Ad/Remove won't Uninstall

[hodunwun]

I have several titles in ad/romove that won't uninstall. I click on them uninstall and they don't. Examples are: 'Ron Display', 'Context Display', 'Looksmart Search' and 'Lycos Search'. What is the scoop on these?
Is Windows telling me that they are not to be removed cause they are necessary? If not, how can I can them? Thanks for your attention.
Doug

[j4ck]

No, its not that Windows has deemed those programs "important" its just that either those programs were manufactured poorly so that they dont uninstall under the windows uninstaller program, or necessary files related to the uninstall process were moved or corrupted so that they dont uninstall properly.
That is WHY they aren't uninstalling, all I can suggest is to look in the program folders themselves and see if they come with their own uninstallers. (Just look for a file icon that says something like "uninstall" or "remove" and double click it). If that doesn't work, then I am afraid I will have to let a more experienced person guide you.

[Big Weapons]

What you can do as a LAST RESORT is to delete the folder from your Program Files, then go into the registry and delete it from the list in the Add/Remove dialog. You can run regclean to clean up the now unused registry entries, if any.

[hodunwun]

Thanks, J4 for the quick response. These titiles are not in the start programs. YOu go me thinking though. I'll do a in house search for the hummers and see what I find.
Doug

[pam123]

Originally Posted by hodunwun I have several titles in ad/romove that won't uninstall. I click on them uninstall and they don't. Examples are: 'Ron Display', 'Context Display', 'Looksmart Search' and 'Lycos Search'. What is the scoop on these? Is Windows telling me that they are not to be removed cause they are necessary? If not, how can I can them? Thanks for your attention. Doug

I have a suspicious nature.
Go over to these guys : http://www.pestpatrol.com/default.asp and see what they have to say about those 4 programs.
I think you may need their instructions to remove them.

[hodunwun]

I did a windows search and none of those titles show a
folder or file. Would they still be in the registry? I'll try running regclean and see what that does. I've got the pest control site saved. I'll get back to you folks on this. Thanks, doug

[Pentium]

Originally Posted by pam123 I have a suspicious nature. Go over to these guys : http://www.pestpatrol.com/default.asp and see what they have to say about those 4 programs. I think you may need their instructions to remove them.

Don't mean to highjack this thread but I just visited that site and done their online scan and it showed quite a few things which never seem to be picked up with adaware or spybot. Do I need their program to remove these items?

[pam123]

PestPatrol is legit so you aren't being scammed.
It does pick up things that the other 2 programs can miss.
But, conversely, they do the same with PestPatrol.
Now you know why many of us have both spybot and adaware and still run PestPatrol.
For some real nasties you will need CWshredder, and Hijack this.
That's just the way it is now.
What it will be later, say 6 months from now, I don't know but tech is supposed to move fast so we may have another set of problems.

[hodunwun]

Well I did the free Pestpatrol scan and it found 91 funky pests. I noted that if you double click on a file you get manual directions for getting rid of the risk. That is laborsome. So I went for the software and downloaded it. I ran the scan and feel cleaner already. Just ran spybot again and it found two more pieces of spyware/adware. I have the spybot blocker on so it beats me how they got in. Thanks, guys. Keep on runnin the spyware blockers.
doug

[Markoman01027]

Do you have KAZAA installed? If you do, I recommend you uninstall it..Kazaa is notorious for causing system instability and adding spyware to your computer.

I think if you run Spybot Search and Destroy, Adaware, CWshredder, and do a registry clean you should be OK..it's not something you really need to worry about..just make sure to keep your PC clean of spyware.

It's not going to slow down your PC or break it if you cant remove a certain program from add/remove.

[hodunwun]

Ya, I am not concerned any longer about the titles in ad/remove that I can't remove. Windows search could not find any files by those names. It seems that none of them were actual applications.

Question: How can I clean unneeded stuff from the registry? Is there a Windows utility for this to use at the command prompt? I have Norton Sys Works and it checks the registry for 'errors' but I don't know if it deletes un needed entries. Thanks for your attention.
doug

[Pentium]

Originally Posted by hodunwun So I went for the software and downloaded it. I ran the scan and feel cleaner already.

Which software are you talking about?

[pam123]

Originally Posted by Pentium Which software are you talking about?

Ditto on this.
What did you do ?

[hodunwun]

The software that refers to is PestPatrol. I paid my $40 bucks and installed it after the download from their site. dv

[pam123]

Good choice.

[sdkfz]

Hodunwun:

"How can I clean unneeded stuff from the registry? Is there a Windows utility for this to use at the command prompt?"

If we are still discussing the removal of uninstalled programs from the uninstall list then Regedit sounds ike the answer to both:

Run - Start- And type in Regedit - this opens the registry editor - kinda like doing brain surgery so be very careful and I'd reccomned looking into how to make a back up and a reinstall in case you slip up.

Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

locate the keys (lines of info) for the programs that are deleted but remain in the list and delete them.

[Pentium]

sdkfz,

I've also got a few programs that can't be removed from the list and just followed your instructions for regedit but I'm not sure what to delete. Could you please have a look at the attached image and let me know which items need deleting?

[hodunwun]

Penitum,
As noted in my first query I had four titles that could not be deleted from my ad/remove page. Pam123 suggested they were caused by spyware/adware. Without making any manual changes to the registry uninstal file, I noticed they are now gone. Something cleaned them out. I think it was a Pestcontrol cleanup. Under it's discovered spyware/adware files numerous were noted in the registry. If this has happened to anyone else please report it here. Thanks,
Doug

[Pentium]

I've done their online scan and none of the programs which I'm trying to delete come up in the scan. These programs I'm having problems with are legit programs which I installed a while back but for some reason after I uninstalled them they still stayed in the "add or remove" programs list.

There's also an old game (tiger woods 2002) which also doesn't seem to want to be removed. I can't find any folders or files linked to them other then when I searched in the registry as per sdkfz's advice.

[hodunwun]

Pentium,
See Markoman's entry above. I think yours are just titles now and mean nothing about performance in the computer. I forgot his mentioning of the other programs like adawar and schredder which I think are both free. I could have avoided spending the $40 maybe. I used the Pestcontrol no so much for that issue rather because I wanted all the crap out of my system.
Regards,
Doug

[Pentium]

Yep, I don't think they are reducing performance but I may as well try to get rid of them if possible. I use adaware, spybot and have used CWshredder once when I was caught with the particular trojan that it removes.