Deleting Unwanted Programs

It seems like I get questions all the time asking how to remove / uninstall programs. So, here's the step by step procedure:

1. The first thing to do is click the Start menu, Programs. Then hunt for the program you want to delete. Oftentimes, you'll find an Uninstall program under it's program group.

2. Another way would be to click the Start button, Settings, Control Panel. Then open the Add/Remove programs icon. You'll see a list of programs that Windows can remove from your system. Just click the one you would like to remove and hit the OK button.

3. If neither of the above work, you can always go to the program's folder and delete it. However, there is no guarantee that the program was confined to that folder. It could have other files distributed throughout your computer.

4. Finally, you might consider a program like QuickClean. Once installed, it watches which program files go where and can remove unneeded files for you.

Keep in mind that some of the files that get placed on your hard drive when you install a program are basically updates to some of your existing files. So if you are uninstalling something and get a message saying not all the files from a program could be removed, it may be due to the fact that other programs also use these files.

Posted in: System Maintenance