Review: AppZapper - The Unofficial Uninstaller for Mac Apps

AppZapper
Review by: Katie
http://www.appzapper.com
Price: $12.95

I recently took a call from a listener on the Typical Mac User Live Podcast who said that he had installed a ton of programs but thought he had removed them by simply dragging the icon in the Applications folder into the trash. Problem is, that didn't really uninstall all the "extra" files that were installed in other locations. The solution I recommended..App Zapper. AppZapper is one of those applications that once you start using it, you just don't know how you ever got along without it. The premise is quite simple, drag an unwanted application into AppZapper and ZAP! the entire application, including all those annoying little orphan files are instantly moved to the trash.

Many of the programs installed in Mac OS X are self contained in a package inside the Applications folder and once removed the entire program will be delted. But the problem is, most applications install files in places other than the Applications folder. One of the largest problems I've run into with with applications developed for Mac OS X is that for some reason, very few developers, even major developers such as Adobe, no longer include uninstallers with their programs. Do you have any idea how many stray Adobe files I have on my system since installing CS2? Scary...

While it's true that many applications are in fact disguised packages that include all the various fils and data wrapped up in the application, there are also support fils (typically in one of your many library folders), plist files, and other files looming around your system. So you may throw an application away, but in fact leave many stragglers behind on your system. These stray files have a tendency to cause problems at the most inconvenient times and conflict with other programs or other versions of the program that you may later install.

Now I'm not nearly smart enough to know how AppZapper works, and I"m sure the developer would probably rather not share his secret, but you simply drag an application you no longer want into AppZapper, and AppZapper scours your computer and presents you with a list showing all the associated files it plans to remove. You click the appropriately named Zap button and your screen will flash and a very pleasing "zap" sound will happen. The offending files have now all been moved to the trash and can be emptied at your convenience.

Now because the visual and sound effects are so addictive, the developers have also given you the option to setup a "safe list" to prevent yourself form accidently zapping programs that you actually want to have on your Mac.

Also included is a new ZapGenie feature that will browse your computer and look for programs that haven't been used in a while, sort the programs by the date they were last used. This way you an quickly and easily spot unused or little used applications and consider removing the in order to clean out your Mac and to conserve hard drive space.

AppZapper is a great utility, it truly is the uninstaller that Apple forgot. Thank goodness the Mac developer community is out there to provide us with these wonderful gems at a very reasonable cost. AppZapper is available for a free trail version that will give you five free zaps. One word of warning, once you get in "the zone", zapping your applications can become extremely gratifying. Use it with caution! :)