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What does uninstalling a program actually do?

Anonymous
2014-06-02T06:44:53+00:00

Obviously it deletes the program's folder and its contents, and I believe it also clears out registry values created by the program, but other than that, what does uninstalling a program do? I understand programs can come with their own uninstallers, but what are some of the key points for a typical uninstall?

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-02T09:00:31+00:00

    Drew

    Is this the case?

    No. The software uninstaller should do more. It all depends on how well the programmer has written the uninstaller.

    You can manually remove redundant startup entries using Autoruns. You use Autoruns to delete entries where the words “File not found” appear. With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting, or you can right click an item and then delete it. Click the Everything tab and look for the rows highlighted in yellow.

    To identify what loads when you boot use Autoruns (freeware from Microsoft).

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902

    With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting, or you can right click an item and then delete it. If you uncheck you can recheck to re-enable the item. It is a much safer approach than editing the Registry and better than using msconfig.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-02T07:38:39+00:00

    Drew

    I believe it also clears out registry values created by the program

    That's what should happen but not all uninstallers cleanly remove all registry entries. However, the registry entries left behind rarely slow the system down, they merely leave untidy references to the programme you may see from time to time. What you should NOT do is to use an automatic Registry Cleaner to remove the registry entries. When you do that you immediately introduce to your system a real risk of damaging your system and creating errors that can only be resolved by reinstalling Windows.

    There is only one key point to uninstalling.  Select Start, Control Panel, Programs and Features, place the cursor on the programme to be removed, right click and select Uninstall. Restart your computer.

    In the case of anti-virus software you can uninstall the same way but it can be better to use a removal tool. You should always remove the existing anti-virus software before installing a replacement. Failure to follow this procedure can lead to the existing software damaging the software being installed.

    Some users rely on Revo Uninstaller to remove software. They believe it results in a cleaner removal. I have never been inclined to use Revo.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-02T07:46:54+00:00

    Thanks for the timely response! The tip not to use automatic registry cleaners probably saved me a bunch of headaches in the future. I'm well aware of how to uninstall programs though -- I was just interested in the mechanics behind it. In your reply you only noted the registry portion of uninstalling programs, which might lead one to believe that aside from cleaning registry values, uninstallers do nothing else but delete the program's folder. Is this the case?

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