Manually Removing a Windows XP Application
If you found this page, I’m going to assume that you have a problem
with a particular piece of software and you’d like to remove it from
your system. I’m also going to assume you’re familiar with Windows
Explorer, RegEdit, and the dangers of deleting something when you don’t
know what it is. If you don’t know these things, or are in the least
uncomfortable doing something that could seriously mess up your
computer, please don’t attempt to do what you read about here.
The
right way to remove it is to go to the Start Menu, to Control Panel, to
Add or Remove Programs, select “Change or Remove Programs”,
locate the program in the list, and click the “Remove”
button.
Sometimes, though, an application simply refuses to
uninstall when you want it to. In those cases, you will need to remove
it manually. Some people will tell you that it is enough to simply
delete the program’s files from “C:\Program Files” and move
on. In a very small number of cases (maybe 1 in 50) that might be true,
but most programs’ installers make any number of changes, such
as:
- Create a directory under “C:\Program Files”
named to match the application and/or its manufacturer, then fill it
with additional files and subdirectories. - Create a directory
somewhere other than “C:\Program Files” (such as one directly
under “C:\” and populate that with files and
subdirectories. - Place files and subdirectories under
“C:\Documents and Settings\All Users” and “C:\Documents
and Settings\Default User” to ensure that all users of a computer
can see that the program is available for use, to store temporary data
files, etc. - Place files in “C:\Windows\All Users” to
make them available to all users. - Create or modify one or more
INI files on the system. - Add an entry to the Registry to tell
the “Add or Remove Programs” control panel where to find the
application’s uninstaller. - Add entries to the Registry to tell
the Windows Explorer to associate this application with specific kinds
of files (e.g., “.doc” to Microsoft Word, as well as
“.rtf”). - Add entries to the Registry that store the
application’s preferences, such as what font you like to use in an
editor, where you last saved a file, where to place the application’s
window on the screen, etc. - Add DLLs and other files to the
Windows directory.
The installer might do other things,
depending on what kind of an installer it is. For example, a screen
saver installer might put some “.SCR” files in
“C:\Windows\system32″. A device driver installer might put
items in the System Tray (which it does by creating Registry entries). A
resume package might add templates to Microsoft Word
directories.
Because of all this variation, there’s no single set
of instructions I can give you that will get every file an application
might have installed 100% of the time. However, if you follow the
instructions I provide later in this article, you have a good chance of
being able to remove the bulk of the application. If you want to get rid
of ALL of it, one thing that might work for you is to follow my
instructions, then try reinstalling the application and using its own
uninstaller to remove it. That would theoretically get everything you
missed. (I have to warn you that some applications’ uninstallers don’t
remove everything they installed, either because they’re trying to keep
you from losing data you created yourself, because they’re buggy and
incomplete, or because they are cautious and trying to leave behind
files that other applications from the same manufacturer might be
using.)