Uninstall What You Don't Need

Do you need everything you install? The chances are slim that you need each of those six shareware apps a day you install when you get antsy, or the Care Bears game that your daughter grew tired of long ago. So how do you get rid of software you don't use? Control Panel contains one answer--the Add/Remove Programs tool. This tool lists many, but not all, of the programs you've installed under Windows 95 and 98, some of which you'd like to remove. But while the program does a fair job of sweeping out the old, it's not perfect.

Hunt the Program
Typical savings: Megabytes

If you're in a program-deleting mood, you'll usually go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel and check the list for disposable apps. But the list often doesn't include the programs you want to lose. Another place to look is in the Start Menu itself; many apps place their uninstallers next to themselves in their own folder under Programs. What if you can't find what you're looking for? Since most Windows programs have some kind of uninstall program, search for it usingStart, Find, Files or Folders. Typical uninstall program names include unwise.exe and variants on program names that include the string "uninst." Search for these strings, and then use Windows Explorer to examine the programs' folders.

Ditch Old Downloads
Typical savings: Megabytes

When downloading shareware or freeware, keep the software in a special folder, and label it something intuitive, such as Downloads. It's good practice to keep the install program in case you need to reinstall, but after you download an upgrade, delete the old installer.

It's a Disk, Not a Digital Orphanage
Typical savings: Tens of megabytes

Add/Remove Programs doesn't completely live up to its name. It often leaves behind a trail of .dll files--chunks of code thrown willy-nilly during setup into various Windows folders. Once you've run Add/Remove Programs to delete something, anything left behind is going to stay there indefinitely. The only safe way to get rid of the leftovers is to use an uninstaller program such as Norton CleanSweep, McAfee Uninstaller, Symantec's Remove-It, or IMSI's WinDelete. Each of these programs can search out "orphaned" files left behind by an inefficient uninstall. Best of all, as a hedge against accidental over-deletion of shared .dll files, they can compress and archive the files until you're sure you don't need them, whereupon you can delete them with impunity.

Is It Gone Yet?
Typical savings: Kilobytes

Always check the small print when you run Add/Remove Programs. The program tells you that it did not remove all the elements of the program it just uninstalled more often than you'd think. Usually, this means that there's an uninstall application or some configuration files still left stuck in the program's folder structure. Use Windows Explorer to check in the Program Files folder for the program's folder and delete it.

Matt Lake has 4GB of free disk space and still has a wicked collection of MP3 files.