Fig 1.0 Click on the PROGRAMS AND FEATURES link to continue
Fig 1.1 Select a program to uninstall and then click on the UNINSTALL button to continue
| UNINSTALL A PROGRAM |
To uninstall a program, or whole piece of software, first open the Control Panel window and then click on the PROGRAMS AND FEATURES link (Fig 1.0) to open the Programs And Features window (Fig 1.1).
When the Programs And Features window opens it will present you with a List Of Installed Programs, which could of been installed by Windows 7 or by you. Meaning. Some of the programs could be Windows 7 specific programs and some could be programs you have downloaded/installed from the Internet or programs you have installed from a CD for example. Therefore, you must exercise caution before uninstalling a program (or piece of software) as you might not know What that program is, What it does, Who installed it or What installed it.
A classic scenario is; A Game is installed, you play it and then forget about it. Before you know it many games have been installed and forgotten about. And the same applies to programs. In the long run, when you come to do an uninstall (perhaps to cleanup your computer and/or in preparation of installing an updated version of a program), you might of forgotten the names of the games/programs you installed a long time ago. What normally happens in this scenario is you come across a program in the list of Installed programs that you think needs uninstalling, but to play safe you do not uninstall it because you cannot recognize that programs name - "Is it a Game or a Program?", "If I uninstall it I might be doing the wrong thing and break my computer". Games do not always state in their name GAME and programs very rarely state SOFTWARE or PROGRAM in their name. So the end result is a computer clogged up with unwanted games/software that tends to slow the computer down in the long run as some of the programs may be running a task in the background even though you do not use that program anymore. In other words, that program may still be active.
In this example I am going to show you how to uninstall Adobe Reader 9.2.0, although the same uninstallation process applies to any of the programs in the List Of Installed Programs. I have begun by clicking on the ADOBE READER 9.2 listing (Fig 1.1 above), which then made the UNINSTALL and CHANGE buttons become available, and from there I clicked on the UNINSTALL button (also Fig 1.1 above). After doing this Windows 7 starts the actual uninstallation process.
At any time throughout the uninstallation process you can click on a CANCEL button, if one is available, to Cancel the uninstallation process. However. In some cases, generally speaking, even if you click on a CANCEL button the uninstallation might have gone too far for it to be stopped, cancelled and/or reversed. So think very carefully before deciding to uninstall any thing onto your Computer.
Also at any time throughout the uninstallation process you might see a UAC Security Requester whereby you should click on its CONTINUE button to continue with the uninstallation process or click on its CANCEL button to cancel the uninstallation process, if it is possible to cancel at that stage.
User Account Control (UAC) is a feature of Windows 7 that helps to prevent unauthorized changes to the computer, such as moving a system file or uninstalling software. When attempting to uninstall Adobe Reader 9.2.0 UAC automatically blocks you off with a security requester similar to the above, because it wants to know if you are the one attempting to uninstall Adobe Reader 9.2.0 and not a piece of malicious software for example. In this case simply click on ALLOW to continue.
Uninstalling a program or piece of software in general should be as simple as the above uninstall of Adobe Reader 9.2.0, but unfortunately it is not
always that simple. Some programs (and pieces of software) can be corrupted, virus infected and/or have files missing without you realising it.....until
you come to do an uninstall for example. In other words. A program might be working fine on the surface but underneath some of its Registry entries may
have become corrupt and/or some of its files may have become virus infected, as well as missing, for whatever reason(s). You may not of noticed anything
wrong because those files may only be needed when you use an advanced feature of that program for example. Therefore, those bad files may be the reason
why a program cannot be partly or fully uninstalled. They may have become jammed in the system or simply missing, which causes the uninstallation process
to fail. In the above example all was well of course.
In Fig 1.3 above the message requester has a green progress guage on it to give you some idea of when the next thing is going to happen, but how many
times the guage becomes empty and then full again depends on each uninstallation. So just ignore it basically until you see either a System Restart
message requester, if one appears at all, or the Programs And Features control panel (window) minus the program you have just uninstalled. If a System
Restart message requester does not appear it means a system (computer) restart is not necessary in order to complete the uninstall. Once the uninstall
has completed, with or without a system restart, the Programs And Features control panel (window) will be updated to show the program you have just
uninstalled is missing and therefore has indeed been uninstalled (Fig 1.4 above).
| UNINSTALL PLUG-INS / ADD-ONS |
In the above example I only uninstalled Adobe Reader 9.2.0 but adobe products sometimes have PLUG-INs and/or ADD-ONs (extra, independent, software) associated with them as well, such as the Plug-In/Add-On called Spelling Dictionaries Support and Adobe Air. However. Plug-ins and add-ons sometimes get overlooked when you are uninstalling a specific program, such as Adobe Reader, simply because you may not think they are anything to do with the program you are uninstalling. And how would you know? when these days software companies tend to put extra software onto your computer whether you like it or not, usually during an installation.
A Plug-In or Add-On is basically an extra program or extra piece of software that is normally independent of its main program or main piece of software, in terms of uninstallation for example. If a plug-in/add-on is not independent, uninstallation-wise, the uninstall process of the main program or main piece of software should warn you of this. For example "You must uninstall ProgramName Plug-In/Add-On before you uninstall ProgramName".
