Loadables for Android

This is a nice, simple app that gives great visibility into what background services are installed, which are running, and so on. It requires some system knowledge for the information to be useful; I learned a few things about how OS X handles background processes along the way. It helped me find some automatic updaters that I will grudginly leave in place, and a couple of remnants of uninstalled apps that I promptly removed. Thanks for making this handy little tool!

This application was extremely helpful in finding the missing parts of the BlackBerry install that were not removed correctly (ref: com.rim.RimAlbumArtDaemon, com.rim.BBLaunchAgent, com.BBDaemon, com.rim.RimLaunchAgent.plist, etc..). I tried solving the uninstall / launch issue with Android launchctl, but the BB FAQ was incorrect. Ultimately I needed a better method to track down the parent processes, and Loadables was perfect. Using it's search function, I was able to quickly isolate the left over objects, determine their launch dependencies, and take the necessary corrective actions. Using this tool I was able take quick and effective action based on my console messages. Thank you.

I used it successfully to remove a bunch of things I installed but forgot about. The location and date along with owner really help you figure out where things came from. This is a very useful utility. The details tab is useful telling you what is in the plist or lines in the script. Very nice! Coloring of the services wasn't intuitive to me, I was expecting black to mean editable, gray uneditable, bold user service, and non-bold default service. However it seems my assumptions are almost exactly opposite (from reading the app description in the store) black is user service, gray is default service, bold is uneditable (not able to unload), and non-bold is editable. The "Info" button is supposed to give you the legend you need, but the first time I clicked it I was on the "Others" tab, and nothing happened. Finally while writing this review I discovered how "Info" adds a legend to the actions window. Possibly a better UI would always show the legend in a seperate window if you click "Info". However since the version 1.2 update, the right click context menu is awesome. I found it better than expected. Not only does it allow you to "Reveal in Finder" the plist that executes the program, but also "Reveal in Finder" the executable itself. So you can manually disable or delete services running on your computer. Although it's great that I can remove the "Per-User Services" this app doesn't have the privelages to remove "System Wide Services", however most apps escilate the privelages by asking the user to provide admin credentials. This app does not escilate privelages, and leaves it up to you to do it the manual way in Finder, "sudo" in Terminal, or reportedly run the app while logged into root. The bottom line: I found it very useful, because it had a complete listing of the startup locations I knew about, and some I didn't know about.

All in all, this is one of the better specialized applications I have purchased. I would have given the application a 4 1/2, but I had to round down. I would recommend the app to users whose skill set is above a beginner level - such as as tech-savy or computer knowledgaeable users. If you know that an application did not uninstall correctly, or you are reading log files, you will likely find the application useful. I purchased Loadables after going through the various log files via System Profiler -> Logs. My logs had way too much noise due to missing or mis-configured software. Using Loadables, I was able to locate most culprits (especially the VMware and Parallels gear that burrowed-in like a virus). After locating the offending components, I was able to use a Terminal to delete the items. To paraphrase a previous poster, the UI is slightly awkward (specifically, the 'actions' window that grows out of the top of the app's window), but nothing that would be considered a deal breaker. I also would have appreciated a context menu available from a right click of the mouse. Title bar feedback would be helpful to let a user know whether they are running under their user account or running as root (in case they flub a sudo). The program *does not* elevate on demand, so if you want to tweak non-user items (ie, belonging to root), you need to either launch as the super user (su), or drop into a shell and elevate. Finally, Vlad's english is very good (much better than my ability to speak his native tongue), so there is no language/culture specific awkwardness.