Mac Monday: AppTrap
Compatible platforms: v1 is compatible with 10.4; v1.1 is compatible with 10.5 & up. (Take care to grab the right one for your system.)
Version highlighted in this post: 1.1.3
AppTrap is as close to the PC’s wonderful Revo Uninstaller as you’ll find on the Mac. Generally, programs uninstall pretty easily and without much hassle under OS X. But even on the Mac, there are some stubborn programs that refuse to remove all their preferences and settings files when uninstalled. That’s where AppTrap comes in.
After installing AppTrap, the only trace of it you’ll see on a daily basis is its entry in the Mac OS preferences pane. Even if you open it, though, you won’t find much to tweak or adjust because there’s really not a lot to the program.
The power of AppTrap comes whenever you decide to uninstall a program by dragging it to the trash can. Whenever you do, an AppTrap dialog box will pop up and ask if you’d like to remove all the files associated with the program as well. Saying yes will clean out all traces of the program (except, of course, the files you created and saved).
AppTrap, in my mind, is as close to a “must have” utility as it gets for Mac owners (just like Revo uninstaller is for the PC). It’s lightweight, completely unobtrusive, and works extremely well. What’s not to love?