AppZapper is one of those Whoa! applications. It is small , useful, and leaves you wondering, "Why didn’t I think of that?" And, its oh so pretty. The icon is one of wonders!

Uninstall Programs easily

AppZapper simply uninstalls applications and all their files they scatter around your drive. It’ll remove any cache files, library files, preferences, and the application itself, safely and quickly. You can even select which application files to delete. Plus, it's oddly fun too. It only runs in Tiger though, so there's your good reason to upgrade an old system.

To uninstall an application you merely drop it into the AppZapper window, or onto the application icon. This makes it very easy to leave the app in your Dock and drag any unwanted applications onto it. Upon dropping an application into AppZapper, a dialog lists all of the applications' associated files. You choose exactly the files to delete. Want to keep your Firefox cache but not your preferences? That's not a problem. Just click the appropriate checkboxes for the pieces to remove. AppZapper even notes the path to the listed files. Then you click Zap; I feel this should actually say Zap! but I won’t mark them down on this. With an oddly exciting sound, the application vanishes. If you’ve done the unthinkable and removed an application that you really want, just navigate to your Trash and recover it manually. A log file, accessible from the Window menu, keeps track of how ruthless you've been.


AppZapper Interface

Built-in delete protection

You designate safe applications, ones you never want deleted, by dragging them to a safe window in the General Preferences. By default you cannot remove any of the iLife applications, or applications that are currently running. You can also remove Widgets, Screen Savers, Preference Panes, and application plug-ins.

Multiple Uninstalls with ZapGenie

A new addition to AppZapper 1.6.0 is the ZapGenie. ZapGenie shows you every single little application on your start up drive and sorts them by the date last used. From this list, you can select multiple applications and Zap them. Annoyingly, it doesn't list the size of these applications.

Ironically, every application that hadn’t been used in over two years was part of Microsoft Office. (Editor's Note: I tested this little utility and found applications installed with AppleWorks that hadn't been used in seven years. I could not get ZapGenie to recognize any application folders installed on external drives, but AppZapper worked okay with applications dragged from those drives.)


ZapGenie Interface

AppZapper makes uninstalling programs as easy as installing them, and in some cases, easier. It is not only simple, but great fun at a very reasonable price.

Edited by Ilene Hoffman, Reviews Editor

by Peter Clark