Uninstall Parallels 8 Fully?

J

JessaT

Bit poster
Hi,

I installed Parallels 8 on my MacBook to evaluate it. I installed a preview of Windows 8 too.

I have decided that I am not going to purchase it, at this time, so obviously wanted to remove it. On the Parallels site it says simply to drag the App to trash to remove. Which I did. However I am left with many stray files around my system it seems, such as the Workstation images still in documents (which I found and removed) but also a 'Windows 8 Applications' folder in launcher.

How do I clean my system fully, and what has Parallels changed on my system? Its pretty new (my first Mac) and I know from experience with Windows how programs like this (I used to use VMWare) can install extra drivers and services and a drag and drop to trash does not seem to be enough.

Any help appreciated. I might well purchase this software in future (for an iMac). Just right now I need it gone from my laptop.

Thanks
 
Any why aren't the following directories and files mentioned in your guide?

rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Logs/parallels*
rm -rf /Library/Logs/parallels*
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.parallels.desktop.console.savedState/
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.*
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Preferences/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/Shared/Parallels/
rm -rf Applications\ \(Parallels\)/

jay is my username.

This is one of the reasons I didn't move away from VMWare - better documentation.

Regards,
Zhivko Bozhkov
 
ZhivkoB said:
Any why aren't the following directories and files mentioned in your guide?

rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Logs/parallels*
rm -rf /Library/Logs/parallels*
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.parallels.desktop.console.savedState/
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.*
rm -rf /Users/jay/Library/Preferences/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/Shared/Parallels/
rm -rf Applications\ \(Parallels\)/

jay is my username.

This is one of the reasons I didn't move away from VMWare - better documentation.

Regards,
Zhivko Bozhkov
Click to expand...

A little mod:
Code: 
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Logs/parallels*
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.parallels.desktop.console.savedState/
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.*
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/Parallels/
rm -rf Applications\ \(Parallels\)/
sudo rm -rf /Library/Logs/parallels*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Preferences/Parallels/
sudo rm -rf /Users/Shared/Parallels/
 
Adnako said:
A little mod:
Code: 
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Parallels/
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Logs/parallels*
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.parallels.desktop.console.savedState/
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.*
rm -rf /Users/$USER/Library/Preferences/Parallels/
rm -rf Applications\ \(Parallels\)/
sudo rm -rf /Library/Logs/parallels*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Preferences/Parallels/
sudo rm -rf /Users/Shared/Parallels/
Click to expand...
Thank you for posting the above since it helped me fix my current issue. I ran into a case recently where opening Outlook for the Mac would fire off Parallels and start Outlook for Windows. The instructions I received from Parallels support was to fully delete Parallels, without deleting my VM since I still needed it. I was told to delete the files from /Library as you have there, but not under ~Library (or in your case /Users/$USER/Library). The behavior still existed even after I deleted the Parallels files under /Library. After some playing around, the culprit, in my case, was the contents of com.parallels.desktop.console.savedState.
To remove everything under /Users/$USER/Library that has to do with Parallels, this is a little bit easier:
cd ~Library
find . -name "*[pP]arallels*" -exec /bin/rm -rf {} \;
Note that this will remove any file that has [pP]arallels in it under ~Library (i.e., /Users/$USER/Library).

Hope this helps others who will run into this issue.
 
Rory_dela_Paz said:
To remove everything under /Users/$USER/Library that has to do with Parallels, this is a little bit easier:
cd ~Library
find . -name "*[pP]arallels*" -exec /bin/rm -rf {} \;
Note that this will remove any file that has [pP]arallels in it under ~Library (i.e., /Users/$USER/Library).

Hope this helps others who will run into this issue.
Click to expand...

I would advise anyone against that sort of automatic delete, first do the find, make sure all files are safe for deletion and that they indeed are related to Parallels Desktop. Who knows, there might be some other file there that uses the name Parallels in it. Also, any mistype in that command might be fatal.
 
Im fully agreed with Specimen,
manual removing is kind of not for the best experience.
Please don't hesitate to contact Support in case of any technical issues.
Our uninstaller should to its job automatically, so by getting any feedback we will improve the product for our customers.
 
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