Junk program removal

Help--I just purchased a new Dell computer and it's loaded with all kinds of junk programs I would like to remove. I finally got rid of AOL-I think- it was in the ADD & REMOVE and I deleted it.
Now I' trying to remove MSN explorer and it's not in the add & remove section how do I remove it.
Thank you, Paul

 

Try looking under Add/Remove Windows Components.

 

Brett, no listing for Windows Components.
In fact AOL is still listed on the top of the ADD/Remove programs but when I click on that for removal it comes up-- "no versions of AOL can be found on this computer--so hopefully AOL is gone.
Any more ideas for MSN EXPLORER removal.

Paul

 

Here is a suggestion from the Dell Community Forum:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=latit_edocs&message.id=8

Daddad

 

Sorry guys that I was so stupid and did not see the "Big Block" marked "Windows Components" it worked just as advertised.
Merry Christmas to all.
Paul

 

Paul:

If you're interested you can remove the orphaned reference to AOL in Add/Remove by using the following Registry Tweak;

Run Regedit and navigate to;

HKEY_LOCAL_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Under this key will be a number of sub-keys, each representing an installed application, one of which should be AOL. Highlight this key and delete it.

Close Regedit and check Add/Remove again. The reference to AOL should be gone.

NOTE: It goes without saying that you should always make a backup of your registry prior to any modifications.

HTH.

 

Thank you Rod, that removed it.
Can I use that same procedure to get rid of other stuff in the ADD & REMOVE section?
Paul

 

Paul:

Conceivably you could use this procedure to remove all listings in Add/Remove, but that would defeat the purpose of having Add/Remove in the first place and would make it much more difficult to uninstall programs you no longer want/need.

Rather this tweak should be used only after a program has been uninstalled using its own, windows, or other third party uninstall routine, and the reference to the program is left behind (orphaned) in the Add/Remove list of installed programs.

HTH

 

Hello Paul,

Good third-party software just made to order for removing bits of deleted software is jvPowerTools. Free and the developer updates it quite often, plus there is a users forum that jv partcipates in. http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/index.php

Regards - Charles

 

Thank you guys.
Happy New Year to everyone
Paul

 

Paul I think I covered this in another thread or forum. The date on this one began Dec 23. Problably done by now. I know you are in TWEAK mode. Smile!

So in more detail!

So for you and posterity!

But here is what I allways do to remove.

Make sure to stop its autostart if any, from startup. Reboot to make sure it is now gone.

Look at and in the folder containing this program to see what file names it is using especially the main executable. The name of the program and the name of the main executable may not be the same. The path may look something like c:\Program files\Games\Parker Bros\Monopoly. The main execuable may be mnply.exe.

Use add/remove but when the window comes up if it gives a choice of custom then I use that. Custom does in some cases require you to know about some shared files. So careful if you use this.

After add/remove reboot even if it don't ask.

Then use find to search for reference to Monop*.* and mnply*.* and if it relates to what I saw in Program files delete it. Typically there are residues left. StartMenu items or log files in the windows folder etc.

Once this is done I always use RegCleaner first and look thru its list for the names I noted in Program files and if there remove. Then RegCleaners "do them all ". Then usually EasyClean's regcleaner and RegScrubXP. This process usually will get them all.

But if it was a large complex program with many files then I will do a manual registy search for the names from Program files.

To give you an idea why I do this and why it is nessesary take this example.

Norton any and all products. But just Norton AV.

Listen to this, it applies to a lot of programs.

I use all of the proceedures above but before the manual registry search I also run Nortons own Rnav and Sysclean to suposedly finish the cleanup. Rnav has options to remove 3 versions. I run all three not just the one for the actual version I have.

After all of that a manual registry search for Symantec and Norton produced 50-60 entries. Note you may would not do the Symantec if you had another Norton product like PcAnywhere etc.

This proceedure seems extreme and is for the everyday user for mainly internet photos and word processing.

But not if you are performace and tweak oriented as I and many are. I do many things different things on my computer from monitoring buying/selling stocks to remote support using terminal services to my clients from home.

Performance! I use no screen savers, special backgrounds or wallpaper, themes or animations and am fanatical about starups.

I know exactly what startups I have and what they do. And I don't have programs riding in may system tray like say Adaptec direct CD so I can use a data CD for 20 mins once a month. Or video display tools that I can do with a rt click on the desktop.

This turned into a basic tweak speak (smile) and we didn't even get to cleanup of temps and spy/adware! Smile!

Mike

PS: But I gota say something about cleanup. Everytime I try to let someone skip this step I get bit.

If something happens that you don't have a very good idea where it came from. It is time to shotgun it with temp spyware and reg cleans and virus scans. If it don't fix it, it will clear the slate and get everything else out of the way.