

For example, uninstalling Norton or McAfee antivirus from your Control Panel may not remove everything from the system. Many antivirus programs have a problem uninstalling in the normal way. Third-Party Uninstallers For Specific Programs

However, uninstallers don’t always work this well and may only remove some of the files, settings, libraries, and services they installed. In an ideal situation, the uninstaller will clean up everything the program added to the system and leave the system in a fresh state. When a program launches, it may make additional changes to the system’s registry and future updates may add additional files elsewhere on the system.Įach developer creates their own uninstaller for their program. Some programs that need to integrate more deeply with the system may dump DLLs and other files into the Windows folder or install system services. They’ll also add information to the registry. Typically, installers will create a directory in Program Files as well as scatter shortcuts around the system. Instead, the installer is free to do whatever it wants to your system.
