Does installing and uninstalling apps have a negative impact on your systems performance?

Question

I'm mostly interested in mac, but would be interested to see if it is different on Windows or other unix OS's.

I am an app addict and love trying out new applications. Every time I reinstall my operating system or get a new computer I try to resist the urge to download apps that I might not use. I do this because I think it will slow my system down even if I eventually delete them using a tool like AppCleaner.

Is this something I should be worrying about or is there no real basis to believe this?

Answer 1

There shouldn't be any negative long term effects so long as they uninstall cleanly, however there are far too many programs leave dlls, registry entries etc. around. A cleaner as you suggested would normally sort these out.