How to completely remove applications from Windows 7. How to remove portable programs
Uninstalling a program from your computer - what could be easier? Thinks so advanced user, who is familiar with the functioning of Windows. For a beginner, this can be a problem. Some people think that by deleting an application shortcut from the desktop, they are deleting the application itself. But this is not so - except for the shortcut, all files remain in place, clogging hard space disk.
There are two main ways to remove applications in Windows 7:
- launching the uninstaller from the installed program folder;
- using the Programs and Features applet.
“Programs and Features” is essentially an uninstaller organizer installed programs. Therefore, removing them in both ways gives the same result.
I must say that after standard removal applications, garbage remains in the system in the form of “forgotten” files and registry entries. To prevent its accumulation, you can use the advanced uninstallation tools that are released third party developers. We will introduce you to some of them, but for now let's talk about the main ways to remove programs in Windows 7.
Running your own application uninstaller
Let's look at the uninstallation procedure using the example of a program for testing computer hardware“OCCT perestroika”. You can run its uninstaller from the Start menu – All programs:
or from the installation folder in ProgrammFiles:
The uninstaller has a name - uninst.exe, so it's not difficult to find.
By running uninst.exe, you need to agree to delete the application
and wait for it to complete.
Other programs can also be uninstalled, but for some of them the uninstaller is located not in the main installation folder, but somewhere in other places. In such cases it is more convenient to use Windows tool“Programs and components.”
Uninstalling applications through Programs and Features
- Open Control Panel. Click the sub-item of the “Programs” section – “Uninstall a program”.
- If the panel contents appear as icons, select Programs and Features.
- Select the desired (more precisely, unnecessary) program from the list, then click on the “Delete” button in its context menu or in the panel above the list. This will launch the program's own uninstaller.
- Next will follow the uninstallation procedure, which we discussed above.
Uninstalling programs using third-party uninstallers
The advantage of this method is that after standard uninstallation, all remnants of the application are removed. This not only gets rid of clutter, but also prevents problems with installing new programs. Let us explain: errors during program installation often occur due to the fact that the remaining parts remote application conflict with the new.
The operating principle of applications for advanced uninstallation is largely similar, the differences lie only in additional functions and user convenience: monitoring installations, removing browser add-ons, search options, sorting, and more.
Let's consider, as an example, 3 popular uninstallers from different developers:
IObit Uninstaller
With this tool you can remove programs and browser plugins. Last function especially useful for those who often install free software, to the load of which developers add browser “gadgets” for displaying advertising and other useless actions.
For ease of searching in the “Programs” tab IObit Uninstaller There's a menu that lets you sort recently installed, large, rarely used apps, and Windows updates.
To remove a program, you need to click on it in the list and press the corresponding button. IObit Uninstaller will ask for confirmation and offer to create a restore point. After this, the uninstaller of the application being removed will launch.
Once completed, you will be prompted to perform a “Power Scan” to find and remove any leftovers.
After the search, you will be given the opportunity to select what to delete - registry keys and files.
IObit Uninstaller also has an option batch deletion several programs at the same time. To do this, you need to select them in the list and click the “Delete” button.
There is also an option “ Forced deletion”, which will help clean out the remnants of incorrectly or incompletely removed software from the system.
Removing browser plugins is also easy - select them in the list and, as usual, click “Delete”.
Ashampoo UnInstaller
The Ashampoo uninstaller, unlike the previous one, can keep logs of program installations, as well as take snapshots of changes that occur in the system during installation. Based on this information, the uninstallation process cleans up all traces of the program.
For applications that are installed without tracking, only simple removal is available (with its own uninstaller).
Revo Uninstaller
Revo Uninstaller– one more thing convenient tool deep cleaning Windows from traces unnecessary software. It can also monitor installations, force uninstalls, and search for remaining data.
To start uninstallation, select the program in the main window and click “Uninstall”. First, a copy of the registry will be created and control point recovery, then the built-in uninstaller will launch.
And if you need to mark changes, just launch the reservation manager in the program itself and select a checkpoint.
Not every novice computer user knows that removing an old, no longer needed program from a computer must be done strictly “according to science.” Otherwise, you may cause your computer to malfunction.
Recently I was surprised by a friend who decided to delete a program using the Delete button. He easily removed shortcuts from the desktop, found the program folder in Program Files I also used the Delete button to delete this folder. But it didn’t work out!
So let's get started proper removal programs from a computer.
Click the Start button 1. On the tab that opens, click the button Control Panel 2.
In the window that opens, find the button Programs and components and press it.
A window will open with a list of programs installed on your computer. Find the program you want to remove and click on it. The program will be highlighted in blue, and a button will appear above the list of programs Delete. Click the button Delete.
