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robotrenegade

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 16, 2002
921
2
Greenville,SC
I opened system prefs today and I see a new icon. What is Growl and how did it get there?
 

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It's a notification app. Quite a few apps come with it nowadays. No need to remove it since it's very useful actually.
 
It's a notification program. My guess is that you recently installed CS5 or something from Adobe, as it is a hidden install with CS5 for sure, possibly others.
 
I opened system prefs today and I see a new icon. What is Growl and how did it get there?

Growl is a notifications system. Can't say how it got there for sure but it is often installed with other programs to enhance their functionality (e.g. Dropbox; 3G modem connection software etc.)

More info here:
http://growl.info/thirdpartyinstallations.php

EDIT: I agree with Hellhammer. No need to remove - it's very useful.
 
I guess I didn't shake my malware paranoia when I left Windows.. I kept seeing "an update is available for Growl" popping up in the upper right hand corner.. After a few weeks of this I blew it away - certainly looked fishy to me since I had no clue whatsoever where it came from.

That being said, after blowing it away I decided to research a bit and I believe it came with the last firefox update, but I could be wrong. Seems like it's a legitimate program that I may need someday but for now I'm getting along without it.
 
Whether or not it is integral to the smooth function and updating of applications that support it, it's quite an eye opener when Little Snitch flags up a dialogue boxing saying something called Growl is trying to communicate with... I went with a disingenuous 'How did that get on my computer without an opt out box appearing during install?' (Photoshop trial) and uninstalled it.
 
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