and the core Apps, unlike the gigs of crapware installed on a new Winbox. Trial versions of Office & iWork are about the only "unsolicited" stuff in OS X

Good luck

P

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Well,
Mar 13, 2008 10:07PM PDT

I've trashed most of what I don't need using appdelete. iLife is pretty much gone. So are the trial of iwork and office.

Just wondering though, perhaps I am in Windows mode, if on Windows you installed a system and then stripped it down afterwards, it often leads more crap and wouldn't result in as clean a finish as if you modify the installation CD and then install the customized system. I was thinking that might have been the same with the Mac OS, perhaps I'm wrong. I can do just about anything I'd ever want to in Windows but I only just learned how to do killall in the terminal LOL.

Perhaps I'm being a moron but wouldn't re-installing the Mac OS make programs installed, settings set, hell, even desktop icons, all back to the default? Or does that not happen? If I could re-install the OS... but still have files and settings exactly as they were, that would be literally miraculous. Still, I'd only do it if it was a last resort.

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What about this?
Mar 13, 2008 11:46PM PDT

"If I could re-install the OS... but still have files and settings exactly as they were, that would be literally miraculous.

In the Mac world we call this an Archive and Install (Preserve Settings).

By choosing that option, in the installer, your Home folder (directory) and its contents are preserved, and a new System folder is installed. The previous system folder is renamed to Previous Systems. (seems logical)

At the end of the install, your Home folder is put back where it was and you reboot to start using the new system folder. All your settings, preferences, icon placements, etc. are as they were before you started.

Is this what you were referring to?

P

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Exactly.
Mar 14, 2008 3:08AM PDT

Yes, and thank you for explaining. I honestly never knew it was so simple.

I will keep it in mind.

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No iLife?
Mar 14, 2008 10:31AM PDT

iLife isn't the best media suite out there, for sure, but I find it entertaining from time to time. Each to their own.
So what do you want to call the Mini, now that you have two systems on it and a lot of Apple's software removed? A Windowtosh? Happy Interesting. I personally think it would be more fun to have a regular, consumer Mac tower in between the Mini and the Pro to take apart and customize. Not to small, nor too big.
Now that gets me wondering about what Apple would be like if they bought out the company making that ModBook (I believe that is Axiotron) and added in this regular tower desktop. The Macintosh family would hold a little bit of everything for everyone then. Now if they could offer PPC chips alongside Intel ones... That would make the Macs more like Macs.

-BMF

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Agree... completely.
Mar 14, 2008 12:56PM PDT

And yeah, a Windowtosh Grin

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Intel has turned them all into PCs really
Mar 15, 2008 2:14AM PDT

When you think about it, today's Macs are basically the same as Winboxes, except the Macs are running Apple authorized hardware. Intel's products are nice and fast, but the only real decision you have to make between switching or not is your OS preference, not hardware (anymore). IBM is churning out some lightning-fast POWER chips, which would make the XServe very powerful if they could fit those chips in there. But, the good old PowerPC lineup has become anything but a choice for computers now. The 360, has claimed the PowerPC. I wonder what an old PowerMac with that triple-core, 3.2Ghz Xbox chip could do. Nice.

I guess Windowtosh beats Hackintosh though, right? Grin

-BMF

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anyday.
Mar 15, 2008 1:19PM PDT

a windowtosh rocks your socks anyday Wink

i've talked to people online who've run Mac OS on a PC too, but it was a lot of work..

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I don't see the point to doing that
Mar 15, 2008 1:58PM PDT

Why run OS X on a Windows PC when it runs better/faster on a Mac? At least, that's what I would think. Depends on your system config I suppose. Of course if I built a Windows machine worth of running OS X, I'd load XP onto it and use it for gaming and video editing. But, I still prefer the good old Xbox Grin. Since mine's away, again, from the RRoD, I've been playing my vintage consoles to pass time. Who needs that new Super Smash Brothers game when you have the original and the Melee version? Silly

Anyway, since you brought up the Mini, I recall seeing a cool mod where this guy turned his Mini into a "Mini Pro" or something. Looked like a scaled-down Mac Pro. And it was easy to swap parts by the looks of it. Sounds good to me. Anything that small, has FireWire, and runs OS X, must be. Now if only current Mac notebooks were just as customizable... I could use a hot swap bay for on-the-go drives.

-BMF

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Hmm. Looks like cleanup on Aisle 4...
Mar 15, 2008 2:17PM PDT

Just get a Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM and 8 cores... beast computers.

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Get a Mac Pro?
Mar 15, 2008 3:03PM PDT

Sure, except there's that "beastly" price to go with it. Of all people in the world, who could seriously use it? 4GB to 8GB of RAM should be enough for even high-end users, but 32GB? And 8 cores? There is no software that exists today that can really take use of so many cores. A dual-core CPU with a high cache and clock speed could get the job done, I'm sure. Intel has a little line of chips dubbed "Extreme", and I saw somewhere that some of those chips can be clocked up well beyond the 3Ghz range... Wasn't that latest Extreme quad-core chip clocked up to 6Ghz? Ah, here it is. But there are faster chips out there Silly. Still, that is amazing.

-BMF

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Well....
Mar 15, 2008 3:30PM PDT

Core 2 Extreme's are just High end Duo's with unlocked multiplier. Which means overclocking heaven. But why people pay for these on a Mac when overclocking on Macs is basically impossible, I fail to understand.

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AppZapper
Mar 14, 2008 1:51PM PDT

In the future you should use an application like AppZapper $12

http://appzapper.com/

There are free ones if you search online.