The Mac Observer

Skip navigational links

TMO Quick Tip - Quickly Remove System Preferences

by , 12:40 PM EDT, August 15th, 2008

Some applications install their own Preference Panes in System Preferences, which means that over time you can end up with a cluttered mess full of extra Preference Panes you no longer need. You can go digging through your Library folders to find and remove the ones you don't want any more, or you can get rid of them the quick and easy way.

To remove third-party Preference Panes you no longer need, do this:

  • Choose Apple menu > System Preferences to launch the System Preferences application.
  • Control-click the icon for the Preference Pane that's about to be history.
  • Select Remove Preference Pane name Preference Pane


Control-click Preference Panes to remove them.

For example, if I no longer need the Adobe Version Cue CS3 Preference Pane, I would Control-click it's icon in System Preferences and select Remove "Version Cue CS3" Preference Pane. Your Mac will dutifully remove the unwanted Preference Pane and save you the trouble of finding where it's hiding on your hard drive.

As cool as this tip is, it only works with Preference Panes that appear in the Other section in the System Preferences application. The items that Apple installs by default are off limits, which means you'll have to find and remove any you think shouldn't be there -- which is actually a bad idea. Don't remove any built-in Preference Panes unless you know what you are doing and have a really good reason to do so.


Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

if you have tips or tricks to share, or Mac-related questions you want answered.

Jeff Gamet is TMO's Managing Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Dreadnought Posts: 162 Joined: 01 Jan 2005
Subject: Logitech Control Center

This is as good a place as any to note this.

Earlier this week, I was experiencing a very interesting problem with FF - drop down menus wouldn't stay dropped - click on them, and they'd flash for less than a second. I went through the usual FF troubleshooting checks, which didn't fix the problem, so I started using Safari - which didn't exhibit this issue. Using the Cmd-Tab to switch between programs, I noticed that too was exhibiting bad behavior, similar to what was happening with FF - only this time, holding down the key combination would result in uncontrolable cycling through the available program icons.

This was something I experienced before - and it always ended up being a Logitech driver problem. Since I hadn't updated the LCC (Logitech Control Center) drivers, or otherwise made any changes since deleting the unnecessary scroll wheel controller that interfered with Growl in Leopard, it was obviously a corruption within the Logitech files - not an uncommon problem.

I went to Library>Application Support>Logitech and deleted the folder. Deleted all of the preferences, too. I restarted and emptied the trash. I checked Firefox for bad behavior, and it was fine - as was the Cmd-Tab app switching, so I downloaded a fresh set of drivers and reinstalled - only to have the same problem. I did this a half-dozen times, and figured that maybe the latest Leopard update had broken the LCC. I searched the 'net for anything about this problem, but found nothing.


I tried installing an older set of LCC drivers, but that didn't work either. I tried using the Logitech removal tool via Terminal, and that didn't work at all.

I deleted the Logitech folder for the very last time, restarted and emptied the Trash, resigning myself to a shortcut-less mouse experience until the next update was released. Just to make sure there was no Logitech cruft left, I ran a Spotlight search, and found that there was a Logitech file in the Library>>Preference Pane folder.

I simply removed it manually - dragging it to the trash and restarting. I then tried, for the last and final time, to reinstall the LCC drivers, and guess what - all of the problems were solved.

So, leaving those old preference panes behind is not just a matter of housekeeping - they can get corrupted and affect the system operations.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Other?

Neither my PowerPC iMac or Intel Chip MacBook show "Other" under System Preferences. How do you get them to show up?

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

It will only show up when you install "other" preference panes. Try installing Flip4Mac and see if it appears.

Comment on this Article


You cannot edit your comments.   You cannot delete your comments.

Comments are currently closed. Please email the author instead.


Recent Headlines - Updated November 21st

Fri, 7:07 PM
Games - Soccer Sim Championship Manager 2010 Released for Mac
6:47 PM
Games - EA Publishes Original Monopoly for iPhone
6:15 PM
News - Original Apple I on Ebay for $50K, w/Letter from Steve Jobs
6:11 PM
Games - New iPhone Games: Secret of the Lost Cavern Ep 1, New DJ Nights, More
5:47 PM
Games - Star Trek D-A-C Game Headed to the Mac Next Month
4:57 PM
Product News - TidBITS Releases “Take Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard”
4:26 PM
John Martellaro's Blog - Particle Debris (week ending 11/20) Stationery Pads Go Poof
2:59 PM
Free on iTunes - Musée du Louvre, Art Lite, SketchBook Mobile X and More.
1:50 PM
Deal Brothers - Acer P215H bmid 21.5” Widescreen LCD Monitor:  $139.99
11:24 AM
TMO Appearances - Jeff Gamet Shares More Holiday Gift Ideas on MacJury
10:43 AM
Product News - Cocktail 4.5 for Leopard Adds QuickLook Cache Clearing
10:06 AM
News - Hack Enables Mac OS X 10.6.2 on Netbooks

The Mac Observer Reader Specials

  • __________
  • Buy Stuff, Support TMO!
  • Podcast: Mac Geek Gab
  • Podcast: Apple Weekly Report
  • TMO on Twitter!