As I run this site and keep track of the statistics from Google Analytics, I have had a couple of search hits from people looking to know how to remove a Preference Pane from System Preferences.
When I first got my Mac’s, I too didn’t know how to do it and relied on 3rd party programs like AppZapper and CleanApp to help me remove them. Later I found out exactly how to do it via OS X and so I thought I would pass along that knowledge.
So, say you have a Preference Pane you don’t use anymore and want to remove it from System Preferences. Obviously, the first thing to do is Launch System Preferences.
As you can see, I have quite a few installed, but I am not currently using Witch, so I’ll walk you through the process of removing it.
First thing you do is while holding down the Ctrl key, click on the Preference Pane icon you wish to remove. Now this is not the same as Right-Clicking on the Preference Pane icon. In fact, Right-Clicking on a Preference Pane icon will simply display the Preference Pane.
When you Right-Click on the Preference Pane icon, you will see this popup menu appear. Actually, you won’t see the exact one because I have a few Context-Menu plugins installed as well. However, the “Remove “preference pane name” Preference Pane” menu item will be present when you do it.
No all you have to do is select the “Remove “preference pane name” Preference Pane” menu item and that Preference Pane will be a thing of the past. It’s just that easy.
I get the impression that the designers of OS X wanted to make sure that removing a Preference Pane is something that you actually want to do and not do by accident. That is the only explanation I can come up with that explains why you have to use the Ctrl key instead of just Right-Clicking. Which, by the way, is what the Ctrl key is for when you are using an Apple one button mouse.
There is a drawback to removing a Preference Pane this way. You don’t remove all the preferences for the just removed Preference Pane. Each Preference Pane has options that a user can set. Hence it being a Preference Pane. Those options are stored in a special folder in the users home directory kind of hidden away. Typically the path is {your home folder}/Library/Application Support/{name of preference pane}. It’s usually pretty difficult to find the correct files to remove. Fortunately, these files are not big enough to be a bother and they are just text files so they won’t slow down the OS like Windows’ Registry typically does.
AppZapper
CleanApp
AppCleaner
If you are like me and really want to make sure that you have all the files to a Preference Pane removed, then I would suggest a program like AppZapper ($12.95), CleanApp ($10) or the free program AppCleaner (free). Each of those programs help you remove Preference Panes as well as Applications and other files that you may not need to help you recover space on a Hard Drive. I personally use CleanApp, I found it to have more features than AppZapper and it’s a little cheaper. I have not looked at AppCleaner, I wasn’t aware of a free Application Uninstaller like AppCleaner until after I had purchased CleanApp. However, I don’t mind paying the $10 for a program. It’s less than a trip to the movies these day.
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