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Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

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Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#121

Post by alin23 »

detrites wrote: post #120

Why are an applications files physically moved elsewhere in the first place? Simply leave everything in the app bundle, and put symlinks for anything the OS is expecting elsewhere. Cleaning up app deletion would then be pruning dead symlinks. Such a system could also potentially be enforced. Is it a symlink? If "yes" allow the write to ~/Library or wherever else. If not, deny it. Genuine question: is there some reaso…

Those aren’t app files, they are user configuration files. They can’t be created inside the app bundle because the app is signed, and any modification will invalidate the signature.

There’s also the matter of permissions, some apps may be installed by the admin, but the app might not run with admin permissions for some users.

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#122

Post by fastball »

newaccount74 wrote: post #112
riolu wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"right" click the app and select "Open" creates the same exception without the need to open settings. There's also an equivalent terminal command for the exception I can't remember. If either of those aren't satisfying, you can always drop the check entirely which I can't personally recommend.

> you can always drop the check entirely I don't think you can? Unless I am missing something? You can add Terminal to "developer tools" so you can launch stuff from the shell without Gatekeeper interfering, but is there really a way to disable the gatekeeper warning for downloaded apps altogether?

Yes you can turn of gatekeeper entirely just by running this in the Terminal.

  sudo spctl --master-disable

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#123

Post by gnuj3 »

jb1991 wrote: post #117
gnuj3 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AppCleaner is no good after you deleted an app by other means and it left crap on the hd tho… as far as I recall CleanMyMac was a paid closed course app?

You can still delete all the junk an app leaves behind using this to find it all, then trash them: https://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

Thank you

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#124

Post by Mordisquitos »

mrtesthah wrote: post #55

I was disappointed by not finding a tutorial on how to create an app that no user could ever install successfully.

Same here. It made me realise that un- is the wrong prefix for what we mean by uninstall. It should probably be de-, as in "I deinstalled the program" or "This app is deinstallable".

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#125

Post by neffo »

franky47 wrote: post #99

Somehow I misread the title as making apps impossible to remove, glad to see it was the opposite. It's the second time I read about Lunar, and my curiosity led me to their impressive monitor database: https://db.lunar.fyi/

Feel free to smoke sir, the Hindenburg is completely inflammable.

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#126

Post by ayewo »

newaccount74 wrote: post #112
riolu wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"right" click the app and select "Open" creates the same exception without the need to open settings. There's also an equivalent terminal command for the exception I can't remember. If either of those aren't satisfying, you can always drop the check entirely which I can't personally recommend.

> you can always drop the check entirely I don't think you can? Unless I am missing something? You can add Terminal to "developer tools" so you can launch stuff from the shell without Gatekeeper interfering, but is there really a way to disable the gatekeeper warning for downloaded apps altogether?

> You can add Terminal to "developer tools" so you can launch stuff from the shell without Gatekeeper interfering ...

How does that work? I use iTerm so how would I add it to "developer tools"?

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#127

Post by Mordisquitos »

jraph wrote: post #106
franky47 wrote: post #99

Somehow I misread the title as making apps impossible to remove, glad to see it was the opposite. It's the second time I read about Lunar, and my curiosity led me to their impressive monitor database: https://db.lunar.fyi/

> Somehow I misread the title as making apps impossible to remove Weird, so did I! Why!? After reading it again, there are still an ambiguity though: impossible to install, or that you can uninstall?

If only we used the de- prefix rather than un- we would be safer from ambiguities: "I saw the app was deinstallable so I deinstalled it, but now I cannot install it back as it is totally uninstallable!"

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#128

Post by yardstick »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #124
mrtesthah wrote: post #55

I was disappointed by not finding a tutorial on how to create an app that no user could ever install successfully.

Same here. It made me realise that un- is the wrong prefix for what we mean by uninstall . It should probably be de- , as in "I deinstalled the program" or "This app is deinstallable" .

This app is unremovable. Or maybe this app cannot be removed?

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#129

Post by Kwpolska »

pfp wrote: post #33
tacker2000 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just unbelievable. The billion $$ company cant just automate the uninstall procedure for their users? How hard would it be to auto delete the contents of ~/Library? Or have some periodic auto clean? one can always dream, no? I wonder how many users that have uninstalled VMware still have 30 gigs of unused VMs lying around on their disk.

No. The user data, preferences etc under ~/Library/ belong to you - whether it's 3 kB of preference toggles or 3 decades of email. It would be "unbelievable" if a multibillion company decided to be helpful and erase your data just because you deleted the binary that created them (actually, it wouldn't, but let's not digress into how those companies are stripping away our agency by mobile-ossifying everything). The wh…

> The whole Mac idea was that there's no "uninstall process" with opaque windoze registries etc; what the Finder shows you is simple enough for an average user to understand. Like dragging an "Application" or a CD-ROM into the Trash to get rid of it. Of course they ruined all that with ~/Library/{Preferences,Application Whatever,Kitchen Sink}/.

The Windows registry is a simple key-value store, just like the macOS defaults system. Windows installers/uninstallers may create/remove some registry entries, but those are typically entries for file associations and the installed program list, and perhaps some global settings. But then the app is free to write its configuration data to any registry key it likes (usually ones named after the app), or to files in ~\AppData, or perhaps C:\ProgramData. It’s not much different to macOS in that regard. The uninstaller may offer to remove the stuff in AppData, or it might keep it as-is.

(~\AppData is a bit less messy than ~/Library, because there are only three folders in AppData where application folders could go, but Library has all these folders with various meanings.)

Re: Making macOS Apps Uninstallable

#130

Post by amelius »

tacker2000 wrote: post #15
MissTake wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, still leaves them behind. I’ve been using AppCleaner ( https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/ ) for years now and it’s a real neat (and free) app that’ll do a pretty decent job of cleaning up crud.

This is just unbelievable. The billion $$ company cant just automate the uninstall procedure for their users? How hard would it be to auto delete the contents of ~/Library? Or have some periodic auto clean? one can always dream, no? I wonder how many users that have uninstalled VMware still have 30 gigs of unused VMs lying around on their disk.

They can't do that because they would get sued for anti competitive practices by the creators of the third party app AppCleaner.
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