Mac OS X offers no “Uninstall a program” interface like the one available in Windows. You have to uninstall applications by dragging their icons around — but what about applications that don’t have shortcuts, built-in system apps, and other corner cases?
Uninstalling most Mac applications is a simple process. But, for some applications, uninstalling them is much harder than it is on Windows.
Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan protects system files and processes with a new feature named System Integrity Protection. SIP is a kernel-level feature that limits what the “root” account can do.
What is System Integrity Protection?
On Mac OS X and other UNIX-like operating systems, including Linux, there’s a “root” account that traditionally has full access to the entire operating system. Becoming the root user — or gaining root permissions — gives you access to the entire operating system and the ability to modify and delete any file. Malware that gains root permissions could use those permissions to damage and infect the low-level operating system files.
Type your password into a security dialog and you’ve given the application root permissions. This traditionally allows it to do anything to your operating system, although many Mac users may not have realized this.
System Integrity Protection — also known as “rootless” — functions by restricting the root account. The operating system kernel itself puts checks on the root user’s access and won’t allow it to do certain things, such as modify protected locations or inject code into protected system processes. All kernel extensions must be signed, and you can’t disable System Integrity Protection from within Mac OS X itself. Applications with elevated root permissions can no longer tamper with system files.
How to Disable System Integrity Protection?
The System Integrity Protection setting isn’t stored in Mac OS X itself. Instead, it’s stored in NVRAM on each individual Mac. It can only be modified from the recovery environment.
- To boot into recovery mode, restart your Mac and Hold “Command+R” as it boots. you’ll enter the recovery environment.
- Click the “Utilities” menu and select “Terminal” to open a terminal window.
- Type the following command into the terminal and press enter to check the status:
- "csrutil status" (you’ll see whether system Integrity protection is enabled or not).
- To disable system Integrity protection, run the following command: “ csrutil disable “
- To enable system Integrity protection, run the following command: “ csrutil enable “
Restart your Mac and your new System Integrity Protection setting will take effect. The root user will now have its full, unrestricted access to the entire operating system and every file..
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/app name.app
eg: sudo rm -rf /Applications/chess.app
or
Select the application you want to delete from the Application folder right click.
- click on Get info.
- application info window will open.
- under sharing & Permissions (unlock the lock icon).
- make > you have custom access everyone to "Read & write".
- close the info window.
- Now you will be able to delete the application.
please do it at your own risk.
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