Reader Michael Downend is having difficulty ridding his Mac of a utility he no longer desires. He writes:
How do I get rid of MacKeeper?I won’t go into why you’d want to. Some people have found MacKeeper useful, others not. But many people I’ve encountered are confused about how to delete it.
Versions of MacKeeper made in the last couple of years are actually pretty easy to uninstall, but the process isn’t entirely straightforward. If you click on the MacKeeper menu in the Mac’s menu bar you won’t find a Quit command, which might lead you to believe that it can’t be quit. Force quitting doesn’t seem to work either.
What you have to do is launch the MacKeeper app in the Applications folder and then quit it. (If this is your first time running it, no, you don’t have to activate MacKeeper or sign on for any of its services. Just choose Quit from the MacKeeper application menu.)
When you’ve done that, drag the MacKeeper app to the trash. You’ll be prompted for your administrator’s password. Enter it and the MacKeeper app will move to the trash and a window will pop up and offer to uninstall the rest of its components. Click the Uninstall MacKeeper button (don’t bother selecting an option about why you’re doing so if you don’t care to). This should remove most of the files MacKeeper placed on your hard drive.
A MacKeeper Helper folder isn’t removed. You can find it by visiting this location: youruserfolder/Library/Application Support. (To access this Library folder hold down the Option key and, in the Finder, choose Go > Library.) Inside this folder is a NoticeEngine.plugin file. Go ahead and toss the MacKeeper Helper folder and this file will disappear right along with it. Empty the trash, restart your Mac, and MacKeeper will be gone.