A window will appear in which you will be asked again “Are you sure you want to delete...”. Also, there is a line here Delete user data. If you check the box in front of this line, then all information accumulated during the use of the program will be deleted along with the program.
If you are no longer going to use this program, it is better to delete all data so that it does not litter the system. If you only want to reinstall the program, then it is better not to delete user data. They will still be useful to you.
Uninstalling programs in Windows XP
Now let's see how you can uninstall a program in Windows XP.
Click the Start button 1. On the tab that opens, click the Control Panel 2 button
On the tab that opens, find the button Installing and removing programs and do it on it double click mouse button.
A window will open with a list of programs installed on your computer. Find the program you want to remove and click on it. The program will be highlighted in blue, and a Delete button will appear on the right. Click the button Delete.
In the window that opens you will be asked: “Do you really want to delete...”. Click Yes and the program will be removed from your computer.
Adding and removing programs is a component that is included in the basic software installed with the Windows operating system. With this software, the user can easily remove programs that he no longer needs or change their configurations. Program configurations are changed by adding or removing certain program components. IN Microsoft Windows 7, the name of installing and uninstalling programs was changed, and therefore some users could not find this component and, naturally, had to search for programs and remove them manually.
Programs and components
In order to find this component in Microsoft Windows 7, you need to go to the Start menu and select Control Panel. Here the user can produce many various actions with programs, system, peripheral devices, connected to a computer, etc. In the window that appears, select the “Programs” field. The “Control Panel” may be displayed a little differently and then, to find the “Programs” item, you need to find the “View” field and select display by category. Then, when a new window opens, select “Programs and Features.” In Microsoft Windows 7, this is where you can remove programs and change their components.
Delete, restore and change
The removal procedure is no different from previous versions Microsoft Windows. First you need to find and select the program that needs to be removed. A “Delete” button will appear next to it, which you must click. After this, the software removal process will begin. The program will be uninstalled using a special uninstaller that was installed along with the program.
As mentioned above, some program components can be changed, and sometimes they can be restored if they have been damaged. To do this you need to select suitable program and click the "Restore" or "Change" button, depending on what you want to do. Some programs may require administrator rights. This means that if an account has only standard rights, then nothing can be done with programs without entering the administrator password. If deletion occurs under account administrator, then only confirmation is required. There will be a special icon next to such programs.
A modern operating system is a complex complex in which every action must be performed correctly. Even uninstalling programs in Windows 7 requires precise execution of the instructions. Read further in the article about how to properly uninstall software from your computer. The text describes standard means Windows and third party products.
Uninstalling applications using built-in tools
To uninstall applications, each one comes with special program. To run it, you can go to the directory with installed utility and double click on the Uninstall.exe file. Other names are possible, such as Uninst000.exe or Installer.exe.
Every time you uninstall utilities, look for required file is irrational, so during installation of programs special entries are added to the registry. They are used by the Windows 7 Installation component.
To remove an application using built-in OS tools, do the following:
- Click on the link after expanding the Start menu.
- Activate the display of elements as small icons. To do this, use the switch in the upper right corner of the window.
- Click on the icon that says "Programs and Features";
- Wait until the list of software is completed.
- Double-click on any application you want to remove.
- Follow the uninstaller instructions. Read all the information in the windows carefully. Although in most cases it is enough to click on "Next", sometimes the uninstallation process may affect the user's files.
Removing programs in Windows 7 using built-in tools is ineffective. Often, after removing software, a lot of “garbage” remains on the computer’s hard drive. This ultimately leads to an increase in the occupied space on the HDD unnecessary files. In addition, "garbage" can slow down the operating system. Therefore it is advisable to use third party programs to uninstall software.
Revo Uninstaller
Revo Uninstaller is an application that is rightfully considered one of the best in the field of removing unnecessary software. In addition to the main functionality (uninstalling programs in Windows 7), Revo allows you to get rid of advertising modules, browser panels or those applications that are displayed in the “task manager”, but are not uninstalled using standard means.
The Revo Uninstaller utility can work in the same way as standard OS tools, but its main advantage over them is the hunter mode. Once you turn it on, you will see a crosshair icon appear on the screen. If you drag it onto an unidentified but working element, it will automatically determine where the software is stored and prompt you to select an action. Tray icon, information message, a frozen window - all this can become a target for Revo.
The utility monitors all program installations, as well as their activities, which allows Revo to delete not only the main application files, but also all “garbage”.
Ashampoo Uninstaller
Ashampoo's product is Revo's main competitor. The uninstaller performs complete removal programs, 7, 8 and 10th Windows versions supported by Ashampoo. The package includes: additional tools, allowing you to optimize the registry, delete files from temporary storage, and defragment the HDD.
Main feature Ashampoo Uninstaller- monitoring software activity and tracking new installations. During uninstallation, not only application files will be deleted, but also all additional components, downloaded during their work.
