New
#80
You are right Jeff, it's already somewhere in this tread. "Normal" windows uninstall just points to that particular program's uninstall and is left at the it's mercy whether it's going to delete leftover files and registry entries and most programs do not uninstall cleanly because of sloppiness, by accident or by design. I'm yet to see any "cleaners" to be able to cleanup all that leftover mess after the fact. When I use Revo for instance, after program is uninstalled on it's own, Revo looks at leftover fragments and gives you a list of files and registry entries that would not be removed otherwise. Those list may be pretty long, could be reviewed and chosen what to delete if you are so inclined. Before I started using Revo, I had to chase all those fragments manually and clean them one by one which in some cases could take hours without any guarantee that all were removed.
The current one depends on the third-party developer actually creating their own uninstaller app to remove traces of the program and de-register it from the system. Problem is that a) the uninstaller doesn't account for changes made by updates and b) the developers don't make the uninstaller as thorough as it can be (possibly due to data being risky or tricky to remove but probably because the developer is lazy and only does enough to meet Microsoft's guidelines)
Okay, now how does this harm the OS or cause problems. The reason for asking is over the years I cannot ever remember having a problem, BSOD, or any other situation caused by installing or uninstalling a program. . .now it may be that I have just been lucky. Also, don't remember using Programs and Features to remove a piece of software and then having a problem. The only reason I now use iOrbit uninstaller is so I don't have to go through and do a manual cleanup of the register as I did in the past.
There are occasions, for example, when Windows Uninstaller is unable to do its job because of virus or other malware infections. I have had to use Avast's special uninstaller as well as MalwareBytes uninstaller on relatives' and friends' computers. But generally, I think that most users don't run into these type of problems. That's why it is handy to have Revo or Iobit at the ready.
https://www.avast.com/en-us/uninstall-utility
https://helpdesk.malwarebytes.org/hc...-Anti-Malware-
Rich
I have been having some trouble with malwarebytes hanging at the end of the scan. Reading about revo here, I decided to d/l it and give it go. After playing with it a while, decided to go ahead and uninstall Malwarebytes. It is a licensed pro version. Revo said it was gone, so just did a double check with ccleaner to see if it turned up anything...it did not. Rebooted and went on the web to download a fresh copy, installed it and checked the status, sure enough it was able to find my unique identifier and key. Not sure how it found them, but must have been undetectable to revo??