uninstaller

One of the best programs out there for giving more control over Windows functions to users, Revo Uninstaller does far more than fast uninstallations. It has several levels of programs removal, from basic to giving your Registry a thorough scrubbing. Revo also provides in-depth resources for researching just what a program is and does, so you know what you're removing, as well as offering a suite of strong system tools. Check out what it can do for you in this First Look video.

Where the built-in and sluggish Windows Add or Remove Programs option fails, freeware Revo Uninstaller picks up the slack. Revo is robust and fully loaded, making even the most insidious Registry-altering program breathtakingly simple to eradicate.

Four levels of removal balance against your comfort level mucking about in the Registry, but Revo does all the hard work, ferreting out Registry keys and letting you opt out of deleting them. The main view can be adjusted, and the context menu offers up a list of choices, from fundamentals like Uninstall and Remove from list, to Search Google, Show the installation directory, … Read more

Every Windows user knows that removing a program is more complicated than just deleting it. During the installation process, several files are dropped into different areas of your system to make a program work. The Windows Add/Remove programs utility was meant to be the tool to use for getting the various parts of programs off your hard drive, but it doesn't always do a great job.

Fortunately, some savvy developers designed uninstall programs to do all the guesswork for you. These applications attempt to gather all the files associated with unwanted programs, so that you can get every … Read more

True story, happening now. It's 1:48 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I'm hand-picking through a mountain of spyware and adware on a friend's laptop. I've borrowed the laptop and Internet connection to "quickly" finish some work, then quickly realized this was actually going to take all night. After a 20 minute start-up churn, I had only just gotten VPN running and Firefox loaded. It wasn't the interminable start-up that had me worried so much as the two casino icons squatting on the desktop. There's no way they were legitimate … Read more

I had occasion to open the C:Windows folder on my old XP machine, and was immediately struck by the number of folders whose names began "$NtUninstall". They were from several hundred kilobytes to 10 megabytes in size, and there were more than 150 of these bad boys just taking up space on my hard drive. There were also a few multi-megabyte files whose names began with "$MSI31Uninstall" or "$NtServicePackUninstall". Some of these folders dated back to when I bought the machine in 2003.

If Explorer won't show you the contents of the … Read more

On Tuesday I reported on Microsoft Outlook 2007's unexcused absence from my Vista PC. I thought the problem might due to Outlook 2003 being installed on the same machine. When I upgraded to Office 2007, the older versions of the apps remained on my system, even though I never used them. This didn't appear to be a problem until Outlook 2007 took a hike.

My second surprise was my inability to uninstall Office 2003. Vista's Programs and Features Control Panel applet (which XP calls Add or Remove Programs) would pop up this error message: "This patch … Read more

I was all set to write about handwriting in Microsoft Office 2007 today, but a funny thing happened on my way to open Outlook 2007: The program vanished. Gone. Without a trace.

I started to wonder whether somebody had slipped me one of those medications that has the unwanted side-effect of sending people sleepwalking, and sleep-driving, and maybe even sleep-application-deleting. I wouldn't doubt that if I were acting out unconscious wishes as I slumbered, uninstalling Outlook would be at the top of my to-do-while-somnambulant list.

No, I turned off the PC on Friday evening--closing Outlook before I shut down--and … Read more

When you uninstall a program, there's a high likelihood that it's left you a little present behind, often in your Windows registry. Like an unclaimed sweater the day after a house party, rarely does this "gift" have much effect. When you've got 700 gifts sitting in your closet, though, you might wish you had room for more important things. Enter: Revo Uninstaller.

… Read more

As a software superhero, Power Downloader knows that not all software is the perfect fit. In fact, some programs can be downright disappointments, unworthy of his hard drive. Though he's made his name downloading and installing programs, Power Downloader sometimes needs to get rid of software just like every other user.

Windows comes with an Add/Remove control panel, but anyone who has used it can tell you that it's not always the most efficient tool for removing software. It's often slow to load, produces strange errors when removing certain programs, shows countless Windows updates that you will probably never uninstall, and can leave remnants like registry entries behind to gum up your system.… Read more