A native app uninstaller and leftover cleaner by BiswasHost — a free alternative to App Cleaner & Uninstaller / Revo Uninstaller. One Rust engine and one interface across macOS, Windows and Linux: uninstall with a full leftover sweep, manage startup items and extensions, clear caches and build junk, see which apps have updates, and put any removal back. 100% open-source.
Available for:
| Platform | Status |
|---|---|
| 🍎 macOS | ✅ Stable — Apple Silicon + Intel, used daily |
| 🪟 Windows | ✅ Working — uninstall tested on Windows 11; some parts still new |
| 🐧 Linux | ✅ Working — list and uninstall tested on Ubuntu 24.04; some parts still new |
🟢 Runs the author's daily Mac. Nothing is ever deleted — every removal moves to the Trash, behind a review sheet showing every path and why it matched.
Dragging an app to the Trash leaves its preferences, caches, containers, launch agents and support folders exactly where they were — often gigabytes of them, for software removed years ago. Windows and Linux have the same problem in different folders. BHUninstaller finds those files and removes them safely.
Every removal produces a plan first. Every line in it carries its full path, its size, and the reason the engine thinks it belongs to the app — evidence you can check rather than a list you have to trust.
Five rules the whole app is built around:
- Nothing is ever deleted. Everything moves to the Trash or Recycle Bin, so any mistake — ours or yours — is undone from the file manager you already use.
- Nothing is removed without you seeing it first. The review sheet above is not skippable.
- Only exact identifier matches are ticked for you. Anything weaker is shown unticked, with a plain-language reason.
- Shared vendor folders are never taken. Uninstalling Google Drive will not offer you Chrome's profile — where two apps can claim the same file, neither gets it, and both are named.
- A blocklist backs all of it. System directories, your home folder, and your Documents, Desktop and Downloads are refused at the moment of removal, whatever the plan says.
| Applications | Every installed app, with its size, developer and notarisation. Uninstall with a full leftover sweep. |
| Startup Programs | What runs at login. Switches, not deletions — everything is reversible. |
| Extensions | Browser add-ons, plugins, settings panes, screen savers, widgets, and installers left in Downloads. |
| Remaining Files | Leftovers of apps that are already gone. |
| Cleanup | Caches, logs, crash reports and build output. |
| Updates | Which apps have a newer version published. |
| History | Everything removed, and a way to put it back. |
Things it could do and does not, each for a reason:
- It will not empty your Trash. Everything else is undoable because it goes to the Trash. Emptying it is the one irreversible act, so it stays with you.
- It does not install app updates. It tells you what is available and sends you to the developer. Running an installer on your behalf is a much larger promise than moving a file.
- It leaves Apple's own caches alone. Clearing them is usually harmless and occasionally is not, and that is not a distinction this app can make for you.
- It never sends anything anywhere. The only network access is the Updates screen and the optional check for a newer BHUninstaller, both of which look up public version numbers and say nothing about you.
Every section is implemented on every platform:
| Discovery | Leftovers | Startup | Extensions | Cleanup | Registry | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| macOS | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | — |
| Windows | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Linux | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | — |
How much has actually been run is a different question, and worth being plain about:
- macOS — all of it, daily, on the machine it was written on.
- Windows — the Applications list and uninstalling, thoroughly, on Windows 11: icons, sizes, the vendor's own uninstaller, the leftover sweep and the confirmation screen. Registry leftovers are new in 0.2.0 and have not been run. Startup Programs, Extensions, Cleanup and restoring from History have had less attention there than they have on macOS.
- Linux — the Applications list and uninstalling, on Ubuntu 24.04 (arm64):
packages and snaps with their names, icons, sizes and dates, and a snap
removed through the desktop's own password prompt. Only a snap has been
removed — the
apt,dnf,pacman, flatpak and AppImage paths are written but have not been run. Startup Programs, Extensions, Cleanup, Remaining Files and restoring from History have had no attention there at all, and only arm64 has been tried.
If you are trying one of the parts above that has not been run, start with the
read-only views. bhu list, bhu plan <app>, bhu orphans and bhu cleanup change
nothing at all, and the review sheet shows you the whole plan before anything
moves. Reports are welcome.
macOS keeps parts of ~/Library behind Full Disk Access, and an app cannot ask
for that permission — only point at System Settings. BHUninstaller explains the
cost of leaving it off in concrete terms: which locations are hidden right now,
and what is missed because of each.
Without it the app still works. It reports unreadable folders as size unknown rather than pretending they are empty, and never offers to remove something it could not read.
Remove the entry from the list entirely, then add it again.
BHUninstaller is ad-hoc signed rather than signed with an Apple developer certificate, so macOS identifies it by the exact build. Every update is a different build — and the old entry stays in the list, still switched on, while no longer applying to the app you are running.
Expect to do this after each update, until the app is signed with a real Developer ID. Also note that macOS applies the permission per process: a grant made while BHUninstaller is running does not reach it, which is why the app offers to relaunch itself once it detects one.
See docs/DEVELOPMENT.md for the platform notes, what is still unfinished, and the things that cost time to find.
Requires Rust and Node 20+.
cargo build --release # the engine and the CLI
cargo test # the engine's test suite
cd app
npm install
npm run tauri dev # run the app
npm run tauri build # build a .app and .dmgnpm run dev serves the interface in a plain browser, backed by a snapshot of a
real scan instead of the live engine. Removal is refused there, so a design
session can never touch a real file.
npm run fixtures # capture this machine's scan into app/src/fixtures.json
npm run devThe snapshot lists everything installed on the machine that produced it, so it is deliberately not committed.
The engine ships with a headless driver — useful for checking its judgement before trusting a UI with it, and the only way to use it on a server.
bhu list # installed applications
bhu info "Google Chrome" # version, developer, notarisation, size
bhu plan "Google Chrome" # what uninstalling it would remove — a dry run
bhu orphans # leftovers of apps that are already gone
bhu startup # what runs when you log in
bhu startup off <id> # turn one off (reversible; never deletes it)
bhu extensions # browser add-ons, plugins, panes, installers
bhu cleanup # caches, logs, crash reports, build junk
bhu updates # apps with a newer version available
bhu access # what macOS is currently hiding, and what it costs
bhu history # past removals
bhu restore <id> # put a past removal back where it came from
bhu remove "Some App" --yes # carry it out (everything goes to the Trash)bhu plan never changes anything, and bhu remove without --yes is also a dry
run. Add --json to any command for machine-readable output.
crates/bhu-core the engine — discovery, matching, safety, removal, undo
discovery/ what is installed (macos.rs / windows.rs / linux.rs)
leftovers/ what was left behind (macos.rs / windows.rs / linux.rs)
startup/ what runs at login (macos.rs / windows.rs / linux.rs)
extensions/ browser and system add-ons
cleaner/ reclaimable junk
safety.rs the blocklist
removal.rs planning and execution
crates/bhu-cli headless driver over the engine
app/src-tauri Tauri host — thin command wrappers over the engine
app/src React interface, shared by all three platforms
Everything platform-specific lives in the adapter files. The safety rules, the matching logic, planning, removal, the undo journal and the whole interface are shared — adding a platform means writing adapters, not a second application.
MIT. See LICENSE.
— BiswasHost · https://www.biswashost.com
BHUninstaller is free and open-source. If it saved you time, you can buy me a coffee — it genuinely helps me keep building and maintaining free tools like this. 🙏
- bKash/Nagad (Personal · Send Money):
01710378396
ধন্যবাদ! / Thank you!