macOS Spotlight – How to Reset Spotlight Cache/Index

macosspotlight

I uninstalled Parallels Desktop, so I don't have a Windows VM any more. However when I type we into Spotlight, the Windows Weather app comes first, and if I press it, it says Parallels Desktop is not installed anymore.

How do I clean the cache or re-build the index? (I am not sure what this operation is called)?

NOTE: I would like to avoid having to use sudo.

Best Answer

Usually it's not necessary to rebuild the Spotlight database to get rid of Windows applications of a deleted Windows VM in the Spotlight results.

To properly remove all traces of a deleted Windows VM with some kind of integration in macOS - like a VM specific Application menu - remove the links of the Windows apps in $HOME/Library/Parallels/Application Menus/ and/or $HOME/Applications (Parallels)/.

To remove Parallels Desktop completely from your Mac remove the following files and folders besides the main app in /Applications:

  • $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.*
  • $HOME/Library/Parallels
  • $HOME/Applications (Parallels)/
  • $HOME/Documents/Virtual Machines (or something similar - please check that it doesn't contain VMs of other type2 hypervisors like VMware)
  • /usr/local/bin/prl* (possible soft links to Parallels command line tools in the app bundle)
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