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Why are uninstalled programs still there?
I recently accidentally uninstalled my AVG antivirus software. A friend advised me to just use system restore to get it back - and it did. My question is: what is happening to all these programs that you uninstall, are they all still lurking somewhere on your HD or what? Just curious
12 Answers
- Chεεrs [uk]Lv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
Technically no they don't...
A system restore works by taking literal "screen shots" of your pc and remembering what was present at the time.
It measures the request to any recent changes and matches it to what it remembers.
So technically yes a small amount of memory is used to maintain deleted software but the files all go.
- Anonymous5 years ago
As we all know that it is normal to uninstall a program from Add/Remove programs list. But most of the time, some program will not list/be uninstalled from Add/Remove programs or with its built-in uninstaller. At this time, it is very necessary to uninstall it with a professional uninstaller to prevent some left-over files in the drives or registry. Of all the uninstallers I have used, Perfect Uninstaller is the one that I love so much. The "Force Uninstall" function allows us to uninstall programs that are not in the Add/Remove programs list, which is very suitable in uninstalling corrupted program. So wish you good luck!
- Philip TLv 71 decade ago
The key words here are " System Restore".
It has nothing to do with a successful or unsuccessful program uninstall.
The Windows "System Restore" utility take snapshots (so to speak) of the drives it is configured to monitor. It stores ALL drive information, files, directory structure, etc... in compressed format in a hidden system directory.
When you run "Restore" it restores the ENTIRE DRIVE... not just the program you uninstalled... to the state it was in on the date of that restore point.
More info :
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxp...
regards,
Philip T
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- Anonymous1 decade ago
Unless you re-format you Drive, nothing is deleted. When you delete something, it just makes that space available to be overwritten. So yes, everything is technically 'still lurking around'
Every time it is overwritten however, it gets harder to retrieve.
Good thing too! Thats how they catch those despicable people who download child-porn! They cannot get away with simply deleting when the cops break the door down!
- 1 decade ago
You see, backups are saved in hidden system files. these backups are activate and the programs are copied back to the folder that is their home. this folder is also known to the backup because during backup the destination folder are saved.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
use this every once in a great while,so its not possible for someone to recover anything.and the other two guys above me gave good answers so gg,and use this program if you dont want anything personal to be recovered.
Source(s): http://www.cezeo.com/products/disk-redactor/ - Anonymous1 decade ago
B-kwz uninstall does not necessarily mean delete.
- T10Lv 51 decade ago
yes. look it, all the archives,programs that you unistall never are erased. this files are eraser a logical form but not phisical form, because they are hide some place of your hard disk.
there are programs for rescue this archives it has been delete
sorry for my english its not very good
- 1 decade ago
They still have registry entries.
If you goto: start/run/regedit/HKeylocalmachine/software you will see them
Jockee