Computer Housekeeping

[managra]

It seems i'm constantly installing casinos and un-installing others. Recently, i had a problem with one casino whose sw refused to be un-installed as their uninstall sw lacked an uninstall log. Overriding this sw by reinstalling it and trying to uninstall that, was no help at all. I ended up doing so in Regedit and while there i found a lot of remnants from sw that presumably had been uninstalled long ago.

Here's how to do clean this up:

Go to Start Menu and then go to RUN
Type in REGEDIT
Go to HKey Current User
Go to Software
Locate the sw you want to have totally removed and delete (BE CAREFUL AS THIS ACTION CANNOT BE UNDONE!)
Most of my casinos were sitting under "Microgaming" in which i found Pokers, Casino, Thumpers. You might want to click on all these keys and see their contents. You will notice quite a bit of redundancy and a lot of keys to sw that was supposedly uninstalled. Delete the keys to sw you no longer want.
Now go to HKey Local Machine and do the same thing there.
For a final clean-up go to: Hkey_local_machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Uninstall
and delete the keys you no longer use.

Then go to Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel to double check that whatever program you wanted to get rid off is indeed gone.
Then go to Program Files in your C drive to double check. If you still see some stuff that shouldn't be there just delete it.
Then it's a good idea to defragment the disk.

When you're done with this, relax and pour yourself a nice glass of bubbly from Harveys (it's on the house!).

 

[Pinababy69]

If I attempt all that, I guarantee I will screw up my computer and then I'm toast..

 

[managra]

Don't worry; it's really pretty simple. Let's say you no longer want to play at RogueCasino and you uninstalled or tried to uninstall but failed. Do the steps in my post above, only for "RogueCasino". Don't touch anything else and you'll be fine. Even if you are afraid of deleting anything, just have a look at "software" in those Hkeys in Regedit. You'll be amazed the stuff that's sitting there that you thought was long gone.

 

[Pinababy69]

LOL, you're talking to a girl who somehow mysteriously deleted her whole Paint program from her computer. I don't have a clue how or when I did it, but it's gone.....

 

[nafanny29]

There are programs that will completely monitor an instalation (take a read of the registry before and after install etc) and then when you uninstal the program completely remove all traces of it. I use Ashampoo Advanced Uninstaller but there are many similar programs out there.

 

[managra]

Is such a program worth it, nafanny? Googling, I found some of these programs that can be downloaded for free but i didn't quite trust this. Then i decided to do it myself via regedit and found it very easy. Just will do this periodically. I am sure that there's more stuff in the Registry that can be deleted but am a little leery about touching anything but the very obvious.

 

[silkprint]

I tried what you posted and found some remnants I am finally able to get rid of . Thanks

 

[nafanny29]

Is such a program worth it, nafanny? Googling, I found some of these programs that can be downloaded for free but i didn't quite trust this. Then i decided to do it myself via regedit and found it very easy. Just will do this periodically. I am sure that there's more stuff in the Registry that can be deleted but am a little leery about touching anything but the very obvious.

I personally think they are. I tried installing a program which gave a 21 days free trial, then I uninstalled it and went to the registry and deleted all the strings I could find but when I reinstalled it, it still "knew" it had previously installed it and wouldnt give me another 21 days.

I tried the same thing using Ashampoo and bingo, the program had no idea it had been on my pc this time I am no pc expert but when programs install they leave pieces all over the place I think.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Absolutely Correct

It is amazing how dodgy software can abuse the registry, it's not that hard to hide a bit of itself in a randomly named key that you have no chance of finding in Regedit. MG casinos leave the account number behind in the registry even when fully uninstalled.
Using Regedit is OK so long as you make a backup, and know how to restore it if everything goes wrong. I have scanreg make a daily backup automatically, and on the few occasions that my PC has given a "corrupt registry" error I have easily been able to restore it.
Too much redundant information in the registry can actually slow down your PC, and increase the frequency of crashes. I have tried many registry cleaner applications, but have not found one that does everything well. Some seem to do a "hatchet job" and get rid of things that should be left alone (such as entries for removable drives).
Eventually, reinstallation of Windows and starting again may be the only option, and one I will have to do soon when I put in a larger hard disk for all those MG casinos that really need to go on a diet (putting on over 100Mbytes per year per casino!).