In our previous article, we explained how to uninstall Microsoft Office on Mac. But you may need to remove only Microsoft Word. So today, we’re going to provide a full guide of 2 ways to uninstall Microsoft Word on Mac fully with accurate deletion of its service files.
Contents:
How to Uninstall Word on Mac Manually
How to Uninstall Office on a Mac Manually. The first thing you should always do when uninstalling any app is to quit the program. So close Microsoft Office and make sure that there are no processes related to the app working in the background. Aug 06, 2017 I have Office 365, 2011 edition, on my iMac and I was trying to install the update 2016 apps but they would not update and one of the solutions offered by Microsoft Office was to uninstall the old 365 and try again but I don't know how to do that.
- The first thing you should always do before uninstalling any application is to quit the app. This can be done right from the Dock panel and the context menu, where you should select Quit ap. But, if you have some issues and the app does not respond to the close command, then you need to call the Force Quit Applications window using the Command+Option+Esc key shortcut.
- After the first step, delete Word in the regular way you are used to. Just move the application into Trash by dragging and dropping it or by using the context menu.
Well, now we came close to the most important part of the program’s deletion. You might know that every application creates service files during its operations. And, even if you delete the executable file, the service files still remain on your disk until you remove them manually. MacOS doesn’t provide any default tool to find and remove the leftovers of apps. You have to search for them yourself or download special software tools for this task. We will tell about such tools in the second part of the article. Now let’s see where the service files are stored on your Mac.
- Open Finder and go to the Library folder. For this, use the Command+Shift+G key command. In the search field type ~/Library and click the Go button.
Here you should find all the folders and files related to Microsoft Word and delete them. In our case, the Word service folder was located in the following directory:
~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Word
However, we would recommend that you also check the following directories for possible leftovers:
~Library/Application Support
~Library/Caches
~Library/Preferences
~Library/LaunchDaemons
~Library/PrivilegedHelperTools
You should accurately remove all the files created by Microsoft Word, but be very careful not to touch any other file. Otherwise, the deleting of important files may damage the system.
After this, just don’t forget to empty Trash.
Well, the manual way of programs deletion could be too long, inconvenient and unsafe in case you delete files by mistake. So, most certainly, using a Microsoft Office removal tool would be more suitable for you. Read on to learn how to uninstall Word with a few clicks.
How to Uninstall Word on Mac with App Cleaner & Uninstaller
With App Cleaner & Uninstaller, you can avoid the long process of manually searching for service files. The application will scan your Home folder and, in several seconds, show you a list of all your applications as well as the list of service files for each application.
- First, launch App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
- Then select the Word program in the left section of the window.
- Click the Uninstall button next to the app’s name and confirm the deletion.
That’s all! It seems that this tool is the best MS Office uninstaller.
App Cleaner & Uninstaller is specially designed to uninstall apps from Mac completely and avoid useless service files cluttering your disk space.
You can also use the app in case you just want to remove cache files, manage startup programs and disable unneeded system extensions.
You can also use the app in case you just want to remove cache files, manage startup programs and disable unneeded system extensions.
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Uninstalling an app on a Mac is so easy, you might not even realize how to do it: just drag the app’s icon from the Applications folder into the trash. But what about applications that don’t have shortcuts, built-in system apps, and other corner cases?
This will cover most situations, but not all of them. This method leaves some junk behind, for example, but it’s mostly okay to leave it there. Some other apps may have different uninstall processes, too. So let’s look at all the different things you need to know when it comes to uninstalling applications.
How to Uninstall Most Mac Applications
RELATED:How to Install Applications On a Mac: Everything You Need to Know
Most Mac applications are self-contained items that don’t mess with the rest of your system. Uninstalling an application is as simple as opening a Finder window, clicking “Applications” in the sidebar, Control-clicking or right-clicking the application’s icon, and selecting “Move to Trash.”
You can also drag-and-drop an application’s icon to the trash can icon on your dock. Or, open the Launchpad interface and drag-and-drop an application’s icon to the trash can from there.
Most applications will go straight to your trash, and you can then Control-click or right-click the trash can icon on your dock and select “Empty Trash” to get rid of that application and all the other files you’ve deleted.
