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That's not quite true. If you delete an app from the app folder on a Mac, 99% of the time you'll get 100% of the binaries associated with the app. You'll leave
by ubermonkey 6y ago
That's not quite true. If you delete an app from the app folder on a Mac, 99% of the time you'll get 100% of the binaries associated with the app. You'll leave behind inert configuration information in /Library and any relevant ~/Library folders, but that's all.
On Windows, binaries end up strewn all over the place, including C:\Windows, which is one reason that C:\Windows grows inexorably over time (even under 10) if you frequently install and uninstall software, and the only approved-by-MSFT approach to shrinking it is a wipe and reinstall.
Now, the Mac doesn't prevent installers from doing goofy stuff, or from dropping binaries more widely. VMWare, for example, does this, but VMWare is also doing something more elaborate than an Office app. Adobe does this, but that's Adobe being a jerk -- there's no technical reason they need to do it.
And anyway, you can easily go into the folders in /Library & etc to zap the leftover stuff if you want -- there's no Registry or anything that would cry foul. It's just that most people don't bother.
- RamRodification 6y ago> On Windows, binaries end up strewn all over the place, including C:\Windows, which is one reason that C:\Windows grows inexorably over time Are you sure about this? I mean I know for a fact that it happens but in my experience this is rare. I very much doubt that it's enough to make any real difference to the total size of the Windows folder. I PowerShell'ed through all exe-files and DLLs in C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System32 on my private computer ("188 programs installed" according to Control Panel) and I couldn't find anything that didn't look like Windows defaults (i.e. Microsoft stuff basically) or drivers (found lots of Intel, Logitech, etc. Some Apple).
- ubermonkey 6y agoYes. It's an ongoing problem. It has to do with how Windows manages something called Side by Side (usually SxS). We make Windows software. We install and uninstall a LOT. Windows folders on our text machines balloon to alarming sizes, at which point it's time for a new VM (or, if it's your laptop, it's time to wipe and start over).
- RamRodification 6y agoOh SxS. I thought that was for System stuff only.
- SSLy 6y agoDoes refresh cleanup the rot, or you need a real reinstall?