How to uninstall software on a Mac

I am using a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.5. I am new to this development environment, and previously worked on Windows.

For the software I installed, how can I uninstall them? I did not find something like the Add/Remove programs function of the Windows Control Panel.

Solution 1:

While you can simply drag the .app out of the Applications folder and into the Trash, this will often leave at least a few preference files laying around.

I use (and highly recommend) you use AppZapper instead.

Solution 2:

The files to be deleted can be found usually in in your file system under:

• home/applications/*
• home/application support
• home/library/preferences
• home/library/preference panes
• /<harddrive>/library/application support/*
• /<harddrive>/library/preferences/*
• /<harddrive>/library/preference panes/*

So delete the primary icon and then look for associated files in these areas. What other areas am i forgetting?

Solution 3:

Generally, for Macs it's so simple that you think there's got to be more to it. You can simply drag the application to the trash. Or you can right mouse click and select "Move to Trash". There may be a few applications which include an "Uninstall.app" file, in which case you should run that program. Probably this question has been answered previously, but I didn't do a search for it.