Uninstall a program on a Windows PC and all its files should be removed. Sometimes files remain and clutter the disk and occasionally cause problems. Use this uninstaller to clean up.
Uninstallers have been provided with software for 20 years or more, but even though it is old technology and you might expect programmers to have mastered it, some uninstallers still don’t fully remove software. It is odd that this happens, but fortunately there are utilities that can thoroughly remove all traces of a program.
There are thousands of programs on the internet and is exciting to explore software download websites. You never know when you will find a gem of a program or whether the next download will be a dud.
If you regularly install software on the computer, the disk drive and registry will slowly accumulate junk - files that were not removed by a program’s uninstaller, and registry entries that remain long after software was uninstalled.
At best, these leftovers do not actively interfere with the system, but even so, a gradual accumulation of junk will reduce the efficiency of the disk drive and registry and slow them down. If you have a solid state disk drive it is probably quite a small capacity one and so it is important not to let the junk build up and diminish the free space available.
Use an uninstaller utility
There are a few uninstaller utilities and IObit has a good one, but the one I am using at the moment is Wise Program Uninstaller, which is free. If you go to the Downloads section of the site, there is a choice between an installer and a portable version. Portable versions can be run from anywhere, including USB thumb drives, but another advantage is that they install and uninstall more cleanly.
Wise Program Uninstaller for Windows (any recent version) has a simple interface and like Programs and Features in the Control Panel, it lists all the installed software on the computer.
Click a program to select it and three buttons are displayed. Safe Uninstall, Forced Uninstall and Modify. A few programs enable you to modify the installation, perhaps to add or remove optional components and the Modify button lets you do this where possible. Not all programs provide modification options.
The button you will use most is Safe Uninstall. This runs the selected software’s standard uninstaller. When this has finished, Wise Program Uninstaller scans the disk and registry for files and settings that have been left behind.
These are presented in a list with tick boxes so that you can choose which items to remove. They are all ticked by default because this is nearly always what you want and all leftovers are removed with one mouse click.
All these items are stored in a backup folder and you can find the location of it by opening the program’s menu and clicking Settings. You can view the items backed up by selecting Uninstall History on the program’s menu.
This provides a means to restore a program if you accidentally uninstall it. I wouldn’t count on it, but it may help you restore an uninstalled program. It’s best not to remove programs you might need.
The Forced Uninstall option is used whenever the Standard Uninstall fails. It doesn’t rely on the software’s uninstaller and it attempts to remove all the files and registry entries without it. This should be used only as a last resort when a normal uninstall is impossible.
The utility works well and it seemed to detect items that programs leave behind. The result is a cleaner system that will have fewer problems.
Software ratings and reviews
There is one other feature and this is software ratings. Many installed programs have ratings and you can see what other people think about them. This can be helpful when deciding which programs to uninstall from the system and which are worth keeping if you are not sure. You can also rate programs yourself and write mini reviews - just a few sentences will do.
Everyone needs an uninstaller utility and Wise Program Uninstaller is free and works just fine on all versions of Windows from XP to 8.
I bought a used HP G7 laptop that came with hundreds of Gamehouse games collections installed on the hard drive, the total space taken up was 61.4 gb, all of them showed “Unavailable” in the apps search when I went to uninstall them so I downloaded Wise Uninstaller to get around the uninstall lockout I was experiencing. Wise was able to start uninstalling them for me but it is super slow. I started on the uninstall process yesterday at 8:00 am and this morning at 7:30 am it is still uninstalling games, not quite 2/3 finished. A small .jpg file takes several seconds to uninstall with this uninstaller, it just seems like it would have a little better speed.