Uninstall Ubuntu Software

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Is your hard drive starting to feel a little crowded? If you’re running an Ubuntu Linux operating system, you may be wondering how to remove old, unused programs. There are several ways to uninstall programs, both graphically and through the command line. Follow this guide to remove the programs with the method you’re most comfortable with.

Steps

Uninstall Using Synaptic Package Manager

  1. Open the Package Manager. Ubuntu comes installed with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) package manager that lets you remove programs within a visual window. This is useful if you aren’t comfortable with command lines.
    • Click on System, then select Administration. From the Administration menu, select Synaptic Package Manager.
    • Some of the more recent versions of Ubuntu do not come with Synaptic preinstalled. To install it, open the terminal and type:

      sudo apt-get install synaptic
    • If you are using Unity, open the dashboard and search for “Synaptic”
  2. Browse for the program that you want to uninstall. In the left frame, you can sort the listed programs by category. The installed programs (packages) will be listed in the upper frame of Synaptic.
    • Oftentimes programs are referred to by their abbreviated names. For example, Media Player would be called “mplayer”. If you are unsure of the shortened name of the program you want to remove, search for it online before trying to delete it.
  3. Right-click on the package that you want to remove. Select Mark for Removal from the menu. You can do this for as many packages that you wish to uninstall.
    • You can select Mark for Complete Removal to remove configuration files along with the program files.
  4. Click the Apply button. Once you are finished marking all the packages that you want to remove, click the Apply button at the top of the window. The package manager will ask you to confirm the changes. Click Apply again to accept the changes and remove the programs.

Uninstall Using Software Center

  1. Open the Software Center. Software Center is a GUI package manager that can install and uninstall Linux software. In older versions of Ubuntu, Software Center is located in the Application menu. In later versions, you can find the Software Center in the Launcher, or by entering “software” into the Dash search field.
  2. Open your installed software. In the left frame, click the Installed Software link. This will open a list of all the software currently installed on your system.
  3. Remove programs. Highlight the program that you wish to uninstall and click the Remove button that appears in the toolbar. You may be asked for your administrator password. After entering the password, the program will be automatically removed.
    • You can add more programs to the removal queue by selecting them and clicking the Remove button. Once the first program is finished uninstalling, the next program in the queue will begin.

Uninstall Using the Terminal

  1. Open the terminal. You will be using the “apt-get” command, which is the general command for manipulating installed programs. When uninstalling programs, you may be asked for the administrator password.
    • The password will not be displayed when you type it. Press Enter after typing the password.
  2. Browse your installed programs. To see a list of all the installed packages on your computer, enter the following command. Note the names of the packages that you wish to uninstall.:

    dpkg --list
  3. Uninstall the program and all configuration files. In the terminal enter the following command, replacing <programname> with the name of the program that you want to completely remove:

    sudo apt-get --purge remove <programname>
  4. Uninstall just the program. If you’d like to remove the program but keep the configuration files, enter the following command:

    sudo apt-get remove <programname>

Video

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