The Pane Applications

Introduction

The pane Applications allows you to perform advanced operations on Mac OS X applications or similar software components, e.g. plug-ins or screen savers. The following features are available:

You can clean your system from an application that has been installed by a “drag and drop” operation. Not only the application itself, but nearly all of its support files, like preference settings, help files, and similar auxiliary files can be removed for all users.
You can “thin” an application or software component, removing code for processor types which are not needed in your environment. For example, you can remove an application's support for PowerPC processors if you are working with a Macintosh system based on an Intel processor.
You can launch an application by opening a document which is bound to that application, using the classic behavior of Mac OS which was in effect in operating system versions prior to Mac OS X 10.6.
You can manipulate the Services menu of Mac OS X. Many applications offer service items which are automatically integrated into the sub-menu Services in the main menu of all other applications. If you like to remove some specific menu items to reduce the size of the Services menu, it will be possible to alter the application offering the services so that the affected menu items will disappear.

Let TinkerTool System search for components

For the features where you have to select the right application yourself, it is possible to let TinkerTool System search for software components automatically, offering the potential candidates for the operation in question. The found components will be listed in a table with their names, icons, paths, version numbers, and the dates of last usage. You can then choose one of the candidates, and it will appear in the selection field of the operation. TinkerTool System can search for the following categories of software:

Mac OS X applications, installed in any of the standard Application folders
Widgets
Screen savers
Preference panes
QuickTime plug-ins
Internet plug-ins

To use the search, perform the following steps:

Select one of the tab items of the pane Applications.
Set or remove the check marks (Available for) where the search should be performed. You can select the private home folder of the current user account (User), the folders offering software for all users of the current computer (This Computer), or the item Mac OS X Network to search in the shared Applications and Library folders of a Mac OS X Server used as a central repository for that purpose. On the pane Code Thinning, the options and the search button (see next step) will only become visible after clicking the Search icon (the magnifying glass) below the table.
Open the pop-up-button Search components and select one the software categories.
TinkerTool System will begin the search and list the found components in a table. You can select one of them and press the OK button even when the search is still running.

Uninstallation Assistant

Applications that strictly comply with Apple's software design guidelines for Mac OS X and don't need to be deeply integrated into the operating system, are usually installed by a simple “drag and drop” operation. This means no actual installation is necessary, you just drag the application icon into one of your application folders and can launch it immediately.

However, Mac OS X automatically creates additional files when you work with a new application, for example files to store the personal preference settings for each user, or cache folders for download files, when applications are accessing the Internet to search for automatic updates, etc. You can simply “uninstall” a drag-and-drop application by dragging its icon to the Trash. This won't remove all the aforementioned other support files, however. This is were the uninstallation assistant of TinkerTool System can help.

This feature automatically assists you in identifying all other components that might have been created by the application you want to remove. You can let TinkerTool System automatically remove the other files and folders as well, cleaning the entire computer. There are in fact four different levels of clean-up you can choose from:

You can restrict the search to components which have been created for your user account only.
You can search for components that have been installed for “computer-wide” usage by all users of the local computer and the personal items of your user account.
You can search for components which have been installed as personal items for all user accounts known to the local computer, including components which have been installed for computer-wide usage.
You can additionally include items which have been installed for “network-wide” usage. This is useful if you are using a central software distribution server and the management features of Mac OS X Server which store information in the /Network/Applications and /Network/Library folders.

If you are using the search levels (3) or (4), TinkerTool System will allow you to delete files and folders which are owned by other users. This is a dangerous option which should be used by experienced system administrators only. Please verify each object carefully before you are actually going to delete it.

Before any object is removed, TinkerTool System will list each affected item. You can then decide for each single object whether you actually want to remove it. Perform the following steps:

Open the tab item Uninstallation Assistant in the pane Applications.
Drag the icon of the program you like to remove from the Finder into the field Select application or software component to remove. You can also click the button […] to navigate to the object, or click on the white area to enter the UNIX path of the object. You can also let TinkerTool System search for candidates using the feature mentioned in the section above.
If an application was selected, you have to choose between one of the four possible search levels discussed above, using the buttons at Deletion Level. This step is not necessary if you have selected a component which is not an application.
Press the button Prepare removal….

