How to Completely Uninstall a Computer Program

If you have recently uninstalled some computer applications and your computer is running slowly or freezing and crashing on a regular basis, the problem may be due to failure to completely uninstall a program from your computer.

When you use the Add/Remove programs feature under the Control Panel in your Windows operating system to uninstall programs, this feature does not completely uninstall the program. As a result and over a period of time, you end up with uninstall errors that affect the proper functioning of your PC's operating system. This is because there are still left over files in the registry of your computer after removing the program from the operating system.

How to Completely Uninstall a Program from Your PC

  • Add/Remove Programs: Although this program does not completely uninstall a program from your PC's operating system, it is the first of several steps that you should take to completely uninstall a program from the operating system. You can use this feature by clicking on the "Start" menu on the main toolbar of your desktop and then selecting "Control Panel." Inside the Control Panel click on "Add or Remove Programs" to generate a list of programs on your PC. Select the program you want to remove and click on "Remove" to uninstall the program. When the process is complete, reboot your computer's operating system.
  • Independent Uninstaller: There are several program uninstallers that you can download such as the Windows Installer Clean-Up Utility to remove programs from your computer. A lot of time the independent uninstaller will catch files that were not removed by the Add or Remove Programs option under the Control Panel. An independent uninstaller program is also helpful when the program you recently removed was quite large in size and required a lot of files for operation.
  • Program Uninstall: Some of the programs you install on your computer have an additional program uninstall that is located in the folder for the program. To remove all of the files from the program you have to go to the folder of the program and then uninstall the files from there. This can also be accomplished by clicking on "Start" on the main toolbar of your desktop, selecting "All Programs" and then choosing the program you want to uninstall. Under that icon you will find an uninstall option that will help you delete the files from the folder in the program.
  • Registry Cleaner: When you uninstall a program there are usually files left over in the PC's registry. This is why it is necessary to deploy a reputable registry cleaner that will remove the remainder of the files that are left over from the program that you uninstalled. The registry scans for the file entries so it can identify and remove them from the operating system. Before using a registry cleaner make sure you backup the registry on a separate portable storage device to ensure you can restore your PC to its original state if anything happens during the removal process.
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A computer crash can occur at anytime and on any computer.

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There are many ways one can back up a computer: special equipment or online programs, which are becoming increasingly popular, can help you to create a sort of 'insurance policy' for the protection of all of your computer-based data.