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Removing pre-installed Wild Tangent games

Anonymous
2013-08-19T02:30:47+00:00

My laptop came with some links to Wild Tangent games on the web. When I tried to remove these by right clicking on them in the Windows 8 start menu and selecting uninstall, it took me to the Programs & Features menu where they are not listed. I eventually found the program files & deleted them but the links/shortcuts in the "All Programs" section of the new start menu are still there. When I click "Open File Location," it shows me a games folder with links to the games that now don't have graphics. I know these games aren't really on my system but it just bothers me that I can't remove the links from the start menu. Please Advise!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Gaming

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-05T23:12:06+00:00

    Well lucky to you. I had my update to 8.1 before I uninstall the Apps. After that I did the clean up. And guess what, those exacly those Apps are still on the list. Is there any way I can remove them? They are just annoying.

    Unfortunately the problem doesn't resolve by the time. :-(

    Same problem here with 8.1.

    Having uninstalled WildTamgent, I though that was that, but I was still left with five generic links as Apps (All Casual Games, All Enthusiast Games etc), which I couldn't delete, and uninstall was patently useless since I'd already done that (Duh!).

    Anyways, I finally tracked them down - the shortcuts are in the old Start Menu - programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\games. I removed the 5 shortcuts from there, and the apps disappeared, Result!!

    Note programdata is a hidden folder, so check "hidden items" in your file explorer window.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-01T02:33:40+00:00

    I don't know of any other way to get rid of them. I had given up on the issue and just lucked out that they were removed with the 8.1 update. I didn't even notice for a few days afterwards. Good luck on getting this issue resolved-hopefully you don't have to wait until 8.2!

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-19T12:30:27+00:00

    this did not work for me.  I removed the shortcuts in the old Start Menu - ie, ticked view "hidden folders" and went to C:\programdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\games    and deleted the shortcuts there.  They are also in a similar location at

    C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.  deleted the shortcuts in both locations and restarted cpu but the links for these wild tangent games were still listed under Games in the apps screen!  I have windows 8.1.  Here's what finally worked for me:

    Go to apps screen (Start --> all apps view).  right click on the link you want to delete.  select “open file location”  in the blue pop up menu at the bottom.  For most links in the Apps screen it takes you to the C:\programdata.....  folder listed above.  For these hard to remove Wild Tangent Games Links, It takes you to a non-traditional explorer folder. Must be some kind of system folder called “games” which I couldn’t locate manually in “This Computer/My Computer.” You cannot delete anything in this folder to get rid of the shortcuts.  However you can move the shortcuts by dragging them with left mouse button held from this strange "Games" folder onto the desktop and then you can delete them from the desktop. Doing this the Apps screen links for these Wild Tangent Games finally went away. To make it more complicated, when I moved the shortcuts from this strange “games” folder to the desktop, they did not disappear from the “games” folder for a minute or so!  It looked as if dragging to the desktop had copied the shortcut vs moving it so be patient after moving the shortcut for windows to register that it’s been moved.

    hope it works for you

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-06-07T06:09:27+00:00

    Hey Mwreuter. I think I've solved your problem. Here's what I had to do, and it was successful. 

    Here's the path you wanna take..

    1. Go to your C: drive.
    2. Open Program Files (x86)
    3. Open Wild Tangent Games
    4. Open Web Link - Dark Orbit (Or Mahjongg, World of Warcraft, etc.)
    5. Double click on Uninstall.
    6. Problem Solved.
    7. Thank me later. ;)

    Let me know if that works for you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-08-19T02:48:14+00:00

    Hi,

    Download and install Revo Uninstaller:

    http://www.revouninstaller.com/download-freeware-v

    Once Revo is installed, run it and right click on the icon of the program you wish to remove and select Uninstall. This will launch the normal uninstall program, but continue regardless. During the uninstall process for WindTangent, you should be asked to deleted registry keys for a full removal. Select all and click delete. Once it is complete, restart the computer.

    Regards,

    Patrick

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