Hi, if you’re reading this post then you are probably new to Apple Macs having migrated from Windows or another rival operating system. Welcome and I hope you enjoy your time at Macblogger 
Installing and uninstalling applications on OS X is a very different process from doing so on a Windows system. The first difference is that you can’t install a .exe or a .msi on Mac. Software is installed on Macs using a .dmg file. DMG is an abbreviation for disk image. Macs also use tiny applications called Widgets as well. These guys use the .wdgt file extension. All installations on Mac OS X require the administrative password to be typed into a prompt box before continuing with the installation.
How to Install a Program on your Apple Mac
For the purpose of this post I’m going to install Cabos. an open source file sharing application. I have downloaded the file to my desktop. Simply double click on the cabos.dmg file. A new finder window should pop up, see image below. You might be thinking ‘oh, that was easy and quick’, but the installation is not actually complete. The Cabos MacOSX folder is simply mounted on your hard drive. You should notice a Cabos folder on your desktop. To complete the installation drag and drop the Cabos.app file into the Applications folder. You should hear a soft ‘ding’ noise, this indicates and confirms the completion of the installation. And that is that. Finished.
Not every program installs in the same manner as Cabos has done. Some applications, such as Firefox, pop-up a prompt which is similar to a Finder window. Instructions generally appear which tell you to drag and drop the .app file into the Application folder.
How to set a Program to Automatically Launch at Startup
If you want to have the program load at startup you simply go to
- System Preference.
- Accounts.
- Login Items.
- From this screen you can add applications by clicking on the ‘+’ symbol.
- You can set the application to open in full view or to hide it the background.
Cabos might not be the most practical of applications to have started at startup. I have Adium, Skype, Gmail Notifier and Thunderbird all set to startup at this moment.
How to Uninstall a Program on your Apple Mac
This is pretty simple as well. Open up the Applications Folder in Finder and drag and drop the application’s folder or the .app file into the recycle bin located on the Dock. If you accidentally dumped an application then open up the receycle bin and recover the file(s).
Mac OS X doesn’t have the best uninstall procedure in place. It is not certain that files associated with the installed application will be deleted by simply dropping the .app file into the recycle bin. It’s best to use a third party application such as Clean App or App Delete or to remove all the files associated with the installation from your Mac’s hard drive.
June 10th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
For those hard to remove preference pane apps and widgets, there’s a handy application called AppDelete. It will also remove all files and folders associated with an application - especially useful for those apps that leave your hard drive littered with detritus after an uninstall.
More information and download available from:
http://reggie.ashworth.googlepages.com/appdelete
June 10th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I could have done with this blog post last week when i got my mac hehe. good work.
June 10th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Paul, I use a widget called Clean App to complete the uninstall process.
Apple should ask for a prompt for the admin password when trying to uninstall applications as well. It’s a level of security they over looked imo.
Chris, this post was dedicated to you.
June 10th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
It hadn’t occurred to me that OS X wouldn’t ask for an admin password when uninstalling a program. I guess the developers figured that if you had given the admin password to install an app, that you’d already shown that you have sufficient privileges, and therefore no password would be required to remove the same app. Not the proper way to implement security to my mind though.
Cheers,
Paul
June 11th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
@ Paul: I have never experienced that before !