View Full Version : how do you uninstall software?


Andy Graham
March 22nd, 2006, 02:07 AM
I'm posting this here because the software i am trying to uninstall is FCP production suite and i will be installing FCP Studio instead.

This may sound like a stupid question but how do you uninstall software on a mac?. In a PC you just go to add remove programs and i'm sure there will be a similar thing on the mac, since i'm pretty new to macs I thought i'd ask before doing anything.

Thanks
Andy.

Nate Weaver
March 22nd, 2006, 02:20 AM
Just install it over top what you already have. It should be fine.

For most Macintosh programs the way to way to "uninstall" is to simply throw the program in the trash.

FCP is a special case as far as Mac programs go...from version 4 on FCP installs many things in crazy places...frameworks for Compressor, codecs for Quicktime, etc etc. For version 5 it's even worse because of backend stuff for Motion.

Because these things are so intertwined with Quicktime and OS X, just uninstalling FCP to fix a problem would never cut it, you'd want to re-install OS X. Fortunately with OS X this is generally MUCH less painful than with Windows. You just pop in your OS X install disc, do an "Archive and Install", and then reinstall the FCP suite. This gives you a fresh start on all fronts and takes less than an hour (but about 2 hours for the entire FCP5 suite).

Andy Graham
March 22nd, 2006, 02:29 AM
Thanks Nate I like the sound of a fresh start so i might just reinstall OSX

cheers
Andy.

Paul Frederick
March 22nd, 2006, 08:53 PM
Nate,

Is the same case if you upgrade to newer versions? I have FC Studio but figure if they offer an upgrade (NAB?) I'll be getting it. Will I have to re-install OSX to upgrade all of the programs?