Programs that are compatible with Windows may have an uninstallation program or feature. The Add/Remove programs tool lists all of the Windows-compatible programs that have an uninstall program or feature. You may need to manually remove the program from the Add/Remove Programs list if you uninstall a program and the registry key that is used to display the program name is not removed correctly:
- Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
- Locate and click the following registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
- After you click the Uninstall registry key, click Export Registry File on the Registry menu.
- In the Export Registry File dialog box, click Desktop in the Save in box, type uninstall in the File name box, and then click Save.
- Each key under Uninstall represents a program that appears in Add/Remove Programs. To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the following values:DisplayName - the value data for the DisplayName key is the name that is listed in Add/Remove Programs
UninstallString - the value data for the UninstallString key is the program that is used to uninstall the program
- After you identify the registry key that represents the program that is still in Add/Remove Programs, right-click the key, and then click Delete.
- After you delete the key, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
- In Add/Remove Programs, verify that the program for which you deleted the registry key is not listed.
- If the program list is not correct in Add/Remove Programs, you can double-click the Uninstall.reg file on your desktop to restore the original list of programs in the registry.
- If the program list is correct in Add/Remove Programs, you can right-click the Uninstall.reg file on your desktop, and then click Delete.
Article ID: 247501 - Last Review: Dec 16, 2009 - Revision: 1