IObit Uninstaller
IObit Uninstaller - available for free download on the official website of the developer. After the first launch, IObit will generate a list of software. The list can be sorted by frequency of use, name, installation date, space occupied.
Removing programs in Windows 7 using IObit begins with using the standard algorithm. After this, a message will appear on the screen asking you to scan the OS to find garbage left by the application you are uninstalling. The utility can also work with browser add-ons. To uninstall large quantity The software has a batch operating mode available.
Advanced Uninstaller Pro
Advanced Uninstaller Pro- another free uninstaller unnecessary programs. The biggest drawback of the utility is the availability of only foreign localizations. Therefore, it will be problematic for Russian-speaking users to get used to the interface.
In addition to its main function, the utility can edit startup entries, monitor the installation of new software, and deactivate system services. In addition to this, the uninstaller allows you to erase temporary files and unnecessary registry keys. In addition, the developers claim that their product works 5 times faster than the built-in tools in Windows.
Advanced Uninstaller Pro will help not only get rid of unnecessary software, but also remove advertising components of browsers that are not displayed in the list standard utility. Unused or damaged Start menu icons are also monitored by the utility and can be erased in a few clicks.
In addition to basic information, the list of installed software provides information about user ratings of applications. This will help inexperienced users decide whether the program is useful and whether it is worth uninstalling.
How to completely remove a program from your computer? Instructions
Good afternoon, dear readers! Just yesterday, we received an email from our portal with a question: how to completely remove a program from your computer. We immediately realized that this was a fairly common problem, and we even remembered that we ourselves had more than once encountered problems with uninstalling old programs.
Therefore, we decided not only to respond to our regular reader, but also to create detailed instructions on removing programs from your computer on our portal.
Well, let's get started!
How to completely remove programs in Windows 7?
In general, there are many removal methods, but we will look at the main ones:
- By using specialized utility— Revo Uninstaller and analogues
- Using the operating system itself - Uninstall programs
- IN manual mode — complete cleaning computer manually (complete removal of unnecessary programs is guaranteed!)
Uninstalling a program using Revo Uninstaller
This program is very easy to use! We launch it, the main window will display a list of installed programs on your computer. Select the one you want to delete and click the “Unistall” button (Delete in English):
And we confirm:
Select the “Modrate” mode and click Next, the uninstallation will begin:
All. The utility will remove all components without the desired program and will completely clear your computer of its files.
Uninstalling a program using system tools - Uninstalling programs
It's very easy to do. Go to the “Start” menu - “Control Panel” and look for the “Uninstall programs” item there:
In the list that opens, we look for the program that we want to completely remove from our computer. Mark it and click on the “Delete/Change” button:
After this, the removal wizard will start, where you will simply need to confirm your intentions to remove the program.
Manual removal
It often happens that even after uninstalling a program using Windows utilities 7 or using the Revo Uninstaller program or analogues, the program is still not completely removed.
In such cases, you get errors during installation new version this program (often found when uninstalling antivirus programs, visual editors such as photoshop and other heavy programs).
To fix such errors, you will have to use manual removal!
Instructions for manually removing the program
- First, remove the program using standard Windows properties(we have already shown above how this is done)
- Then we run Revo Uninstaller and delete the remains (files and folders) that Windows did not delete
- After that, click “Start” and in the “Search programs and files” field enter the text - regedit.
A window called “Registry Editor” will open. Here we will completely remove the program from your computer.
Anyone who doesn’t know what a registry is and who is interested in studying it in more detail can check it out.
So for clear example we installed a certain utility called “Fraps” on our computer and we will now remove it and show you how it’s done.
In the Registry Editor window, select “Edit” - “Find Next” from the menu.
In the search window, insert the name of the program that we want to completely remove from our computer and click the “Find Next” button. In our case, this is the “Fraps” program; for you it can be Kaspersky antivirus, Skype or any other.
After this, the registry will begin searching for files and folders that contain the name of the program to be deleted in their names. After which the following result will be produced:
We delete all folders or files whose names contain the name of the program we are removing:
After this, we continue searching the registry by selecting the menu item “Edit” - “Find Next” or simply pressing the “F3” button:
The registry again found a file that related to our program:
Select it and click right click mouse and select delete:
And we repeat the search again. We do this until there is not a single file or folder left in the registry that contains the name of the program in its name. When you delete last file and click “Find Next”, the registry will give you a message that the search is complete and no files with the same name were found.
Then we close the registry editor and restart the computer.
After booting the computer, you can additionally - it will delete all files and registry entries that relate to the remote program, but do not contain its name in its name.
We also delete everything we find:
How to remove programs in other operating systems: Windows XP and Windows 8?
All the above settings are applicable in other operating systems in particular, Windows XP and Windows 8. The only difference will be in the design of the operating system itself: