Remove Classic support files from OS X

Apr 21, '03 08:48:00AM

Contributed by: Stockhaus

PROBLEM: Is there a way I can remove Classic from my OS X system? I don't have system 9.x installed, but the Classic pane is still in my System Preferences.

SOLUTION: When people say they want to "uninstall" Classic, what they may mean is that they want to disable the System Preferences "Classic" pane. If you don't have an OS 9 install at all, or OS X is installed on a UFS partition, Classic won't start up anyway. Simply remove the /System -> Library -> PreferencePanes -> Classic.prefPane file, and that's the last you'll see of Classic again. You'll need to have root-level privileges to do this, of course.

[robg adds: As a caution, you may want to think twice before doing this -- the possible implications on future Software Updates that may try to update Classic resources is, of course, not known. More than likely, the updater would just install entire components, but personally, I prefer to leave as much of my system in 'stock' mode as possible to minimize potential upgrade difficulties. That warning aside, read the rest of the hint for info on how to remove the rest of Classic support from your machine...]

If you want to remove the whole Classic support structure from your system, you'll want to remove the Classic files and directories created by the OS X installer:

  /System/Library/Classic/
  /System/Library/CoreServices/Classic\ Startup.app
  /System/Library/UserTemplate/English.lproj/Desktop/Desktop\ \(Mac\ OS\ 9\)
In addition to this, if you've already run Classic and would like to remove it afterwards, you'll want to remove any of these additional files and directories that exist in the root of the OS X installation:
  /Mac\ OS\ 9\ Files/
  /Applications\ \(Mac\ OS\ 9\)
  /System\ Folder/
  /Documents/
And if your boot disk is a UFS volume, you may also remove the "fake" finder and system files which OS X uses to trick the HFS+ boot mechanism:
  /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder
  /System/Library/CoreServices/System

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