Hi. I'm a clean freak, like to keep my PC clean.

[holdum323]

Hi I'm a clean freak. I love keeping my PC clean. I have found that when you uninstall a program, things get left behind. Will they cause problems? Probably not, but I want the program completely gone when I uninstall it. There seems to be some really smart techs here on TS and I would like to hear their thoughts on regedit. Regedit doesn't scare me and when I uninstall a program, I do a search in Regedit to get the left behind entries. Here's a link. Not recommending this to all TS members, but I good friend taught me how to use regedit, so thought I would share it here on TS. Your thoughts are always welcome. Feeling a little bored tonight.
https://www.wikihow.com/Delete-a-Program-Completely-by-Modifying-the-Registry-(Windows

 

[holdum323]

I love sharing things that I have learned from other techs on other help forums. That's my hobby. That's what I enjoy doing.
I hope I can be a asset here on TS.(y) I'm not recommending the above to users that do not have experience, but if you want to learn new things, give it a look. Learn how to create a back up image first, because the registry is not a place to mess around.

 

[DavidBailey]

I use Revo Uninstaller Pro because I hate messing with the registry.
Your Pending Renames folder can expand until it gets very big.
Before I started emptying mine it was 18 GBs & growing.
A picture---

I automated the process by adding the folder to custom cleaning in CCleaner---

 

[Rich M]

Personally I never use Ccleaner but that is for another thread going already. Revo is a great program though at times it doesn't get all the "danglers" and there is also Wise Uninstaller. I have noticed new versions of Wise Uninstaller seem to take out the "danglers" even when you use Programs and Features to uninstall programs incidentally if it is already installed. I also use an old free version of JV 16 Power Tools that will remove many of the entries the Windows uninstaller misses in the first block of that program though in no way am I advocating using any other part of that program to "clean" the registry as reg cleaners are a "kiss of death" for any system. And I have at times resorted to scanning the registry for stubborn "danglers" but you have to be oh so careful there as it is easy to blow away the registry and crash Windows playing in there, and I must admit doing a magnificent job one time of killing Windows 10 that way. That's where you must learn to do real backups before "tempting such fate". The registry should always be backed up before attempting such things and image files made with Macrium or Acronis are "the rule of the day"!

 

[holdum323]

Hi REVO Pro is a good program, but it won't get all the registry entries after uninstalling a program. I also use Search Everything to find left over files after uninstalling a program. I have been using regedit for many years. I have never bricked a PC yet. If I ever do, I know how to fix things I break. If your uncomfortable deleting left behind entries in the registry, don't go there. The registry does not scare me and I'm quite confident in my ability to go there and delete entries.

 

[Rich M]

What you have to be careful of is files that are used by more than 1 program and that is where it gets tricky. It seems to me we used to get warned about that and I don't see that any more. As I said I only did it once but it was recently and TG I madee an image file before doing it so I was able to come right back.

 

[holdum323]

Hi I have heard that programs can share files, but I have yet to see it. Maybe you don't see a warning because the file is not being shared. I have tried to delete files where MS would not let me, and warned me. Here's all the duplicate files CCleaner finds. I never delete these, but I do take a look at them. Really not that many and nearly all of them are AMD related and could probably be deleted safely. I don't see how CCleaner would share files with Search Everything? I'm thinking that would be a rare situation. This duplicate file finder hasn't changed. I's always the same?
PS here's what HTG says. https://www.howtogeek.com/200962/how-to-find-and-remove-duplicate-files-on-windows/
PS2 I do not recommend removing duplicate files. The space you save will be nominal.