Remove unnecessary programs from the computer

Unnecessary things clutter up our house, and unnecessary programs - our computer. But if things can simply be sent to the trash, then various computer applications must be uninstalled, and this must be done correctly, in order to avoid system errors. Therefore, each user should know how to remove unnecessary programs from the computer, removing not only executive files and shortcuts, but also registry entries.

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Control Panel

The first way to uninstall applications that every user must be familiar with is to use the “Uninstall programs” option in the “Control Panel”:

1. Open the “Start” menu, and then go to “Control Panel”.
2. Find the “Uninstall a program” section and open it by clicking the left mouse button.
3. Wait until the list of all installed applications is fully loaded.
4. Highlight the application you want to remove, and then click the “Delete” button.
5. Together with the uninstall wizard, go through all the steps to remove the selected software. After that, restart the computer to complete the process.

Important! Depending on what and how you use it, you may also find the following instructions useful:

• How to remove a folder from the desktop?
• How to recover a folder deleted from the recycle bin?

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Start menu

Another good option to remove unnecessary programs from the computer is to use the built-in application uninstaller, which appears in the system with the application itself after its installation. As a rule, it can be found through the “Start” menu:

1. Click on the “Start” button, and then expand the “All Programs” list.
2. Find the line with the utility that you want to remove from the system, then click on it with the left mouse button.
3. Among the items that appear, you should see the uninstaller, which will have the name “Uninstall” or “Uninstall”. Click on it to launch the wizard to remove the software.

Important! It is also possible to find the built-in uninstaller in the directory of the program itself. As a rule, it is a file called uninstall.exe, after which the “uninstall wizard” window pops up.

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Third-party software

In the event that standard Windows tools do not help or if you want to immediately clean the registry from traces of uninstalling the software, it is better to use special multifunctional utilities that can be downloaded online for free.

Ccleaner

To open the menu and uninstall applications in CCleaner and remove unnecessary programs from the computer using it, follow these steps:

1. Run the application and open the tab called “Service” in the side menu.
2. The first section should open “Uninstall programs.” Select the software you no longer need, select it, and then click on the “Uninstall” button.
3. The software removal wizard should start, which will help you walk through all the stages of the process and erase all the program executable files.

Important! It is necessary to click on the “Uninstall” button, and not “Delete”. The “Delete” option in this case implies only cleaning the registry from the uninstallation record, and not completely removing the software.

After the uninstallation is completed, go through the menu on the side to the “Registry” section and enable scanning. Clean up any found extra or damaged entries and close CCleaner.

Revo uninstaller

A powerful enough utility that helps solve almost any problems with uninstalling software, not only removing their executable files, but then completely cleaning the registry from unnecessary entries:

1. Turn on the Revo Uninstaller and find the icon of the program you want to get rid of in the main window. Right-click on it and select “Delete”.
2. Wait until the preliminary analysis is completed, as a result of which the application uninstaller will be turned on.
3. Together with the removal wizard, go through all the steps by installing the uninstall functions.
4. Select the mode to start scanning the computer - it is advisable to install “Advanced”.
5. Look at the results of a system scan: the report should reflect all found registry entries that remained after the removal of the software.
6. Check the box next to “Select all” and click on the “Delete” button.

Important! Do not worry about the health of the system - it will not suffer in any way due to the cleaning of registry entries.

Follow the same procedure in the “Remaining files ...” window to completely clean your computer from all traces of uninstalled software.

Important! If after completion of the process a window appears prompting you to restart the computer, you can select the option “Restart later”, because if you restart it immediately after uninstalling, then Revo Uninstaller will not be able to clean the registry from unnecessary entries created during the installation of the software.

These are far from all programs. Perhaps other software is more suitable for you according to the interface, control method and functions. For a more detailed overview of the permanent use software for cleaning your computer from debris, see "The best utility". 

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How to remove the portable application?

Not all software needs to be installed - some of them have a portable version that runs without preliminary installation, while doing its job well.

To remove unnecessary programs from the computer, you just need to send it to the trash. No uninstallation is needed here, since the portable program does not register its files in the system and leaves entries in the registry.

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What to do if the program is not deleted?

If you can’t get rid of the portable version of any software, then you can use special utilities to unlock the desired files in the Windows environment - Unlocker or LockHunter.

With the help of such software, you can remove the system lock from the element that is bothering you. This lock looks like an error message that sounds like “Unable to delete the file” and often infuriates inexperienced users.

Download the Unlocker utility and install it on your computer. During the first launch, Unlocker should automatically be added to the context menu of the OS, which will make working with this software as convenient as possible:

1. Right-click on a file that does not want to voluntarily go to the trash.
2. Select “Unlocker” from the menu.
3. A small window should appear where select “delete”, and then click “OK”.

Important! Another utility, LockHunter, works similarly. After it is installed in the context menu of any file, the line “What is locking this file?” Should appear, after clicking on it a small window will open where the path to the file will be indicated, as well as processes that interfere with the deletion. To remove an item, simply click the “Delete it!” Button.

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Stock footage

Now you know how to remove unnecessary programs from your computer. We hope the information in our article will be useful to you and you will no longer have problems when some boring game does not want to be deleted from your PC.