Just switched yesterday! Now pls help me with this...

[tatham]

How does my new MacBook install programs? I know from using Windows my whole life that when a program was installed it got registered in the registry etc. How would you completely remove absolutely all traces of a program in Mac? I need to know as I plan to try out tons of the new widgets and software that is now suddenly available to me using Mac. That said, I will remove a lot of it once I have tried it and decided not to keep it. In Windows there was always plenty of files and setting that got left behind when you uninstallled. Are there any great apps available?

Thanks!

[Mikuro]

There are some third-party apps like AppZapper and CleanApp, but I wouldn't bother with them, personally.

On the Mac, you generally don't need to worry about this. The only thing most apps will leave behind are harmless preference files. On Windows, a messy registry can cause problems, but the Mac OS is different and doesn't use anything like the registry. If you want to see what apps are storing, take a look at the "Preferences" and "Application Support" folders in your Library (which is in your home folder). Unless you can't stand the thought of wasting a few kilobytes of disk space, just trash the application and be done with it. That's what I've been doing for the past 12+ years.

[barhar]

'How would you completely remove absolutely all traces of a program in Mac?' - impossible to answer. It depends on the installer (software) of the application; or where you dragged the application or its respective folder (if one existed). Some Mac applications create a folder of files and folders in the '~/Library/Application Support/' folder, as well as, elsewhere.

'I plan to try out tons of the new widgets' - specific to widgets - they are installed in your '~/Library/Widgets/' folder.

'... and software that is now suddenly available to me using Mac.' - see first statement above.
Surely, you cannot expect a specific answer or answers (to 'How to completely remove a program') based on a statement of '... software that is now suddenly available to me ...'.

'In Windows ... plenty of files and setting ... got left behind when ... uninstallled.' - the same can and does happen with the Mac; but, with a difference. In practically all cases of application removal, that which remains (and / or was removed) does not affect the other applications, as does '.dll's, etc., do on a Windoze based PC.

'Are there any great apps available?' - yes.