<<Please advise how to get rid of a program that has been downloaded from the
Internet and is not in the Add/Remove Programs AND does not have an
uninstall feature. I know you are not suppose to just delete them as they
leave remnants in the Registry. Is there anything that can be done?>>
If a program has not been installed, then it does not need to be
uninstalled. Simply deleting the folder is sufficient.
Explanation:
Some small utilities do not require any registry entries, they simply work
from a stand-alone .exe file. This can be placed anywhere on your
computer. In that case, there is no "installation", therefore no uninstall
is necessary.
Installation simply means that a program makes certain registry entries,
and sometimes places other files into the Windows folder. Not all programs
do that. They just work from a single .exe file. Such programs only
require deletion of the folder in which they reside. You can in general
only uninstall programs which you have actually "installed".
Only installed programs will leave registry remnants if the folder is
deleted. In such a case, the best procedure is to re-install the
program. That will reinstate its uninstall file, then you can uninstall it
properly via Add/Remove.
An aside:
Beware of over-aggressive cleanup utilities. Trying a new one out
recently, it removed all .log files. Sadly, this included the .log files of
all installed programs, with the result that now I cannot uninstall
anything. Add/Remove tells me that it cannot find the .log files for
anything I try to uninstall.
The result is that now, before I attempt an uninstall, I must first
reinstall the program I wish to uninstall, so that its log files are
restored. The log files are where the installation procedure is logged, so
that an uninstall is simply the reversal of all the steps contained in
those files. Without these, Add/Remove is blind.
Don Penlington
From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery, and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html
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