How To Completely Uninstall Programs From Your Computer

The amount of disk space on new computers has steadily been increasing over the years.  So, isn’t it surprising that you still find yourself hoping that you had more disk space on your PC?

The reason why millions of computer users find their disk space inadequate has little to do with the data or information stored in it. Mostly, it has to do with the following:

1. The computer applications that you used once and are obsolete but that still continue to occupy system space and resources.

2. You installed some applications and did not find them useful, but did not bother to uninstall them.

3. Malware programs, such as spying software deceptively installing itself on your system and putting a burden on your computer in addition to stealing your information.

This article covers some of the common methods that you can use to get rid of programs you don’t need and free up that precious space on your hard disk. You must also realize that removing the programs you don’t use, will also help in saving system resources and keep your PC secure from malware attacks built around bugs in unused programs which you may fail to update.

The traditional and most used method to uninstall software on a Windows computer is to use the Add/Remove Programs feature that is available in the Control Panel. This is a good option to use if you want to uninstall Yahoo toolbar and other small applications that do not make too many entries on the PC.

The problem starts when you attempt to uninstall Norton Internet Security and other similar programs that are known to add hundreds of files, folders, and registry entries. The Add/Remove Programs utility invariably fails to ensure complete removal of these programs, so in order to remove them you may need to use a third-party program uninstaller tool. Many software manufacturers, such as Symantec and MacAfee provide uninstallers for their products on their websites. You can use these uninstallers to completely remove programs from your PC. If a specific uninstaller is not available, you may use a reliable third-party program uninstaller tool to do the job.

There are a few programs, such as DirectX that are built into Windows. Many users wonder how to uninstall DirectX 9 from Windows XP.  Well, because no specific method is available to remove these programs completely, the only way to go about this is to edit the registry to remove the entries associated with the programs. When you remove DirectX 9 entries and restart your PC, the default version of DirectX is restored. You may not be able to remove the default DirectX and other system software because that will prevent your PC from working normally.

At times, you may have spyware and adware programs that may infiltrate and install on your PC without your consent. To combat these unwanted troublesome software programs, you need to use a robust antispyware tool. A good antispyware tool is equipped to thoroughly scan your entire PC and registry to get rid of spyware and adware data stored on it.

Whatever method you choose to use, it is always a good idea to scan and clean the registry following a program removal in order to make sure that no orphan or empty program keys get left behind.