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Properly uninstalling an unwanted program from Windows
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How to uninstall a program from Windows
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Visit a website and it's 'more' than likely, you'll be offered 'some sort' of 'free program trial.' Offers to diagnose and fix problems with your computer, Windows, viruses, spy-ware, firewall, 'love-life' - the list goes on and on. If you 'believe' what you read, all you have to do is 'download' the 'free trial' program and all your problems are at an end or, are they just beginning?
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Repeatedly downloading and installing programs is without doubt, the most common way that you can cause problems to occur in your operating system. Each new program installation involves writing new files to your system, creating new registry entries and in some cases, whether you realise it or, not, downloading additional files from the internet.
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Leaving these files and entries in place, especially if you 'end up' not using the program, at the very least, slows down your operating system, but in the worse case scenario, causes problems that can't 'easily' be resolved.
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All this doesn't mean that you 'can't' download and try a new program, as long as, when you decide that you don't like or, need it, you follow 'best practice,' when getting rid of it.
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Wouldn't life be simple, if 'properly' getting rid of an unwanted program, was as 'simple' as dropping its desktop icon into the recycle bin, but I have seen people do this and 'believe' that the program has 'gone.' I have also seen people navigate to their 'program files' folder on their C: Drive and delete a certain program's folder, but this is 'also' not the way to go. Finally, unless you know what you are doing, don't even think about visiting 'the registry' and altering/deleting anything from there.
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There are two 'recognised ways to un-install a program from your computer.
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Use the 'Add or, remove programs' utility included with Windows: click the Windows 'Start' button then, select 'Control Panel' then, select 'Add or, remove programs' (wait until the list populates) before scrolling down the list of installed programs and selecting/highlighting the program that you want to uninstall by selecting the 'Change/Remove' button. Once the program has been un-installed, re-start your computer to complete the process. Please be aware that some programs such as AVG and Norton (popular anti-virus programs) cannot be completely removed using this method and for this reason, they supply specialist 'uninstaller' tools on their websites.
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Nowadays, bone-fide program authors, usually supply an 'uninstall' utility as part of their program package: click on the Windows 'Start' button before holding your cursor over 'All programs' which will display a list of all the installed programs on your computer. Hold your cursor over the program that you would like to uninstall and look for an 'uninstall' entry in the sub-menu that pops up. Again, re-start your computer to complete the process.
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More advanced Windows users should check out a program called Regshot which takes a 'before-and-after' 'snap-shot' of your registry, this enables you to assess which entries have been changed following installation of a new program.
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Add your comment to this article, reference number:4159
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