How to Uninstall a
Windows Program
By Cate Eales
Appeared Feb 23, 2006 on castanet.net
Recently a client installed a program on a Windows 98
machine that was meant for Windows XP. Not a whole lot bad happened, but
the program wouldn't work. She dragged the program icon from the desktop
to the Recycle Bin…and couldn't understand why the program kept loading
every time she started Windows.
Some would argue the world would be a better place if we could get rid of
programs and all their associated files simply by dragging an icon to the
waste basket, but the fact is that for everyone who thinks so, there is at
least one idiot like me who would drag important stuff there by accident
and spend the next two days trying to recover it! So, in order to protect
people like me from ourselves, there is a "procedure" for safely and
thoroughly getting rid of unwanted programs.
There are essentially three acceptable methods of safely removing a
program and its associated unimportant files from your computer. The first
is to use Windows' built-in uninstall option. When you click on Start ---
Control Panel --- Add/Remove Programs you'll see a list of the programs
installed on your computer. Click (or double-click) on the program you
want to remove, and follow the prompts. That will safely remove many
programs, but some programs don't support that method.
For programs not listed in Add/Remove, you might be able to use the
UNWISE.EXE file associated with the program. First, check Start --- All
Programs --- and the program group for the program you want to remove. If
there is an option there to uninstall, that's what you want to use. If
not, click on My Computer --- C: --- Program Files, and browse to the
folder containing the program you want to remove. If you find a file there
called unwise.exe, double-click on that and follow the prompts. Be aware
that many programs have a file named unwise.exe associated with them, so
you want to be sure you are using the right one. And just to keep things
interesting, although many programs have an unwise.exe file…some have none
at all!
The third way is manually deleting the files, and this method is not for
the faint of heart. Browse to the folder you want to delete…and delete it.
The downside is that you could end up deleting something that some other
program needs, and you will probably not get all the bits and pieces that
are scattered elsewhere that make the program work. So try not to have to
do that!
There are third party programs that make the process of getting rid of
unwanted programs a little more straightforward. A good, free utility with
no associated spyware is MyUninstaller from NirSoft. It's available here:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html. I like it because it gives
me more information about a program than the standard Add/Remove module in
Windows, and it lets me export a list of what's installed so I can keep
track of what I'm doing.
Regardless of which method you use, I strongly suggest that you empty your
Recycle Bin BEFORE you start the uninstall process, and that you reboot
your computer immediately after you've uninstalled a program. That way you
are most likely to discover any problems immediately and more likely to be
able to restore your files from the Recycle Bin. If you have more than one
program to uninstall, follow those guidelines before and after each
uninstall. If something goes wrong, you will know which program caused the
problem and be in better shape to recover.
If you use registry backup and/or registry cleaner software, be sure to
back up before and clean up after each uninstall. If you're unfamiliar
with registry backup/cleaner software, don't worry; we'll talk about that
in a future column, or you can read about it here:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/windows_xp_registry.htm or here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756
Not all programs will leave gracefully, but now you can
remove the ones that will!
Links
MyUninstaller
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/myuninst.html
How to back up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756
Backing Up and Restoring the Windows XP Registry
http://www.theeldergeek.com/windows_xp_registry.htm
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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible
and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric,
and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions,
helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware
eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image
management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management.
Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your
comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit
the Real Life Internet Solutions website at
www.rlis.com.
©
Cate Eales 2005 – All Rights Reserved
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