Note that nothing is going to be removed yet. TinkerTool System will always analyze your selection first and display the items which would be affected. The program will begin to search for these objects after you have pressed the Prepare removal button. You can interrupt and cancel the search at any time by pressing the STOP button which will appear while the search is running. Note that a search run can take several minutes if your computer or your network hosts a high number of user accounts and you have selected one of the search levels affecting each user.

After the search has ended, all candidates for possible removal will be listed in a table. The table contains the following columns:

Remove: Set or deactivate the check mark to include or exclude the affected object from removal.
Object: Icon, name and path of the object which is suggested for removal.
Type: the role this object plays in respect to the software component you want to remove.
Owner: the short name of the user who owns this object. Be very careful if you are going to delete personal items of other users.
Size: the storage size of the object. This space will be freed when the object is going to be deleted.
Last change: date and time when the object was modified last.
Show: press the button in the Show column to display this object in the Finder.

The total number of selected objects and the total storage size is displayed right under the table. The two buttons in the lower left corner allow you to select

if you want to put the items marked for removal into your Trash, or
if you want to delete the marked items immediately.

TinkerTool System does not allow you to bypass the security features of Mac OS X. Although this feature allows you to delete objects owned by other users, you cannot use it to spy out the contents of private files. For this reason, it is not possible to display detail information of files which are neither owned by you or by the operating system, or to move items to the Trash for which you don't have access.

The selected objects will be removed when you press the Remove button. All objects remain untouched when pressing the Cancel button.

TinkerTool System automatically creates a detailed report on the components you are removing. It will be displayed after and while the removal takes place. After the operation has been completed, you can either save the report to a text file or print it by pressing the respective buttons in the report sheet.

The list of objects suggested for removal is computed according to Apple's software design guidelines for Mac OS X. Please note that a few applications may not be fully compliant with these guidelines. In this case, the list of removal candidates might not be complete. This means there could be objects which have been created by the application in question, but have been omitted in the list. It could also occur (although this is very unlikely) that objects are included in the list but have actually not been created by the selected application, so they should not be deleted. Please verify each object carefully before using the removal function.

TinkerTool System contains several security features that prevent you from removing important parts of the system. You cannot remove components which are official part of Mac OS X. You also cannot remove applications which are currently running on the local computer.

You should never use this function for software components which have not been installed by a drag and drop operation. Applications that came with their own installers or have been using the Mac OS X Installer usually had a technical reason to do so. In this case it is very likely that more than the usual components have been installed in the system, so they are not following the rules for self-contained applications. The Uninstallation Assistant cannot work as designed in that case. You should remove such applications following the instructions of their vendors.

Code Thinning

All versions of Mac OS X support a file format which allows computer software to support more than one processor type. For example, there can be an application which contains code support for G3 and G4 PowerPC processors, an optimized 64-bit version for the G5 processor, as well as support for 32 bit and 64 bit Intel processors which are used in all new Macintosh systems. Software components supporting multiple processor architectures in one single file are called “fat”. Components which support both PowerPC and Intel chips are sometimes also said to be “Universal”. TinkerTool System allows you to selectively remove support for processor architectures you don't really need in your environment, a procedure called thinning. So you could for example remove support for all PowerPC processor series in a given application if you are sure you will be using this application on Intel-based Macs only.

Thinning a software component will reduce the amount of storage space needed to store it. However, you should consider that you will be losing some flexibility when you thin an application: You can no longer transfer this application to any other Macintosh system, only to Macintosh systems which are using the same processor architecture. It would also be a bad idea to thin components on a network file server which is accessed by client computers having different processor types.

You should also not overestimate the amount of storage space you will be saving. The machine code contained in a software product is usually only a minor part of it. The largest amount of storage space is typically consumed by the application's resources, like image and sound files, reference manuals, or example documents. So if you are going to remove one CPU architecture in a two-architecture product, you can never expect to save 50%.

TinkerTool System can display which architectures are supported in a specified component. It can also pre-compute the storage space you will be saving before you perform the actual thinning operation. To test a specific component, perform the following steps:

Select the tab item Code Thinning in the pane Applications.
Drag the software component you like to have tested into the table. You can also press the button [+] to navigate to the object, or press the button with the magnifying class to let TinkerTool System search automatically for candidates, as outlined at the beginning of this chapter.

