VesperDEM's Profile

  • http://www.metzener.com/dave/
  • Apr 03, 2007
  • 4
  • 0

Latest comments made by: VesperDEM

  • All this said, I agree that a centralized location for uninstalling Apps/drivers/widgets/preferences/etc... would be a useful thing for the Mac. I guess my question would be where would this centralized location be? It doesn't really belong in System Preferences. I suspect the Finder would be the place, but I already have CleanApp in the toolbar for just such a purpose. :) I used to use AppZapper until I was having tons of problems removing Apps from my Applications folder do to the permissions. CleanApp fixed that problem, then AppZapper put out an update that fixed the problem. So I have both, but I prefer CleanApp right now.
    VesperDEM had this to say on Mar 07, 2007 Posts: 4
    Forget the Leopard Bells and Whistles, Just Give Me an Uninstaller
  • Chris, "Granted, as you say, that uninstall is Add/Remove, but your argument almost single-handedly proves how and why OS should have uninstall." No, that is not what I said, I stated: "One thing you have to remember here is that 'no' incarnation of Windows actually has an uninstaller." Windows uninstall, a part of add/remove programs, uses the Registry to locate the necessary information needed to uninstall an App. If you look at the registry folder: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall, there are a bunch of GUID entries that appear to be .net Apps and Microsoft Apps. After those GUID entries, are most of the applications that are visible in the Add/Remove Programs program. Selecting an entry in this folder like Thunderbird, for instance, shows a list of registry entries including an entry called UninstallString which contains: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\uninstall\uninstall.exe /ua "1.5.0.5 (en-US)". No LOG file but the uninstall program that Mozilla supplied when it was installed. I'm all for making the users experience a clean and easy one. But let's not give ease of use credit to a company that seems to do everything in it's power to make that experience as hard and convoluted as possible.
    VesperDEM had this to say on Mar 02, 2007 Posts: 4
    Forget the Leopard Bells and Whistles, Just Give Me an Uninstaller
  • "However, unless it’s Steve’s big secret, there is one area where Vista will make OS X look oh-so-1994. And that’s uninstalling applications." How can you make a claim like that and not know if Vista does a better job? One thing you have to remember here is that no incarnation of Windows actually has an uninstaller. It simply has a place where users can go to add/remove programs. When a user requests to remove a specific program, they are running a program that the developer installed along with the rest of their application that removes the program. Windows doesn't know how to remove the program. Now, if you are asking Apple to create a program that allows users to "add/remove" programs like Windows, fine. However, I pretty much think OS X has the right idea with it leaving it up to the user and developers. "My experience of uninstalling in Windows was it would suggest to remove critical DLLs because it thought no other app was using them!" This is true, and yet, when you remove those DLL's, either Windows or an App becomes unstable.
    VesperDEM had this to say on Mar 01, 2007 Posts: 4
    Forget the Leopard Bells and Whistles, Just Give Me an Uninstaller
  • Chris, did I miss something in all the reviews of Vista? Are you saying that Vista does a better job of uninstalling Apps than XP did? My experience with uninstalling Apps in Windows was one where it left DLL's all over the place and if you did uninstall them, there was a good chance that you were removing a DLL that another App actually used. Has Vista done something to fix this problem so that when you install an App in Vista that installs DLL's, the uninstall process removes the DLL's cleanly and safely?
    VesperDEM had this to say on Feb 28, 2007 Posts: 4
    Forget the Leopard Bells and Whistles, Just Give Me an Uninstaller