The Tips - Mac Kung Fu - page 271

The trouble is that the same programs leave behind these icons when they're
uninstalled. To manually remove any icon, right-click it and select Remove
Preference Pane.
Note that if the app is still installed, simply removing the icon probably won't
uninstall the rest of the app. To do that, you'll need to click and drag the
program's icon from within Applications to the trash. If the program doesn't
add an entry to the Applications list within Finder, you'll need to consult the
website of the software developer to learn how to manually remove the
program.
Pruning Standard System Icons from the List
To remove any of the standard system icons from System Preferences, click
and hold the Show All button (top left of the program window) until the list
of apps appears; then—keeping your finger on the mouse button—scroll to
the bottom and select Customize. Then remove the checks next to any icons
you want to remove (see Figure 41, Removing built-in System Preferences icons ,
on page 273 ). Click the Done button at the top left when you've finished.
Note that although the icon might have been removed, you can still access
the function by clicking and holding the Show All button and selecting the
entry in the list.
To restore icons, repeat the previous steps, and add a check next to the icon(s)
you removed.
Tip 247
Speed Up Slow PDFs
Sometimes you might find that someone sends you a PDF that is very slow
when you view it in Preview—scrolling takes a long time, for example, and
pages draw slowly too. It's not always clear why this happens, but it might
have to do with the number of layers in the document.
A quick and easy solution is to use Preview to save a copy of the file (select
File→Export, and then assign a different filename). Open the copy, and you
should find it's now much quicker to browse.