However, some applications will prompt you for a password when you try to move them to the trash. These applications were installed using the Mac package installer. Uninstalling them will remove whatever system-wide changes they made.
Note that you can’t remove built-in applications by doing this. For example, try to move the Chess app to the trash and you’ll see a message saying, “Chess can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by OS X.”
How to Remove Left Behind Files
The above method doesn’t actually erase an application’s preferences. Erase an application and it will leave preference files left over in your Library folders. Most of the time, these files will use very little space and won’t cause a problem. The preferences will still be available on your Mac, too — this is convenient if you’re uninstalling an app only to replace it with a newer version of the same app, or if you reinstall the app later down the line. It’ll keep all your preferences from when you had it installed before.
RELATED:How to Reset Any Mac App to Its Default Settings
If you absolutely must remove those files (say, if you want to reset an app to its default settings), you can use a handy app called AppCleaner to fully uninstall an app, along with all its extra files. Just launch AppCleaner, search for an application in its main window, and click on it, then click the “Remove” button in the popup window that appears.
How to Uninstall Apps That Don’t Appear in Your Applications Folder
But what about applications that don’t appear here? For example, install the Flash plug-in for Mac OS X, or the Java runtime and browser plug-in for Mac, and neither will appear in your Applications folder.
On Windows, that’s no problem — the Control Panel shows a list of all your installed programs, even ones without shortcuts. On a Mac, there’s no interface that lists all your installed software so it’s tough to even notice if you have this stuff installed.
Some applications must be removed in other ways, and you’ll generally find instructions by simply performing a web search for “uninstall [program name] mac”. For example, Adobe offers a separate uninstaller app you need to download and run to uninstall Flash on a Mac.
RELATED:How to Uninstall Java on Mac OS X
Oracle is even worse and doesn’t provide an easy app that will uninstall Java from Mac OS X for you. Instead, Oracle instructs you to run several terminal commands to uninstall Java after installing it. Here’s how to uninstall the Java runtime and development kit.
Come on, Oracle — at least provide a downloadable uninstaller like Adobe does.
Other software applications may provide their own downloadable uninstallers or uninstallation instructions, so perform a web search if you’re not sure how to uninstall something and you’ll find instructions.
How to Uninstall Adware and Other Crapware
RELATED:How to Remove Malware and Adware From Your Mac
Macs are now falling prey to the same epidemic of crapware Windows PCs have to deal with. The same free application download websites that serve this junk up to Windows users are serving similar junk to Mac users.
On a Windows PC, most “reputable” adware provides an uninstaller that sits in the Programs and Features list, allowing users to easily uninstall it for legal reasons. On a Mac, adware programs don’t have a similar place to list themselves in. They may want you to download and run an uninstaller app to remove them, if you can even figure out which ones you have installed.
We recommend the completely free Malwarebytes for Mac if you need to purge your Mac of crapware and even Mac malware. It’ll scan your Mac for junk applications and remove them for you.
How to Remove Built-in System Apps
Macs also have no way to uninstall or install operating system features, so there’s no way to easily remove the many applications Apple included with your Mac.
On OS X 10.10 Yosemite and earlier, it was possible to open a terminal window and issue commands to delete these system apps, which are located in the /Applications folder. For example, running the following command in a terminal window would delete the built-in Chess app. Be very careful when typing the following command:
sudo rm -rf /Applications/Chess.app
As of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, System Integrity Protection protects these applications and other system files from being modified. This prevents you from deleting them, and it also ensures malware can’t modify these applications and infect them.
RELATED:How to Disable System Integrity Protection on a Mac (and Why You Shouldn’t)
If you actually did want to remove any of these built-in apps from your Mac, you’d have to disable System Integrity Protection first. We don’t recommend that. However, you can re-enable SIP after and your Mac won’t mind that you’ve deleted Chess.app and other built-in system apps.
Really, we recommend you don’t do this. Mac OS X may automatically reinstall these applications in the future when you update the system, anyway. They don’t take up much space, and Apple provides no way to get them back beyond reinstalling OS X on your Mac.
Image Credit: Daniel Dudek-Corrigan on Flickr
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