I was recently contacted regarding my review of Xyle Scope by one of the authors of AppZapper. Sure, I’ll take it for a spin!
AppZapper is a tool which facilitates uninstalling applications from your Mac that either do not come with their own uninstaller application (which is most applications out there.) Die-hard Mac people are probably grumbling at the thought of needing such an application, but there are those times when you want to remove any trace that a particular application ever existed on your beloved Mac. And while Mac applications come in neat bundles hiding all of their critical files in one application icon, they tend to leave traces of themselves behind after you delete them such as cache files, preference files, installer package receipts, etc.
Enter AppZapper. Find an application you want to get completely rid of and either drop it onto the main AppZapper window or drop it onto the AppZapper icon. AppZapper will then go looking for files the application has left behind that can be safely deleted.
First impressions are key and I had two very positive first impressions before I even used the program. The first was that the AppZapper website was gorgeous (Although there is a silly wrapper frame). Second was they way their installer program created an alias of my application folder for the install. I don’t understand why other application developers don’t do this. It is simple to do, saves the user a step, and shows a level of class we expect on the Mac platform.
The process is quick and a summary will tell you where these lingering files are stored and how much space they all consume.
Now, before you press that zap button…. You may want to turn down the volume on your computer and get ready to look the other way…. The animation and sound effects when you click that button are quite dramatic. =) This was my only (albeit silly) complaint about the program. When something is about to delete files from my filesystem I’d rather not see my life (or screen) flash before me and have emergency sirens going off. Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little.
Back to the task at hand, the application did a good job of finding stray parts to various applications I decided to zap. It was able to round up preference files, installer receipts, caches, application support files, etc. Even applications that are stored within their own folder worked. Throw the application at AppZapper and AppZapper will mark the application and enclosing folder (including contents) for deletion if appropriate.
Users still stuck i the days before OS X might want to take caution there if they still stick documents you create from an application in its associated folder. Those could also get marked for deletion and you might not want that. Still, AppZapper carefully lists each item it will delete.
So if you are a download junkie checkout AppZapper. While you might know to look in ~/Library/Application Support/, Preferences folders etc for stray files, AppZapper will automate this for you and save some time.
Decent review, Tim. I checked it out a few weeks ago, and thought it was a handy app. Still haven’t forked out the 13 bux, though