Software Surgery - Lab Rats #79
Andy and Sean show how to manually remove a program from Windows.
Happy Canada Day to our Canadian viewers!
Happy July 4th to our U.S. viewers!
Majority of software will have a uninstaller application, that can be used to remove the program from your system.
Minority of software are "self-protecting", meaning they don't wish to be uninstalled at any point.
For more information on backing up your data check out episode 73.
Four Main Locations Where Installers Place Data:
Registry
Start Menu
Program Files [C:\Program Files\]
Application Settings [Windows Vista C:\Users\App Data\Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\]
Areas to remove most applications manually:
Task Manager: accessible by using the three finger salute. [Ctrl, Alt, Delete]
MSConfig: built-in system configuration utility. Access it by clicking "Start" [i.e. Windows key], click Run, type "msconfig" and click OK [or Enter on the keyboard]
Registry: access it by clicking "Start" [i.e. Windows key], click Run, type "regedit" and click OK [or Enter on the keyboard]
Usually during installation you're allowed to choose another directory.
To see hidden system files, go into your Folder Options, next click on the view tab, and select "Show hidden files and folders", followed by clicking Apply and then Ok.
For security reasons Sean recommends unchecking the box that states "Hide extensions of known file types".
Process Library is a good place to research items that run in memory.
MoveOnBoot marks files and folders to be deleted or moved on the next boot up.
MSConfig on steroids.