When you take control of your Mac by getting rid of everything you don’t want or use, you improve your personal performance and efficiency because all of the junk has been put in the Trash and you no longer have to sift through it to find what you want. One way to do that is to remove programs and applications you don’t use and their related preferences files.
In addition to removing programs you don’t use, though, you can remove programs you can’t use, such as the image application that installed with an old digital camera you no longer own, printers that have given out, and even programs for an old scanner you no longer use. You may also have programs that have expired such as trial or beta programs, or programs you tried but didn’t buy. Finally, if you’ve recently purchased the newest version of Photoshop, you might no longer need or want Photoshop Elements or similar programs.
You Mac came preinstalled with things you might not need too. Although I’m not recommending it, you can delete iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, iPhoto, iCal, and other built-in applications if you desire. You can certainly delete what came with earlier Mac editions: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, the trial version of Microsoft Office, and similar programs as you deem necessary.
Caution! Your Mac probably came with a restore disk, so if you need to reinstall any of the deleted applications that came with your Mac, you may be forced to reinstall the entire OS. There is a trick to installing a single application and it can be done, but it’s a little complicated, so be careful of what you delete!
