Manually Remove Applications & Software from Windows XP or 2003

There are many times when you try to uninstall a software using Add/Remove snap-in under Windows control panel that won't remove itself very easily using the uninstaller program. During such cases you have to search through vendor's support pages to find out a way to manually remove the product but you are not always successful finding the right instructions. It may also be the case that software you installed was a Shareware or Open Source.

A few months back I came across such issue where I was unable to uninstall a software using vendor provided uninstaller. So I had to go through the procedure of removing the software manually off of my machine. I thought I would share this procedure with others so I wrote down the instructions and here they are.

Warning: The steps below make changes to your Windows Registry and may cause damaged to your OS installation so please use these instructions at your own risk.

1. Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory.

2. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

3. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

4. To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

5. Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services, locate and delete the service.

6. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:

[Do this for each User ID listed]
- C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
- C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
- C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.

[Do this for each User ID listed]
- C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.

7. If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
and delete the entry.

8. Look for any references to the application under these folders in registry. Delete any you find.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Interface
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\TypeLib