question about strange software on my pc??

WinXP, Home, SP2.

Scanning through my registery, i found this list of software within the
registry. None of the list below appear in the Add/Remove list.

I have no idea what most of them do, if anything, or if they are needed
by some other piece of software. More to the point - if i should delete them or not.

Some of them, i can id as belonging to programs i uninstalled months
ago (google - earth plus, sonic - backup mypc, etc). Some (most) i have
no idea where they came from.

I'm currently having no problems with windows and the jv16 program
(registry cleaner) shows no errors within the registry. I'm wondering if
these programs were loaded by another program (as a part of the "other
program ") and was just not removed when the program was uninstalled
(hope that makes sense!).

All these were found in HKEY_USERS_Software
The lefthand column is the author of the software, after the dash (-) is the name of the software as it appears in the registry.

unk - easydvd
unk - mediamonkey
unk - msn music assistant
unk - orion studios
unk - sampleview
america online - AOL Instant Messanger
bigfix - bigfix C:\windows
cygnus solutions - cygwin
e-merge - sfx-factory
esellerate - affliates
gateway - gwcares
giantcompany - antispyware
google - earth plus
interactual technologies - iplayer
intermute - cwshredder
intervideo - mediacenter
mediascience - sonique
metastream - metastream3
particleG - registerycheckup
pc mightymax - realtime
quinnware - quintessential player
roxio - easy cd creator
sonic - backup mypc
sony - yebisu
symantec - internet security
symantec - norton antivirus
timeacct - disktriage
un4seen developments - xmplay2

Those programs i can ID, I have no use for (specially symantec) and
dont expect i'll ever need.

Any information as to the various programs will be appreciated,
thanks,
savagcl

 

TonyT,

Thanks for the info.
I can see from this that are several i can delete and several i cannot.

Appreciate you effort,
savagcl