Add / Remove Programs Manually

    Sometimes when we uninstall a software product, corresponding entry in the Add or Remove Programs listing may not be removed. This may be due to incomplete uninstalling process or poorly designed uninstaller itself (if there is any bug in uninstaller).

Follow below steps to manually remove the invalid entries from the Add or Remove Programs:
Press Windows + R key or Run dialog box, then run regedit (registry editor).

Look for the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

After you click the Uninstall registry key, click Export Registry File on the Registry menu. This is because if anything gone wrong during delete, you can back up registry values again.

Each key under Uninstall represents a program that appears in Add/Remove Programs.
To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the following values:
DisplayName: The value data for the DisplayName key is the name that is listed in Windows “Add/Remove Programs”.

UninstallString: The value data for the UninstallString key is the program that is used to uninstall the program.
After identifying the registry key that represents the program that is still in Windows “Add/Remove Programs”, right-click the key, and then click Delete.

After deleting the key, go to Add/Remove Programs using “appwiz.cpl” (Type appwiz.cpl in Run). For more details about appwiz.cpl please see Windows Run Commands.

In Windows “Add/Remove Programs”, now verify that the program for which you deleted the registry key is not listed.

 

After verification if the Add/Remove Program list is not correct, you can restore the original list of Add/Remove Programs in the registry using previously backup registry key.

For 64-bit Windows Operating System you can find uninstall node under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Note: If you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor. These problems might require that you reinstall the Windows Operating System.

~networld