Cleaning Out Your Programs in XP - The Registry

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Through the Registry

This method will help you “manually” remove all remnants of a program when they are scattered thoroughly throughout your system. It involves two major steps. The first is locating and removing the program:

1. Right click on the shortcut icon of the program or its location within the Start menu under All Programs and select Properties.

2. Copy the contents of the Target field into a blank document for future reference.

3. Click on Find Target and make a log of all the program names within that folder.

4. Delete the files related to the program you are trying to remove. Usually the entire folder is related to that program, but if you're not sure, just move the file to another location for future reference and security.

The next step involves scouring through the Registry:

1. Click Start and then Run.

2. Next to where it says Open: type regedit and click OK.

3. The Registry Editor should have two windows (left and right). Click on My Computer in the left window so that it is highlighted and press Ctrl+F. This will open the Find dialog box.

4. Next to Find what: type in the name of the program from the previous step (just the program name and its file extension, e.g. .exe or .dll) and leave all of the boxes checked under Look at.

5. Click Find Next. If it finds a match, the tree in the left window will be expanded to show its location and the right window will have the file's data.

6. After examining the data to see if it's important, delete it.

7. Press F3 to find where else the program name is hiding. If there is another match, repeat step six.

8. Repeat this process for each program you found in the previous step where you located the program.

9. When you're done, close the Registry Editor.

Don't forget to delete the shortcut on your desktop and in the Start menu under All Programs. Just right click and select Delete.

The last way to clean programs out of your system is to use third party software, but seeing as there are several options out there that I haven't tried, I don't want to make a recommendation only to find out that there are indeed better options. But if you're dying for an example, you might want to try Your Uninstaller! and see how that works.

I hope this article has given you some better insight into the importance of keeping your system neat and tidy. Until next time...

DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware.

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