Do You Really Need All These Programs?

Remove Unwanted Programs

OK, so we are all guilty of installing programs on our computers and then forgetting all about them. You know the story, you see a link and you think you just have to have that program, it will solve the problem that you are having and you just have to get it right now! Only to find that either it didn’t live up to the hype, or it didn’t work properly, if at all, or it worked and you never needed it again.

Well now is the time to go looking for any programs that fit those descriptions and get them out of there!

This is what we do:

Go to “Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs”

(In Vista it’s called “Programs and Features”)

You will see a list of the programs installed on your computer which Windows thinks it knows how to remove.

Up in the top right hand corner you get the option to sort the program list by either Name, Size, Frequency of Use or Date Last Used. You also get a check box which will display any updates to your programs. Pick your poison.

Highlight any of these that you don’t want or use anymore and click the REMOVE button, the program should get uninstalled.

There is also an option here where you can Add or Remove Windows Components. Take a look in there and see if there are any Windows Components that you don’t need.

Caution, don’t be tempted to get rid of Internet Explorer, you are going to need to keep that around even if you prefer to use a different browser, you need it to update Windows.

Guess which other utility has an add/remove programs tool… Yes, it’s our favorite all purpose tool, CCleaner! Fire up CCleaner and click on Tools then click on Uninstall, highlight the program you want to get rid of and click the “Run Uninstaller” button.

Good luck,

John

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