Community weekly poll: How do you uninstall a program on your computer?

Uninstalling manually

In reply to: How do you uninstall a program on your computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN) 

I have tried several uninstallers but with only varying success. Even the most extensice tend to leasve some scraps behind--most often empty registry keys. So I simply do the uninstallation manually for best results. I begin using the Windows Add/Remove applet. Then I use jv16 Power Tools to search for files of the same name (be sure to include the programs name as well as the Software Company's name)and delete those files. Next I use jv16 to search my startup menue, uninstall folder, installed software, looking again for the uninstalled program and then deletingw aht is found. Finally I run the jv16 Registry tool to scan for registry porblems such as empty keys, etc. and delete what it finds. All told this takes about 10 minutes but when you are finished you can be sure that there are no scraps of the old uninstalled program left behind. The other benefit of using the jv16 Power Tools (by the way I use the old free version which can still be found on the Internet) is that it creates a backup of what you delete so that if you accidently delete something you shouldn't have, you can later restore it. Let me give you one example: I removed the Microsoft Anty Spyware Beta (in favor of Counter spy) recently using the Windows Add/Remove applet. After the installation, and using the above manual method I described, I found that there still remained: three folders, the uninstall program file, and 42 registry entries (no, that is not a mistake, 42 registry entries!!). I reinstalled the program and tried the program "YourUninstaller" mentioned in the above article and the results were nearly the same (1 folder, uninstallation program file, and 34 registry entries). You will be amazed to find using a program such as the jv16 Power Tools just how many old empty registry keys are on your computer from old installations. A friend of mine who really does not do that much downloading of software found that after two years he had 576 empty or useless registry entries on his machine just from old software that he had "uninstalled." You will be amazed at how much better your computer works (lots of little glitches disappear) when you try my method.