I have an intel Mac and upgraded to Monterey (highest macOS for this model) recently. Some software became outdated which I knew would happen and I removed those from Applications. However a few of these have icons in the Systems Settings menu remaining. How do I remove those icons and does it indicate there's also some system/kernel extensions I need to remove manually?
BDAqua wrote:
Might have a look at...
'/Library/PreferencePanes/
Then Right click on the no good ones to see choices.
That fixed the panes. Actually, I could even right click the icons themselves to remove them. Didn't even consider that.
Thanks @VikingOSX I will have a look at these options. It's very peculiar that outdated kext are stuck in the system. Hopefully they don't affect anything. Most of these files are definitely from old 32-bit applications.
BDAqua wrote:
Might have a look at...
'/Library/PreferencePanes/
Then Right click on the no good ones to see choices.
That fixed the panes. Actually, I could even right click the icons themselves to remove them. Didn't even consider that.
Thanks @VikingOSX I will have a look at these options. It's very peculiar that outdated kext are stuck in the system. Hopefully they don't affect anything. Most of these files are definitely from old 32-bit applications.
If the original installation of those applications required your administrator password, then they likely installed other application components outside of your application folder and simply moving an application to the Trash did not completely remove the entire application. If these were older 32-bit applications, and even if the vendor has an uninstall tool, it too might be 32-bit and unsupported on Monterey.
I would resist installing any so-called application cleaner apps as they may also carve valid files from your System.
When I want to thoroughly remove an application that has no uninstaller, I resort to using the Terminal application and some macOS tools to identify the files and locations that an application installed. If you are not familiar with the Terminal and nervous about using the UNIX command line, then I don't recommend you doing the following where the '#' is a shell comment:
# list of vendor packages installed
# example: com.adobe.DNGConverter
pkgutil --pkgs | more
# list of files and locations installed by the specified package
pkgutil --files com.adobe.DNGConverter > ~/Desktop/DNGFiles.txt
Then, one can go through that text file on the Desktop and remove the individual files not in the Applications folder before removing the Adobe DNGConverter application itself.
If you upgraded from an older operating system that allowed applications to install kernel extensions into /System/Library/Extensions ( a practice Apple no longer allows) and then upgraded to Monterey, those extensions can not be removed as Apple has the operating system now on a read-only, code-signed volume without any user privileges to remove items from it.
You may be able to remove some legacy application icons by rebuilding the operating system database (Launch Services) that tracks these. To achieve that, you need to boot Monterey into Safe Boot mode by pressing the shift key immediately from a restart or shutdown boot sequence. You will see red lettering in the upper right of the screen at the Safe Boot password prompt. After you sign in, just perform a normal reboot.
torsig1967 wrote:
I have an intel Mac and upgraded to Monterey (highest macOS for this model) recently. Some software became outdated which I knew would happen and I removed those from Applications. However a few of these have icons in the Systems Settings menu remaining. How do I remove those icons and does it indicate there's also some system/kernel extensions I need to remove manually?
By the Bye, the term System Setting was first introduced in macOS 13 Ventura
Though, sometimes one means to post their question in Ventura or possibly Sonoma - this question is appearing in macOS 12 Monterey
As we can not see or know what Icons are presented in System Setting
Download the Application Etrecheck ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.
The Application is Not a " Silver Bullet " but only a tool to examine the Hardware / Software used on this computer
This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer.
It makes a coherent and readable inventory of both the Hardware and Software used on the computer
The application is free or paid for added features.
The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.
Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - >>>> using the Additional Text Icon <<<<
Might have a look at...
'/Library/PreferencePanes/
Then Right click on the no good ones to see choices.
On older systems, apple provided specific kernel extension tools that could remove the third-party kernel extensions. But, Apple no longer allows application developers to install kernel extensions, and yes, any that were on an older system are now frozen for all eternity in Catalina and later operating systems due to Apple tightening System security on the System volume. The operating system is now making no effort to load those ancient kernel extensions.
@ PRP_53:
Thanks for the tip. I might do that in a later stage. I'm a bit reluctant to install various "problem solvers" as they often introduce new problems. I have Swedish version so I was not sure what the English term in Monterey was.
The suggested Application is NOT a Problem Solver
Remove outdated icons from System Settings
