I was using a USB connecter by MTS and it installed few app links and I wanted to remove those and several other apps which I wanted to remove. Anyway, the issues I encountered and how I resolved issue removing these apps/icons are here, in the order I try to remove them: Explaining options which you can use to remove applications in mac.
How to remove apps from OS X
Option 1: Go to launcher and press and hold the cursor and it'll show a 'x' icon in the corner and click on it shows a pop to uninstall the app and you can remove the app. The default option and works most of the time.
Option 2: Alternative to option 1 is launch the launchpad and put the cursor on the app you want to delete and drag the app to trash, it'll show you a app uninstall pop up, uninstall the app.
Option 3: If both of the above options fail, open terminal and go to /applications folder and remove the app from there.
cd /Applications
see if the application you want to remove is listed/present in applications folder.
ls
if it's listed, it means the app is present in applications folder. If it's present in subfolder, navigate to that folder.
And remove the app. To remove the app, use following command.
Be very very careful before executing the following command.
rm -rf <AppToDelete.app>
here <AppToDelete.app> is the app you want to delete. replace this with the app you want to delete.
Troubleshoot Issues:
Delete icons of removed apps from launchpad:
By using the options above for app removal, you'll most likely be able to remove the app from your system. But you may still see the icon of the deleted app in the launchpad in some weird cases.
To remove these icon follow following steps:-
1. Tap on the icon, you'll see a '?' on the icon,
2. A big '?' mark is overlaying your icon, when it's showing this icon, press and hold on this icon, icons will jiggle and now it'll show a 'x' icon. click on 'x' icon and remove the icon.
Another approach to remove these inactive app icons:
If you are using Yosemite here is the surgical approach to remove only what you want to, instead of wiping out all of launchpad.
Open up your Terminal app of choice and execute following command. Replace APP_NAME_CASE_SENSITIVE before executing.
sqlite3 $(sudo find /private/var/folders -name com.apple.dock.launchpad)/db/db "DELETE FROM apps WHERE title='APP_NAME_CASE_SENSITIVE';" && killall Dock
I hope this post has helped you. If you have some other way to remove apps, give constructive feedback.