Monday, October 25, 2010

Microsoft Windows: Removing the unremovable applications!

Continuing with the blog series of tweaking Microsoft Windows, i.e. taking most out of your operating system, today we will focus on advance mode of removing applications from Windows.

At times, when we decide to remove an application, we go to Control Panel and open Add or Remove Programs (or Programs and Features, in case of Windows 7) and click on the application we want to remove,  and we successfully remove the application we want to, but in some cases it does not happen! Some kind of error message comes while removing that application. Well we don't need to worry, there are ways by which we can get rid of such applications. One way is using external applications knowns as System Utilities (which we will not discuss here) to remove such applications and other way is using in-built mechanism to do so, the one we are interested in!

Let us get straight to the work, we tried removing application we wish to, but failed in doing so at first attempt. Here is the method how to remove such applications, the method applies to all versions of Microsoft Window operating system.

Follow the steps:

Step #1: Restart your computer.

Step #2: After it shows the initial screen (manufacturer's logo), press F8 (function key). Pressing F8 will direct you to the screen named Windows Advanced Options Menu as shown in picture below. 

Step #3: Now from the list of options available, select the very 1st option, i.e. Safe Mode and press Enter. Computer will take some time to start, so be patient! 

Step #4: Once the Windows screen appears, it will show a screen asking you to select which user to log in, select Administrator (if available), otherwise you will directly shown a message-window named Desktop saying Windows is running in safe mode. Click on Yes.   
Now a limited functionality enabled Desktop will be what your are presented with, don't worry.
Step #5: Follow the typical method to remove the application by going to Control Panel and opening Add or Remove Programs/Programs and Features and selecting application you want to remove. Windows will not disappoint you here, and if it does, follow the path to manually delete the folder containing the files, C:\Program Files\XYZ.  

Once you are done with removing application, Restart your computer to return in normal mode! 

6 comments:

Shravan Gupta said...

Dear Ankur,
Nice blog. I like the way you have oversimplified the details. it helps me in understanding the topic. keep up doing such nice job.
Regards
Shravan Gupta

Unknown said...

@Shravan Thanks for you comments dear! Your comment suggest that these information has some worth to you, thus helping me in accomplishing my task.

Regards.
Ankur Shukla

Anonymous said...

Thanks for valuable information.

Anonymous said...

Hello Ankur
Can you just help me on this topic why windows crashes and how to overcome from this problem?
By writing in your next blog

Shoaib Qureshi said...

I must add to this, Safe Mode can do alot more than simply uninstalling applications. Safe Mode is extremely useful if the system is infected. I would love to read a blog dedication especially to Safe Mode. Keep writing.

Regards,
Shoaib Qureshi
http://soyasays.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

@Soya I agree to the point you made about 'safemode'. It gives ample of options from recovery of windows to apps management. I will try to take these points on safemode on upcoming blog posts.