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When Pesky Programs Won't Go Away

-----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and theresource box below is included.-----------------------------------------------------------When Pesky Programs Won't Go AwayBy Stephen BucaroAre you a shareware junkie? Have you installed and removedmany programs from your computer? This can make yourcomputer take longer to start and run sluggish, or evencause reoccurring error messages.During installation a program copies files to theapplications folder, the Windows folder, and createsentries in the registry. The problem is that when youuninstall a program, it may leave behind pieces of itselfand entries in the registry. Your hard disk and registrycan become bloated.To solve this problem, Microsoft licensed the InstallShield software to establish a standard Install andUninstall procedure. When you install an application onyour computer it copies its own uninstall utility to yourhard drive. This Uninstall utility properly removes everypiece of the program and removes every entry that it madein the registry.If an application does not automatically install itself,you can install it with the Add/Remove Programs utility inControl Panel. When installing an application this utilitysearches the application for a program named setup.exe.Programs that comply with Microsoft's logo requirementprovide a setup program that lists the application in theAdd/Remove Programs list and registers an uninstall utility. To remove an application from your computer, use theAdd/Remove Programs utility. Just deleting the programwithout using the Add/Remove Programs utility leaves behindpieces of the application and entries in the registry.Unfortunately sometimes the Add/Remove Programs utilitydoesn't work. Either the application didn't register anuninstall utility, or the uninstall utility is not at th

elocation indicated in the registry. Sometimes the uninstallutility can't remove all the pieces of the program becausethey're not at the location indicated in its uninstall log.Some programs, particularly shareware programs, don't listthemselves in the Add/Remove Programs list. To deletethese programs, first check for an uninstall utility inthe program's Start menu, or in the program's folder. Ifnone exists, drag the program's folder to the Recycle Bin,then restart your computer. If your computer restartswithout an error message, you can safely empty the programfrom the Recycle Bin.If you receive an error message when you restart yourcomputer, check the folderc: WindowsStart MenuProgramsStartupfor a link to the program that you removed. If there is nolink, run the Registry Editor (Start | Run | regedit) andcheck the following keys.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionRunServicesHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionRunIf you find an entry related to the error message that youare receiving, carefully record that entry, or back upyour registry before deleting that entry. If there is noentry in those registry keys, you may want to restore theprogram's folder from the Recycle Bin until you learn howto dispose of it cleanly.If you are not comfortable messing with the Windowsregistry, you can purchase a commercial utility likeMcAfee's UnInstaller or Norton's CleanSweep to do the jobfor you. These utilities are experts at removing abandonedprogram pieces and orphaned registry keys.-----------------------------------------------------------Resource Box:Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintainyour computer and use it more effectively to design a Website and make money on the Web visithttp://bucarotechelp.comTo subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blankemail to bucarotechelp-subscribe@topica.com-----------------------------------------------------------

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