Note: In Windows XP, the list in this dialog box was cluttered up with dozens upon dozens of “Windows Hotfixes”—the little security patches Microsoft sends out weekly or monthly via the Internet just to make your life interesting. In Windows 7, though, they get a list of their own. Click “View installed updates” (one of the links in the task pane at the left side). That’s useful to remember if you suspect one day that a certain patch has broken something on your PC.
When Uninstalling Goes Wrong That’s the theory of uninstalling Windows programs, of course. In practice, you’ll probably find that the Programs and Features program should more accurately be called the “Add or I’ll-Make-My-Best-Effort-to-Remove-Programs-But-NoGuarantees” program. A disappointing percentage of the time, one error message or another pops up, declaring that the uninstallation can’t proceed because Windows can’t find this or that component. Most of the time, it’s not the fault of Windows. Programs and Features is simply a list of links, like the All Programs section of your Start Menu. When you highlight an entry and click Uninstall, Windows just fires up the program’s own uninstaller program. When the uninstaller doesn’t work, thanks to some bug or glitch, the fun begins. The truth is, the world won’t end if you just leave the crippled program on board your PC. You can join millions of other PC fans who slog along, hard drives corroded with bits of software they can’t seem to remove. Apart from the waste of space and the uneasy feeling that your PC is getting clogged arteries, there’s no harm done. But if you’d rather wipe the slate clean, start by visiting the Web site of the company that made your program. Dig into its support section to see if the company has provided a fix or any removal instructions. (Some companies discover bugs in their uninstaller utilities just like they might in any other part of their programs, and then release patches—or even special removal tools—that let their customers remove their software.) If that step doesn’t lead anywhere, you can get serious by eliminating the stubborn bits by hand. Because the process is manual and technical—and because, heaven frequently asked question
This File Is in Use Hey, I tried to uninstall a program using Programs and Features, like you said. But during the process, I got this scary message saying that one of the deleted program’s files is also needed by other programs. It asked me if I was sure I wanted to delete it! Heck, I wouldn’t have the faintest
idea. What should I do? Don’t delete the file. Leaving it behind does no harm, but deleting it might render one of your other applications nonfunctional.