After adding an item to the table, TinkerTool System will automatically analyze whether it is possible and useful to thin the code parts. The results will be displayed after a few seconds:

Icon, name, and path of the item.
Current size of the item.
Estimated size after performing a thinning operation with the currently selected options.
Gain in percent how much storage space will be reclaimed in relation to the total size of the object.
List of processor architecture abbreviations currently supported by the code in this object.
A status icon, summarizing the current code thinning results.

Typical symbols used in the column Status are:

Apple's logo for Universal Applications, which means the software contains both PowerPC and Intel support and the code could be thinned successfully.
The logo of the PowerPC architecture, indicating that the software is “PPC-only” already and further thinning might not be useful.
The logo of the Intel architecture, indicating that the software is “Intel-only” already and further thinning might not be useful.
A cancellation marker in form of a red cross, which means that TinkerTool System has detected that code thinning does not make sense here or is not possible. You can find out the exact reason why TinkerTool System does not like to perform code thinning here by positioning the mouse cursor over the marker. A yellow help message (tool-tip) will show you a detailed message after one second.

By adding items to the table, you are automatically preselecting them for a code thinning operation which can be performed later. You can remove selected items from the table any time by pressing the button [-]. To remove all items, press the button Remove all.

If you drag a folder into the table, TinkerTool System will automatically add all software components it finds in that folder and all its subfolders. This operation might take some minutes and cannot be interrupted for technical reasons.

The computation how much storage space will be gained by code thinning is done based on a currently selected list of architectures that should be removed when found. The list of architectures can be controlled with the elements found in the lower left corner of the window, in the box Select the architectures to keep.

PowerPC means that TinkerTool System should keep all processor architectures for PowerPC processors and remove all other architectures known by Mac OS X.
Intel means that the application should keep all processor architectures of Intel CPU series and remove support for all other processor models known by Mac OS X.
Detailed Specification means that you can select the architectures item by item. The list of known architectures and their current selection states will be displayed after pressing the button Details…. You have to use this when you like to remove code support which cannot be defined by a simple PPC or Intel selection, for example when you like to keep support for PPC 64 bit G5 processors only, but like to remove code for G3, G4 and G5 processors in 32 bit mode.

The architecture of your current computer will automatically be pre-selected the first time the pane is opened. Note that the list of known processor architectures can include code support for processors which are no longer in use by Apple, or are currently not found in publicly available products by Apple.

After the table contains all objects for which you like to perform a code thinning operation, press the button Prepare Thinning… at the lower right corner of the window. You don't need to remove items from the table for which TinkerTool System has rejected code thinning (the items with the red cross marker). TinkerTool System will do this automatically and informs you with an additional dialog what it has done, asking for confirmation.

When the final list of items is complete, a summary panel will inform you

how many items you have selected,
what is the current total size of the objects,
the estimated size after thinning,
the estimated total gain in bytes and percent, and
the list of processor architectures which will be kept.

The panel additionally offers two important options:

When setting a check mark at Add marker as Spotlight comment for each thinned component, TinkerTool System will additionally store a comment for each application successfully thinned. This makes it easy to verify whether an application has originally been distributed as a “non-universal” package, or whether you have thinned it. Just select the application in the Finder, use the Get Info feature to open the Finder's information panel and look into the field Spotlight Comments. TinkerTool System will never erase or overwrite your existing Finder comments. The thinning notice will be appended at the end of your own text.
When setting a check mark at Create a backup copy of each object in the folder, TinkerTool System will move the original, fat software components into a special folder. The folder can be chosen via the Select… button. This way you still have a backup copy in case the thinned software does not work as expected. Note that keeping backup copies of all thinned objects does not make sense on the long run, because this will need even more storage space as before. You should test each thinned program after the operation has been performed and then remove the original items from the backup folder if the test was successful.

There are some applications which are using third-party self-monitoring or self-repair features in addition to the code-signing safety checks already provided by Mac OS X. Such applications may refuse to run if they detect they have been changed. For this reason, the backup option can be helpful. It is your own responsibility to create and remove backup copies.

Warning: You should also avoid to apply the thinning procedure on applications which produce program code themselves. The applications could lose their ability to create code for Macintosh systems with different processor types. This includes developer tools, programs which patch other programs, and applications that create installers or self-extracting archives.

To start the actual code thinning operation, press the button Perform thinning in the summary sheet.