One way to find out what extra software needs to be installed for the actual program you are uninstalling is to look at their website, and more precisely to look at the System Requirements. For example. If you install OpenOffice, to use all of its features requires the addition of Java (which comes packaged with OpenOffice). And if you want to use Microsoft Word 2007 to save WORD 2007 Documents as PDF Files you will need to install the add-on called SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe (or install a printer driver such as PrimoPDF) and Adobe Reader (or similar software such as FoxIt) to view those PDF Files. Once you know what additional software (plug-in or add-in) is required, or not required but installed regardless, then you will know what you can and cannot install.
In this next example I am uninstalling Adobe AIR simply because I do not need it. I do not use applications (programs/softwares) that rely on it being installed. And because it is an independent install it can be removed independently as well; by right clicking on the ADOBE AIR listing and then selecting the UNINSTALL menu-item. One thing to note with this uninstall is that is tells Windows 7 to use its own, Adobe, uninstall script. It is quite normal these days for programs and softwares to provide an uninstall script that Windows 7 can use. On the good side they might tell Windows 7 to uninstall more specific folders/files than would of been uninstalled naturally by the Programs And Features control panel, but on the bad side they might tell Windows 7 to leave specific folders/files in place.....so that you cannot re-register the program/software again.
Never look down the List Of Installed Programs for the icon associated with a program or piece of software because sometimes a program or piece of software can have a generic system icon associated with it instead. For example. Do not specifically look for an OpenOffice icon if you are wanting to uninstall Java. They have completely different icons, even though Java is installed alongside OpenOffice. Hence the reason why you should look for a program, piece of software or plug-in/add-on by its name.
| DELETE THE LEFTOVERS |
Now that Adobe Reader 9.2.0 and Adobe AIR have been uninstalled the next thing to do is delete any fragments they have left behind. When a program or
piece of software is installed a .log file should of been created by that program, piece of software and/or Windows 7 itself that informs an
uninstallation process of where all the installed files are stored. That way the uninstallation process knows where to find them when it needs to
uninstall (remove) them.
Unfortunately not all folders and files belonging to an installation are removed. This could be because no .log file was created, therefore Windows 7
makes the decision to only remove the main program/software file and some of its folders and files in order to deactivate the program or piece of
software as a whole. Another reason could be that the .log file is created but does not mention some installed folders and files. This normally happens
when a software developer wants to know if you have used their software before - The uninstallation process cannot uninstall folders and files it does
not know about, therefore when you install the same software again (after an uninstall) that software first tries to find its unknown/hidden/still
installed folders and files to determine whether or not you are permitted to install/use the software again.
If you have uninstalled some software that had a 40-Day Trail Period limitation on it for example and then 70 days later
installed the software again it probably would not work, due to the installation process checking a hidden file that
reports you have already used the software for 40 days. In this scenario it could be difficult to find hidden folders and
files. Free-To-Use software, such as Adobe Reader 9.2.0, tend not to use the hidden folders and files tactic. This does
not mean they have a good uninstallation process though or create a perfect installation .log file, as the below shows.
For whatever reason(s) the Adobe folder has not been deleted from the Windows 7 system folder called Program Data. This could of been because the folder
was classed as In-Use and therefore locked (undeletable) during the uninstallation process. Regardless of why the folder remains though, once you have
uninstalled Adobe Reader 9.2.0 and Adobe AIR you can delete the Adobe folder. Use
Pathname: Computer >> Local Disk(D:) >> Program Data to get inside the Program Data folder. From
there, right click over the Adobe folder to bring up its Options menu and then left click on the DELETE menu-item. This will delete the Adobe folder and
all of its sub-folders and files. Do the same for any Adobe folders inside the Program Files system folder as well. This applies to uninstalled
program/software folders in general too.
For most users this will be adequate enough to say Adobe Reader 9.2.0 and Adobe AIR have been uninstalled/deleted. However. If you wanted to go one step
further to try and completely rid the computer of Adobe traces you would need to use a Registry Cleaner as well as probably edit the Registry
manually. I say try because cleaning the Registry is not always a 100% guarantee. For example. It may be cleaned of Adobe entries but what if an Adobe
entry is called AR9 (for Adobe Reader 9) and hidden (not logged) for example.
The Registry is a main component of Windows 7. It is basically like a book full of folders, files and settings entries. Whenever a program, some software
or some hardware is installed, modified or uninstalled the book is modified with entries about that program, software or hardware - Where folders and
files are stored, Who installed them (you or Windows 7), The location of the un/installation (.log) file, The name of the person(s) registered to use the
program/software/hardware, The settings of the program/software/hardware and so on.
A Registry Cleaner is a program that searches the Registry (book) for redundant folder, file and setting entries. For example.
Below is a redundant Adobe entry. A registry cleaner might find it and determine, through folder and file checking processes,
that the entry is no longer valid - It might of determined that Adobe Reader 9.2.0 was uninstalled by looking for another entry
that states this. The uninstallation process for example could of created such an entry (i.e. AR9 - Uninstalled). Once the entry
is found to be invalid the registry cleaner should clean it (delete it). Over time as each piece of software is installed, modified
and/or uninstalled there are so many invalid entries that need cleaning (deleting), so a good registry cleaner is another way to keep
your installations/modifications/uninstallations neat and tidy.
Note well. I have explained the Registry and Registry Cleaner to a certain degree so that you understand a little more, but it must be said that Deleting Leftovers, using a Register Cleaner and tampering with Registry entries manually should only be done by Advanced Experienced Users.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
