Yes, I'm a switcher. So far so good, but here's a question: How do I uninstall a program?

Surprisingly, there’s no unified method for uninstalling programs on the Mac. Your best bet is to check the manual or contact the developers to see if they have documented steps for uninstalling their application. Otherwise, the uninstallation process can be tricky, since it helps if you remember how you installed the app in the first place.

If you installed an app by simply dragging it into your Applications folder, you can uninstall it by dragging it to the Trash. However, the application has probably created extra files on your hard drive that you’ll want to toss as well. Two common locations for these extra files are ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Preferences. Take a look in these locations for any files or folders that contain the name or the company name of your application. Examples of this type of app include OmniFocus and Transmit.

Apple's Installer program will show you where all those Movie Magic Screenwriter files got installed on your hard drive.

If you originally installed the application by double-clicking it and letting an installer application walk you through the process, some of those apps put a separate uninstaller on your hard drive too. Examples include LogMeIn and Flip4Mac WMV Components for QuickTime. Programs like ChronoSync give you an uninstaller program on the original disk image that you download.

In the absence of a separate uninstaller program, try relaunching the original installer and looking at the name of the program in the upper-left corner of your screen. If it says anything but “Installer,” you’re using a custom installer that may include a built-in uninstallation process. Click through the dialog boxes on your screen to see if there are any options for uninstalling the program. Examples include SOHO Notes and FileMaker Server.

If it simply says “Installer,” you’re using Apple’s installer program, which does not come with an uninstaller. However, Apple’s Installer has a little-known trick: Select File > Show Files to see a list of all the files and folders that are created while running that installer package. You can then manually go through your hard drive and trash all of those files.

CleanApp miraculously finds all the elements that an application installs on your hard drive—even the ones that you didn’t know existed—and it uninstalls them or archives them for you.

Lastly, CleanApp ($13, www.synium.de) will get rid of any program that you have installed on your Mac, along with all of its associated files. We tested this program, and were impressed with its almost magical ability to uninstall every component of an application, while still being able to distinguish between files created by different versions of the same app.