You don’t have to care. You can let it grow till it has 7,000 items worth over 100 megabytes. Why not keep it clean. Now with Cast Off it isn’t hard at all. Imagine all those files from those shareware applications you launched and then threw away. Imagine how messy your preference folder could be. If you keep other areas of your computer clutter free, why skip your preference folder?
How does Cast Off determine what is orphaned?
Cast Off uses two methods to determine what orphaned. First it looks in your desktop database (were a reference to all applications are stored), if it doesn’t find anything then it moves on to the second step. During the second step it scans your entire hard drive(s) looking for a matching file. If any matching files/applications are found then Cast Off determines that it isn’t orphaned. If the preference fails both tests then it is considered orphaned.
Note: Cast Off is not always 100% accurate
How do I know if the preference is safe to delete?
If Cast Off determines that the preference is orphaned it is generally safe to delete. Accept this is not always the case. You should read through all the preferences before deciding what to delete. Check the modification date, if it is recent, then don’t delete it. Check the name, does it look familiar? Also, generally if a preference file is deleted the worst that will happen is you will have to reenter some settings somewhere.
How do preferences become orphaned?
Most applications create preference files. Say an application creates a preference. Now say you remove that application from your system. That preference is now orphaned because the application that created it is gone. Thus you no longer need it.
What happens if I delete a preference to an application I do have?
Nothing drastic should happen. Almost always the application will recreate the preference and the settings will go to default. So you don’t have to lose any sleep over what to delete and what not to.