TinkerTool System will automatically create a log file which helps you to track which applications you have thinned at which date. The log is stored in the private home folder of your current user account. Each entry in the log contains the following items:

time and date of the thinning operation
the UNIX path and name of the application you have thinned
the version number of the software component
the size before and after thinning
the gain of storage space
the list of processor architectures left in the application.

To review the log entries, press the button Open History in the pane. A table will appear which can be sorted by each of its columns. The log can also be shown, printed or saved as a plain text file. To open it, press the button Display as textual report in the log sheet.

Bound Documents

When Apple created the classic Macintosh system, they introduced a special marker for each document file, the so-called creator code, used to store which application has created that document. Evaluating this information when double-clicking a file, the system could “know” which application was the right one to choose when opening the file later. This technique was a good idea 25 years ago, where nearly all programs used proprietary document formats, so you could typically open a particular document with one specific application only. In later years however, when standardized file formats emerged and it become customary to share documents with other users on other computers, the strategy to always prefer such strongly bound applications became less and less user-friendly. For example, when sending a document by e-mail to another user, the receiving user might have been confronted with the possibly wrong error message that the file cannot be opened if she didn't have the very same software on her computer that was used to create that document.

In the last years, a new technology based on so-called Uniform Type Identifiers (UTIs) has become part of Mac OS X. This technology allows a much finer analysis which application should be preferred when opening a document. It automatically adapts to the software installed and is capable of choosing the “best” application in any case, respecting both file type and creator of each document.

Because creator codes have been superseded by UTIs, Mac OS X no longer respects creator codes when opening documents as of Snow Leopard and later system versions. However, you may still be forced to use old documents and applications which do not support the modern technologies yet. In this case, the feature Bound Documents can help. It simply imitates the behavior of the classic Mac OS, preferring the creator when choosing the application for each file. Perform the following steps to open documents this way:

Open the tab item Bound Documents in the pane Applications.
Drag one or more documents from the Finder into the field Drag document(s) to open here.

TinkerTool System will open all documents if possible, hereby respecting and preferring the creator information. The result of each selection and open operation will be listed in the field Launch report.

Services Menu

When using Mac OS X 10.6 or later, this feature has become obsolete. The Services menu can now be controlled individually by each user. Please see System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services for more information.

Mac OS X applications can support entries in the submenu Services of other applications. This allows you to select some part of a document in one application, and let a second application perform a specific operation on that selection without having to leave the current program. The Services menu doesn't need any storage space or processing power. It is automatically created by Mac OS X, depending on which applications are available on your system.

If you have installed a high number of applications however, the number of entries in the Services menu can become very large as well, making the menu less usable. TinkerTool System allows you to remove some or all service menu items of a given application to clean up the menu according to your choice. If you later change your opinion, TinkerTool System can also restore the menu items to their original states.

Note that service menu items are a feature of an installed application. It is not possible to control this as a user preference, so all changes you make will become effective for all users accessing this application. You should also verify if the licensing terms of an application you want to manipulate in this way allows this kind of modification.

Applications compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or later may be protected against modification by a digital seal. Changing the Services menu would break the seal, making the application unusable, or at least causing Mac OS X to impose restrictions on the application. TinkerTool System automatically detects such protected applications and will ensure that you cannot inadvertently destroy sealed applications.

Perform the following steps to control which services should or should not be offered by a specific application:

Open the tab item Services Menu in the pane Applications.
Drag the icon of the application providing services from the Finder into the field Select the application providing services. You can also click the button […] to navigate to the object, or click on the white area to enter the UNIX path of the object. You can also let TinkerTool System search for candidates using the feature mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.
If the selected component is an application which supports service menu items and the application is not protected against manipulations, the items will be displayed in the table.
Use the column Keep this item? to deselect all menu items you no longer want to have supported. You can also press the button Deselect all to eliminate all menu items of this application at the same time.
Press the button Remove Menu Items to remove the service menu items according to your selection.

If you have removed menu items for an application in an earlier session of TinkerTool System, you can restore them to their original state. To do this, select the application and press the button Restore Original Configuration. The button can only be pressed if the application had indeed contained menu items which had been previously removed by TinkerTool System.

It depends on the location where the application is stored and on the version of Mac OS X you are using at what time the changes will take effect. If you want to make sure the Services menu is updated immediately, you'll have to log out and then log in.