Uninstalling Parallels Access

H

hschneider

Pro
How can I do a clean uninstall of Parallels Access ?
AFAIK it only comes with an installer - no uninstall script available.



Thank you very much,
Harald
 
I would also like to know the exact uninstall procedure for a clean uninstall, detailing all the files that need to be deleted.

Thank you in advance.
 
I'd also like to know how to install Parallels Desktop for Mac without installing the damn thing in the first place!!

I don't have an iPad or other Apple mobile device, and given I just replaced my Surface with a MacBook Air I have no intentions of buying an Apple mobile device either (the MBA is mobile enough!), so I didn't want this Access thing in the first place, but it appeared to be forced upon me when I bought the v9 upgrade. I didn't see an option not to install it, not to register my computer for it, etc.

And yeah, obviously now it's installed I'd like it gone too.
 
Ditto - how do I uninstall the damn thing? I didn't want it installed in the first place, don't want it automatically starting when I boot, want it gone. There is no option to have it not start and it's not in the startup items in System Pref.

Parallels - you should NEVER install software without asking me if I want it installed.
 
Per Parallels Online Chat Support:

Friday, August 30, 2013 8:03:44 AM (8/30/2013 12:03:44 PM - GMT)

Welcome to chat.parallels.com, Vijayasarathi Kannan will be right with you.

Vijayasarathi Kannan:
Welcome to Parallels Desktop Licensing Support.

Vijayasarathi Kannan:
How may I assist you?

John:
I bought Paralles 9 for Mac yesterday, installed it okay. The program also installed Parallels Access, which I DO NOT want.

Vijayasarathi Kannan:
Don't worry, I will help you to remove Parallels Access.

Vijayasarathi Kannan:
Please goto :: Go -->Application and check for application with the name Parallels Access.

John:
Okay, I see it

Vijayasarathi Kannan:
Make sure its Parallels access because you will also have Parallels Desktop 9.

Vijayasarathi Kannan:
Please do a right click on Parallels Access and select move to trash.

John:
Okay, just a simple drag and drop to trash. Easy enough.

Vijayasarathi Kannan:
Okay. please restart mac and check how it works. I will give you a call back in 5-10 minutes.
 
Good job - seems to have removed it. Now all they need to do is work on not installing it in the first place!

I was going to suggest unloading and removing the following launch daemons / agents - which, incidentally, the plists are still there...

Code: 
pinky:~ mart$ ls -l /Library/LaunchDaemons/
total 40
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  462 31 May 00:15 com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  808 13 Jul 12:06 com.atlassian.SourceTreePrivilegedHelper2.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  749 30 Aug 09:49 com.parallels.mobile.dispatcher.launchdaemon.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  596 30 Aug 09:49 com.parallels.mobile.kextloader.launchdaemon.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  495  2 Jul 16:26 com.zeroonetwenty.BlueHarvestHelper.plist
pinky:~ mart$ ls -l /Library/LaunchAgents/
total 16
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  739 30 Aug 09:49 com.parallels.mobile.prl_deskctl_agent.launchagent.plist
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  562 30 Aug 09:49 com.parallels.mobile.startgui.launchagent.plist

[EDIT] Obviously only the parallels ones, not the others!!

I'll leave that there for reference just in case, but for all I know they may be needed for the normal parallels install. I may unload them all and see if it breaks anything. I can always re-install the main product.

As an aside, I never saw "Parallels Access" in the App folder when I access it from my dock, only from a finder window. Odd :)
 
Last edited:
OK, just dug a little deeper (in other words, I actually looked at the contents of those files!!) and while this is utterly unnecessary, if you want to be really clean about it, you can do:

Code: 
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.parallels.mobile.dispatcher.launchdaemon.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.parallels.mobile.kextloader.launchdaemon.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/com.parallels.mobile.prl_deskctl_agent.launchagent.plist
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/com.parallels.mobile.startgui.launchagent.plist

sudo rm /etc/com.parallels.mobile.prl_deskctl_agent.launchd
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.parallels.mobile.dispatcher.launchdaemon.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.parallels.mobile.kextloader.launchdaemon.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.parallels.mobile.prl_deskctl_agent.launchagent.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchAgents/com.parallels.mobile.startgui.launchagent.plist

You'll probably get errors from the last two unload commands - I don't know if it's because the app is no longer installed after dragging it to the trash, or if maybe launchctl unload isn't a valid command for an agent!

And of course this may not be the whole story, YMMV, don't blame me, etc., etc.

As far as I know the only consequence of leaving these lying about is that the OS will try to execute and load each on start up forever more until they are removed and just quietly fail when it can't. Timeout is 150 (presumably seconds) in at least one of them.

I'll report back if I've broken anything, but I can't see why it would have done, I confirmed these plists all point to the Access app.

Martin.
 
Wouldnt be so bad if Access was included free in the purchase price of Parallels Desktop
 
lotw said:
Wouldnt be so bad if Access was included free in the purchase price of Parallels Desktop
Click to expand...

Wouldn't make me want it any more - I don't have any Apple mobile devices to use with it!

VMWare made this mistake when they started to bundle a free trial of AV software with every copy. They very quickly backtracked and provided a separate downloaded that didn't have it (and yep, I realise this has some too!)
 
Ya, I hope that someone wakes up. It's Parallels to loose. If the others make apps for phones and tablets then they'll win. I know I would switch back.
 
Add me to the list of people who want to be able to CLEANLY uninstall this, come on Parallels, great product but don't go foisting unwanted applications on us! Even the option of allowing it not to be run on start-up would be nice! You know, somewhere like 'preferences"?
 
If it's useful to anyone, I highly recommend PocketCloud, a much better control system that had all the support I found Access lacking. (How did they think we'd be okay with the command, control, option and arrow keys not being functional when using the target Mac?) The control system in PocketCloud isn't quite as nice, e.g. it doesn't preset the screen resolution for you to match the iPad, but that's not hard to do with an Applescript.
 
I use CloudConnect, it is a universal app that supports VNC, RDP, SMB, AFP, SFTP, Dropbox, Box.net, Google Docs, WebDAV, FTP all with one app. You can use touch controls or mouse like controls.
 
Ya this helped...CleanApp did the rest....pretty crappy that Parallels magically installs this without your knowledge/consent....almost like malicious software...
 
Add me to the list of folks upset with Parallels installing something without asking and providing no way to remove it cleanly.
 
I think this just a mistaken or something.
Its good too if the access included on the package, also consider to another options.
 
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