How do you completely remove an application from a Windows machine? (Warning: this post will give Mac users a gratuitous chance to gloat.)
Windows has a tendency to scatter apps to the four corners of your hard drive when you install (see this). Installing some apps is roughly akin to firing a shotgun through a bag of granulated sugar onto deep pile carpeting. The question then becomes, how do you impersonate a vacuum cleaner?
When I want to make sure I’ve really gotten rid of a Windows app, here’s what I do:
Anyone else want to offer suggestions?
I'd like to make an appeal to all the developers in the world for software that doesn't install. Just give me an executable. Bundle everything up into that, or perhaps have a handful of DLLs in the same folder as the program. I get the program, I…
Throw out the hd, install a new one and then install linux
Wow, awesome idea. Thanks for your thoughtful, constructive input.
I've found removing sections of the hard drive with a hammer and chisel to be helpful in this area too.
You use a tool like InCtrl5 or InstallWatch Pro, which monitors the install, giving you a complete report of everything that got changed on your computer by the installer. There are tools, which i unfortunently don't remember the name of, that can take the report than InCtrl5 made and uninstall the software using that report. Thereby removing everything the installer installed and changed.
Unfortunately, with OS X, getting rid of an app and its associated files has become a lot more like doing the same in Windows. The associated files are usually in pretty standard locations, but not terribly intuitive for the novice.
